Tourism is developing in Russia at a fantastic rate. People began to live better, incomes increased, which means that the field of activity for firms working in this area has also expanded.
How to start a tourism business? Like any other, with cost and income planning. In the article we will talk about what the business plan of a travel agency should contain, how to competently organize a business, form an assortment of tours, and choose partners.
Choice of direction of work
This is the first thing you will have to deal with. All currently operating companies can be divided into two groups: those that organize and implement their own tours, in a word - tour operators, and those that specialize exclusively in selling offers of domestic and foreign companies i.e. travel agents.
Of course, it is more profitable to work according to the first option, but the risks are higher. In addition, the initial capital required is very large. Therefore, it is safer and easier to start activities with the implementation of ready-made tours of reputable tour operators. The organization of a tourism business in this case will require much smaller investments from you, you can start with a capital of 200 thousand rubles (of course, this is the minimum figure).
A travel agent is a kind of intermediary between big company and the buyer. But this does not mean that you should sell tours strictly at the price determined by the tour operator. For example, the organizer of a tour to America offered you a route worth 80,000 rubles for implementation on the condition that you take 10 percent of the tour price for yourself. You are selling a ticket in your city, where there are no similar offers, more expensive, say, for 100 thousand rubles. The benefit is obvious - your income increases.
Travel business. Where to begin?
After you have decided on the direction of work, you should register your company. You can create a legal entity, or you can function as an individual entrepreneur. As practice shows, for work in the field of tourism, it is still better to give preference to LLC. The key point in such activities is the trust of customers in the company they choose, and people trust legal entities more than individual entrepreneurs.
A fee of 4,000 rubles is charged for registering an LLC, and you will also have to make a seal (another 400-600 rubles) and certify the constituent documents with a notary (about 1,000 rubles). The authorized capital must be at least 10,000 rubles, at least half of it you must transfer to an account opened with a bank (you will also have to pay about 500 rubles to open an account). Upon registration, the company will be assigned OKVED 53.30 “Activities of travel agencies”. Thus, the minimum amount that you will spend on the registration procedure is 6,000 rubles.
License and taxes
What else do you need to open a travel agency? Previously, a license was required, but since 2007, compulsory licensing has been abolished. Therefore, it remains only to choose the object of taxation. The work of travel agencies falls under the simplified tax system. Two objects are offered at your discretion: income (6 percent rate) or income minus expenses (15 percent rate). The second option should be chosen only if a large share of the costs is expected.
Room selection
This step should be done before the registration process. Yes, you will not be registered if the company does not have a legal address. Of course, it is best to locate the agency's office in the city center, but focus primarily on financial opportunities. Pay special attention to the design and furnishings of the room. Essentially, a travel company sells promises, “air”, a person gives money now and receives a service later, so you should create an atmosphere of confidence that the savings go into safe hands.
Office equipment
Do not forget about office equipment: the office must be equipped with a computer with Internet access (one is enough for a start), a telephone, a printer, a fax - without all this, work cannot be organized. The cost of furniture will also be rather big. A computer desk costs at least 6,000 rubles, a swivel chair costs about 3,000 thousand, you will also need to purchase chairs for clients, a sofa to wait in case there is a queue, a coffee table where booklets, leaflets, etc. will lie.
On average, the cost of buying furniture will be 30-60 thousand rubles. You will need to spend about 50 thousand rubles on office equipment (with conservative estimates). Yes, your own travel company is expensive! The business plan should also contain a calculation of the monthly costs of maintaining the office, which will include the cost of stationery, utility bills, Internet payments, telephone bills, and more.
Choice of partners
Finding the tour operators you want to work with is what you need to open a travel agency, among other things. Today, there are many operators on the market that organize tours to various destinations. Important point: You need to work only with trusted companies.
Many entrepreneurs who are just starting the development of the tourism business make a serious mistake. They strive to cooperate with tour operators offering tours at the lowest prices. As a rule, such firms are unreliable. To avoid unpleasant moments, choose companies that have already established themselves in the market.
Be sure to find out which tour operators have offices in your city. Working with them, you will get rid of many troubles. All documentation turnover is carried out at the main office, if you have a representative office, you can directly give documents, which is very convenient.
Recruitment
The business plan of the travel agency must include information about the staff and payroll. A small company may consist of only four people: a director, a manager, an accountant and a janitor. When combining functions, the staff can be even smaller.
