Travel agencies can be classified in several ways, including by the type of services they provide (wholesale or retail), their location and target markets (outgoing, receptive, or both), and their business model (physical, franchise, or virtual). Wholesale agencies develop tourist packages to offer to retail agencies, which have direct contact with customers. Retail agencies market products from wholesalers and can design their own tours. Agencies also vary according to whether they are located in tourist-generating or tourist-receiving areas.

1. Fabiola Montilla
Alondra Vera
Paola Davila

2. Travel agencies are companies that specialize in different types of
services for the benefit of the traveler, such as ticket reservation and
hotel accommodation, tour scheduling, car rental, etc . And bring the
tourist product closer to the customer. Travel agencies are classified as
wholesalers, who are responsible for developing the tourist packages to
offer them to retailers who are the ones who have direct contact with the
customer at the time of selling them.
Some functions of travel agencies is to advise and give information to
the customer, it is a mediator, that is, it extracts the passages and is a
producer, since it manufactures the products of the services that are
sold. In the case of retailers their main job is to sell packages offered by
wholesalers.
The basic tourist packages contain stay and air ticket. We can also find
those packages that contain stay, tickets, transportation, excursions and
in many cases meals depending on the hotel. And the package, of
course.
In addition to explaining these points will be explained below, as is the
procedure of purchasing a package tour by a customer, we will add to
the hotel vocabulary the terms fam trip and allomet, and we will disclose
the purpose of the travel agencies of receptive tourism.

3. Travel Agencies Retail
They market the product of the wholesale travel agencies selling
directly to the tourist user or they design, elaborate, organize or sell all
kinds of services and combined trips to the tourist, being unable to
offer or market their products through other services. This travel
agency is one that sells to the public. In addition to, behind the travel
business are a number of wholesale agencies, with which retail
agencies make their reservations rather than directly with the hotel.
In most cases, it would be very costly for retail agencies to
communicate directly with the hotel each time they had a reservation.
In addition, businesses booked directly by the retailer require a
deposit to be sent to the hotel and in many cases, particularly during
busy periods, the retail agency can not immediately know if the hotel
will be able to provide you with the requested accommodation. Finally
in recent years customers have ordered packages that combine
accommodation in the hotel, air travel, group transfers and excursions.

4. Travel agencies according to your advertising
For this case and when the agency often has the need to advertise, it can
focus on two major categories that will depend on the area where they
operate:
1.- If the agency is located in a certain place that receives a lot of tourism,
its advertising will be oriented towards the information and sale of those
services that will be useful to the traveler while visiting that destination,
offering him, for example, exchange facilities of Currency, sale of tickets
for local events, car rental, types of excursions, etc.
2.- However, if the travel agency has its business in areas that generate
tourist flow but to other places, its advertising will be inclined toward the
sale of tours and services to this type of potential clients.

5. Classification of travel agencies according to their activity
 Stations: where are the people who intend to travel.
 Receivers: is located where mass tourism arrives.
 Issuing agency - receptive.
 Classification of travel agencies according to the product or market they
handle
 By product: work, excursions, research.
 Market: seniors, students, sportsmen, families.

6. Classification according to the traffic of travelers
 Outgoing: agencies in this category focus on sending travelers to
geographic areas other than where the agency is located.
 Receptive (incoming): these take care of bringing or bringing tourists
from other geographical areas to the place where the agency is located.
 The receptive agencies have two modalities: those located in areas of
high tourist influx and large or medium travel agencies that have
receiving departments.
 Emitter-receptive agencies: organize traffic in both directions, 35.8% of
agencies are of this type.
 Focusing on one or another category will depend on the experience
that the agency has, however, be it a case or another, it is convenient
that before the company conducts a market study, to know which is the
most convenient and the Providers you can count on.

7. Classification of the travel agency, according to the distribution channel
 Inplant agencies: these are small offices or agencies that travel agencies
set up in companies of potential clients, in order to efficiently service the
services they request. They are offices that usually have one or two
employees, who are in constant contact with the travelers of such
company.
Franchise Travel Agencies
 In this case, the franchisor grants the franchisee the right to exploit the
business following a uniform commercial technique, it also brings the
brand, corporate image, know-how, products, training of workers , The
marketing plan and the management of the purchases. For its part, the
franchised agency will pay a periodic fee to the franchisor.

8. Virtual Travel Agencies
These were born due to the increasing use of the Internet. Today thousands
of people around the world can quickly and easily make reservations for their
business trip or family vacation through the network.
This new mode of travel has become more than a threat, a challenge for
traditional travel agencies, which already begin to offer in addition to their
direct services, those that can do through the Internet.
Although this modality has presented some inconveniences as the payment
and the privacy of the information, these problems have been diminishing,
reason why more and more people choose to make their reservations
through this means.
Virtual travel agencies offer the following services: Vacation, independent,
simple, sentimental (honeymoon, wedding anniversary, etc.), all-inclusive
trip, transit travelers, solitary, family, incentive trips.