ABSTRACT
For tourism to occur, consumers need to purchase, arrange or acquire the means by which they can travel from their home area and (origin area) to a destination. One element in this process is tour operators and travel retailers. Tour operating and retailing tourism products to consumers are key parts in the production, selling and distribution of tourism services. The organizations that do this link the supply to the source of demand. Yet tourism is not like many other products or services. It is intangible; it is often an experience or product that cannot be stored, tried or tested before purchase, and so the consumer often buys as an act of faith, in the belief that what the tourism industry supplies is in line with their expectations and needs. This is epitomized in the following quotation:
One of the main ways in which the tourism industry communicates, trades and interacts with the tourist is through the distribution chain (i.e. the way in which the product is sold to the consumer) using intermediaries – agents that sell products for the industry. Historically, tourism products were retailed through travel agents who offered products from tour operators, known as ‘principals’. The tour operator and travel agency sector is highly developed in the EU with approximately 190 million package holidays sold annually. The sector employs 80 000 people, generating gross revenue of €280 billion and employs 450 000 people. The UK and Germany dominate the market employing 23 per cent and 13 per cent of the workforce, respectively, although many of these jobs are within large integrated tour operating companies such as TUI.