The global tourism market is growing by 5% annually. What other areas of tourism business exist besides the organization of travel agencies, hotels and hostels? In this compilation, we've rounded up 25 alternative tourism and seasonal entertainment business ideas and complemented them with business start-up guides and business plans.
In Europe, the share of farm income from the reception of vacationers reaches 40%. In Russia, agritourism is not yet so developed, but this area has development prospects. If you have your own country plot in an area that boasts beautiful natural landscapes, you can turn it into an agroestate and host guests from the city who are tired of the charms of civilization.
Zipline is an extreme attraction, the essence of which is downhill on a steel rope. The main difficulty of this business in tourism lies in the selection of a place (usually a hilly and picturesque area is chosen), installation of a line (there are practically no companies offering such services) and solving bureaucratic issues. On the other hand, due to the fact that the descent time is from 25 to 60 seconds, the zipline has a high capacity, and the cost of a ticket for one descent can vary from 350 to 1500 rubles.
The package business in tourism is rapidly losing ground. More and more tourists choose independent travel. However, the process of planning such trips is quite laborious, so today there are more and more personal travel services that allow customers to indicate their interests in a few clicks (gastronomic tourism, educational destination, entertainment, etc.), choose route cities and attractions, which they will visit, as well as modes of transportation and budget. It remains for the entrepreneur to combine all these key points into one unique route.
Corn mazes are a popular entertainment in America and Europe, which has not yet reached our country: this niche in Russia is completely free. On the corn fields, networks of passages are laid and quests are compiled for passing by cheerful companies, families and work teams. The corn maze can not only be an interesting seasonal entertainment business, but also become a center of attraction for tourists from other regions.
City walking tours allow sightseers to delve deeper into the history of the streets, explore objects and imagine themselves as participants in past events. An interesting direction in this tourism business is to conduct excursions with thematic mini-performances. You can launch such a project for less than 50 thousand rubles.
An order of magnitude higher will be the costs of organizing your own tour desk with the organization of excursions in the region and the purchase of a sightseeing bus. For this business idea, about 5.85 million rubles will be needed, and the initial investment will be repaid for about 17 months of work.
Zorbing is an extreme type of attraction. The idea of the business is to descend a person in a transparent ball (zorb) from a hill or cross a body of water inside this ball. Zorbing is another type of tourism business that is not practically represented in our country and is waiting for its pioneers.
The organization of trips is a direction with an extremely wide range of formats. Hiking can be educational or include sports and recreational activities, there are skiing, mountain, water trips, circular and linear routes, long tours and weekend tours. The main advantage of the hiking business is that they can bring together different groups of people. There are fishing, hunting, photo tours, tours for businessmen and so on. As a rule, this business is seasonal.
Abroad, such a type of educational leisure as survival courses is popular. Classes are divided into theoretical and practical parts, the last of which takes place in natural conditions. Course participants are taught first aid, how to build a shelter, make a fire, get water and food away from civilization. You can establish such a business for a former military, firefighter or rescuer. In large cities, for a two-day survival course, the leaders receive from 5-6 thousand rubles. from a person.
Ready-made ideas for your business
Mother nature is increasingly seen by entrepreneurs as a huge room for business training. The idea of business tourism is that for six-figure sums, company owners and ordinary managers are taken on extreme tours, taught to work together and reach mountain peaks, drawing parallels with business development. In between ascents, a business coach informs business tourists about the concepts of the "Blue and Scarlet Oceans", conducts metaphorical business games and helps to build their "Value Curve" or "Success Map".
Building a guest house is a rather costly project, however, compared to a hotel, it has a number of advantages: land plot it does not need to be transferred to the category of commercial, it does not need a star rating, the organization of a restaurant, it does not require highly qualified personnel. The risks involved in setting up a guest house are minimal, and the market is stable enough to generate a generally passive income.
The growing popularity of domestic destinations in tourism makes such a type of business as the organization of private paid beaches relevant. It is attractive by the ability to organize a whole range of paid services, including guarded parking, rental of sports equipment, gazebos and barbecues, entrance to the beach, sale of barbecue, soft drinks and more.
Backpacks have become one of the most popular wearable accessories that are popular not only among schoolchildren and tourists, but also among ordinary citizens. To open your online store, you will need about 425 thousand rubles, which, if right approach can pay off in as little as three months of work.
Off-road tours (jeep tours) are a business in demand in all difficult areas: in mountainous areas, in deserts, in forests and endless fields. There is practically no competition in this area in our country, so your main concern will be questions with the selection vehicle, organization of an interesting route and advertising. There are many options for earning here: you can organize tours in your own cars, rent them out or rent an equipped track - for holding competitions among owners of jeeps, ATVs, etc.
There are still ideas of earning money “out of thin air” in the business world. One such idea is the production and / or sale of inflatable loungers (bivans). To bring them into working condition, a person only needs to make a couple of strokes and fill the parachute fabric with air. The accessory is very popular among tourists and outdoor enthusiasts. Sales of lamzacs can be organized through a one-pager or social networks.
How to get tourists to buy old and torn rubber slippers? In Kenya, they found the answer to this question: local artisans create rubber souvenirs with a national flavor from flip-flops lost by holidaymakers. You don’t have to go far for material - torn slippers are washed ashore by the sea.
Inhabitants sea resorts they know very well that a cool souvenir can be made from anything. Even the most ordinary pebble stones can be sold for a lot of money if presented to the buyer in an unusual form. So, for example, does the Italian artist Ernestina Gallina. On round pebbles with acrylic paints, she draws amazingly beautiful fairy tales and animals.
Ready-made ideas for your business
Old decommissioned buses can be used as unique hotels. Moreover, you can get down to business on a grand scale, as one Chinese entrepreneur did, buying several dozen old buses on the cheap and creating theme houses from them with the design of famous cartoons. The idea may be of interest to owners of suburban areas and recreation centers.
Car tents are a whole business segment with a fairly wide offer and choice of manufacturers. Tents can be installed on the roof of a car and on the side, be soft or with hard floors and a roof. There are even special hammocks on the roofs for those who like to look at the starry sky. Considering that the number of independent tourists is constantly growing, the business of selling such tents has good prospects.
In foreign countries, bicycle tours are a separate and full-fledged direction in the tourism industry. There are two directions here - you can organize tours from scratch, focusing on lovers who have neither bicycles nor experience in cycling, or already experienced cyclists. If in the first case it is necessary to take care of all aspects, including the purchase of bicycles and equipment, then in the second case the task is only to organizational moments: laying a route, solving issues with accommodation, paperwork, and so on. Abroad, there are separate areas of cycling tours, for example, cycling tours for girls.
A balloon flight is an unusual and expensive experience, for which the owner of a balloon can receive up to 30 thousand rubles for one flight. You can earn money by organizing group and individual flights, selling gift certificates, as well as selling the advertising surface of the balloon to advertisers.
Snow tubing is a type of entertainment that has replaced the usual sledding. Tubes are called inflatable round “cheesecakes”, and snow tubing tracks can be opened both in winter resorts and as a seasonal entertainment in ordinary cities. There are two business options here: you can rent tubes, or you can organize a professional track with a lift and a track.
Water transport rental is a broad line of business with a large type of watercraft. You can arrange rental of jet skis, catamarans, rowing boats, cheesecakes, bananas, wakeboards, boats, parachutes, flyboards and much more. Investments are directly related to the selected type of watercraft. If cheesecakes and catamarans cost from 8-20 thousand rubles, respectively, then, for example, flyboards and jet skis will cost from 200-350 thousand rubles.
The business of organizing water excursions is most relevant for tourist regions where people come for summer holidays. As with any business, you can work for quantity, simply by taking short river trips or taking people to remote secluded beaches, or for quality, that is, with tour guides and catering.
The Chocolate Museum is more than just a museum. In them, visitors can not only gain knowledge about their favorite delicacy, but also attend master classes in making chocolate, as well as go through a tasting and make a purchase of finished products. The advantage of this format: wide the target audience, several sources of profit, a large number of visitors with children, which increases the average check from visiting the institution.
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The tourism boom is churning out startups serving the interests of tourists. In 2018, the P2P business model is trending, the integration of blockchain technologies, as well as the growth in the number of luxury and economy services.
The tourism business is a goldmine. The number of ideas that may interest tourists is inexhaustible - there are those who want to try out strange, extravagant, senseless and even dangerous proposals. Some interesting ideas already appreciated.
We continue to publish reviews of various business ideas from around the world. Previously, we wrote about business ideas based on the production of any product, business ideas for women, ideas with minimal costs and home business ideas.
Today we will talk about tourism business ideas. Moreover, most of which will be, to put it mildly, not quite ordinary and standard. But first things first. It should be noted that tourism is developing quite actively, not only abroad, but also in Russia. There are new directions, new travel agencies. The number of holidaymakers is growing every year, which is good news. Recreation and tourism is becoming an integral attribute of people.
Locals - tourist guides
If we take into account a small town, then there is perhaps no such place where every resident has not been. But if you take a larger city, or a metropolis, for example, Moscow or St. Petersburg, then there are hundreds, and possibly thousands interesting places, where the indigenous people not only did not visit, but also did not hear about them.
Such places can be abandoned buildings, beautiful places in parks, in nature, perhaps even a beautiful panoramic view from the roof of the house, etc. In addition to local residents, there are many tourists who are much more interested in seeing the city through the eyes of ordinary people, its inhabitants, than to go on standard excursions.
For implementation, you need to find people who know such places, gather a group, take care of safety and send them on an impromptu hike. I assure you that they will be satisfied and will recommend your agency to their friends.
Pizza tours
American Scott Wiener opened a company offering pizza tours. Tourists are taken to different pizzerias, treated to pizza and told about the features and history of the institution. The cost of the tour is $55, runs on Sundays. Tourists are transported by school bus to almost all pizzerias in New York. The tour lasts about 5 hours. Individual and walking tours are also offered. The business exists and brings substantial profit for more than three years.
Hotel and restaurant in prison
The small town of Volterra, near Pisa and Florence, provides its visitors with a unique opportunity to dine in the most real prison. But getting there is not so easy. First, you need to register in advance. The queues stretch for weeks and even months. If you still managed to reserve a table, you will have to go through a personal search, leave most of the items in the storage room, and only then go to your table.
The hall has a capacity of 100 seats. Dinner costs 25 euros. This price includes one dish, mainly traditional Italian cuisine and a glass of wine. But in Germany they went even further and turned the prison into a hotel. Alcatraz Hotel - this is the name of this hotel, it has 56 rooms of different comfort.
There are deluxe rooms that are not much different from similar rooms in other hotels, and there are budget options - with one bed and a bucket in the corner. Of course, not everything is as bad as in real prisons. The bed, as well as the plumbing, is of good quality, everything is clean. The room has a TV and even wireless Internet. Surprisingly, these rooms are the most popular among tourists. The cost of one night is 79 euros.
Free sex hotel
Berth Milton, managing director of Private Media, proposed and has already tested his idea in the field of hospitality. The essence of the idea is to build a 5-star hotel, rooms in which will be provided free of charge.
However, in turn, the guests will be required to make love, the process of which will be broadcast over the Internet, for those who like to peep. It is estimated that one hotel will be able to bring in more than 40 million dollars a year. Bert plans to create a whole chain of hotels throughout the country and possibly around the world.
Walking on a transparent boat
Transparent Canoe-Kayak has developed an unusual, transparent boat, and offers paid trips on the sea to everyone. The beauty of this boat is that the frame is made of aluminum and the bottom is made of transparent plastic. Thanks to this, while walking, you can easily look down, observing the processes taking place in the depths of the sea. Boat trips are especially in demand on coral reefs, where the water is especially transparent and a rich water world is visible to the naked eye.
Travel business to the places of death of celebrities
Dearly Departed Tours is a travel company based in Los Angeles that conducts rather unusual excursions to the places of death of Hollywood celebrities. Tours last for 3 hours. During this time, tourists visit more than 100 attractions, including the place where the most scandalous incident happened to a celebrity and, in fact, the grave itself. Scott Michaels, owner and tour guide, says the business is in high demand. Since the opening of the company, he has conducted excursions for more than 10,000 tourists from all over the world.
Extreme tourism
This type of tourism is in demand among people whose life is quite calm and often even boring. It can be office workers, managers, etc. They, and many others, want to tickle their nerves, test themselves. So, for example, in the Australian city of Darwin, an unusual attraction was opened. Wishing people are put in a transparent cage and lowered into the water with a hefty crocodile. The duration of the whole event is 15 minutes.
Although the thick wall of the box protects a person from a crocodile, adrenaline in the blood rises and tourists get what they came for. According to Michael Scott, owner of the company, the number of customers has been growing since the opening, and at a fairly rapid pace. The price of the attraction is $35. It's not exactly an original idea. As far as I know, something similar has been practiced with sharks for a long time. True, instead of a transparent one, they use a real, iron cage.
Guides from locals
Nectar & Pulse produces travel guides for Europe. At the moment, guides are available for Vienna, Stockholm and London. The business itself is business as usual. The reader will ask the question: well, they say, what is special about guidebooks, boring books with descriptions?
And the beauty of Nectar & Pulse travel guides is that they are written by ordinary people who live in the city you are about to visit. Moreover, besides this, the guidebook for the same city was written by different people ... I will clarify, people with different characters and different interests. Before buying a guide, you can read the description (profile) of the writer and choose for yourself a more "soul mate" who certainly knows what you will like in the city!
The tourism industry is becoming more and more popular every year. New different destinations and routes for travel appear, and new entrepreneurs in this niche try to stand out from the competition and offer various interesting ideas for relax.
It should be noted that not only the direction of travel abroad is actively developing, but also travel within the country. People are increasingly becoming interested in the history of their people, they visit various historical and cultural places where you can have a cool and useful time. One of the features of the tourism business is the high competition in this segment. Apart from large firms There are many intermediaries who organize trips and sell the offers of major market players at the expense of a percentage of the cost of the tour. The tourism niche within the country is also slowly acquiring experienced players who offer many offers and become the most competitive in terms of price, so it is very difficult for a local small business to promote, but still quite possible, the main thing is to work no matter what.
The average family often makes about two vacation trips a year, one within the country and the other to warmer countries. This forms a serious market for services, since the client is ready to pay, but still he will choose based on the conditions of accommodation, travel, food and other points that you can offer him. In this regard, the tourism business is primarily suitable for people who know how and can negotiate discounts on housing or free meals for customers. You must look for partners for constant cooperation and constantly maintain a brand of service for your customers.
Before you start making money on tourism, it is important to understand the formats with which you should start from scratch and where to grow in the future. So to start, try to sell your services via the Internet, it can be your own website or message boards. Rent a small office and sign a contract with various tour operators. In the future, as the base of regular customers is formed, it will be possible to create your own tours and offer small intermediaries to resell your offers. As you can see, in order to open a tourism business, you can have a minimum start-up capital, the main thing is the ability to apply and negotiate. The entire reputation of your company will be based on customer reviews, they publish them in in social networks and specialized sites for this. It is important that the majority of reviews are positive, otherwise it will turn off many target customers. Keep an eye on your online reputation and try to get recommended as one of the best travel destination related companies.
Now let's look at what types of travel business ideas you can safely consider.
- Trips abroad. Usually this is the format of tours at sea, to warm countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Thailand. Or sightseeing tours around Europe, to Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and other interesting cities that most vacationers want to visit.
- Excursions and rest within the country. This can also include holidays at sea or the premises of many historical sites.
- Leisure. First of all, these are ski resorts, and in the summer it is trips on bicycles and ATVs.
- Ecotourism. This direction is gaining popularity. Its essence is to organize a recreation center in the forest near a lake or river and offer people trips for mushrooms, fishing, barbecue, a bathhouse and other options for outdoor recreation. Usually, for this, they buy a house in a village with a plot of land and gradually convert it into a full-fledged recreation center.
These are the four formats most in demand on the market, which can be sold in almost any city. In this section of the site, we have selected for you working business ideas in the tourism niche and tried to consider not only the theoretical part, but also give examples of investment and profitability calculations, so that in the future it would be easier for you to create your own business plan for the company.
The tourism business has always been profitable. However, it is rather difficult to organize it now due to high competition. However, the types of tourism are constantly evolving, the main thing is not to lose the idea or come up with your own, original and unique.
People often want to visit some unusual places, so one of the promising areas in the field of tourism is the organization of one-day excursions to cities, cultural, historical or industrial sites.
The easiest way to get into the tourism business is to conclude agency contract with a major travel company and sell her tours. To do this, it is enough to rent a small place, for example, in mall , and put there a table and chairs for customers. This is especially true in small town where there are no major agencies.
Green tourism has become very popular. If you live in the village , in the forest zone, not far from the lake, it is necessary to create comfortable living conditions and give good advertising. Many people are willing to pay money for the opportunity to take a break from the bustle of the city. In general, given the ecological situation in the world, people increasingly prefer tourism associated with ecology and a healthy lifestyle. That is why many prefer cycling or sports tourism, which can be turned into an excellent and profitable business.
This type of activity cannot be called easy, therefore, it is probably more suitable, however, there are many examples where women have succeeded well in this field.
What other services can be provided in this area, read on this page.
