What is a travel agency product?

In the book Fifty Years of Tourism in China, the definition of tourism products is: tourism products refer to the services provided by tourism operators to meet their comprehensive needs in the process of tourism with certain tourism resources and tourism facilities; From the tourist's point of view, it refers to the process that tourists can meet their travel needs after paying a certain amount of money, time and energy. It is a combination of eating, living, traveling, traveling, shopping and entertainment in tourism, and has the characteristics of synchronization, intangibility, integrity, non-transferability and non-storability of production and consumption. Tourism products often appear in the form of tourist routes or activities provided by tourism suppliers to tourists.

The above definition is defined from the perspective of tourism economics, that is, the position of buyers and sellers. It has two meanings:

1. The comprehensive services provided by tour operators for tourists in the course of traveling are combined with tangible things with certain use value. Only with certain resources, facilities, equipment and tourism services can it be completed.

2. From the demand side of tourism, tourists spend money to get a kind of tourism experience and feeling through transactions, which is material and spiritual satisfaction. This is in line with the characteristics of goods, namely exchange, value and use value.

German tourism scholar Bodbovey's understanding of tourism products is that tourism products are the sum of several tourism facilities and services used by specific tourists in a specific area. Its elements can be divided into three categories: destination resources, destination facilities, and transportation from residence to destination.

Although this understanding has certain limitations, it can help us understand the views of foreign scholars on tourism products.

Based on the above theories, the definition of tourism products is: tourism products refer to the sum of comprehensive needs and services provided to tourists by tourism operators with certain tourism resources, tourism facilities and means of transportation, including all kinds of products operated by all tourism enterprises and units.

Travel agency products are all products and services that travel agencies provide to tourists by purchasing and integrating individual service products such as scenic spots, transportation, accommodation, catering, shopping and entertainment according to market demand, and operating their own services through these products and services. Travel agency products are a kind of tourism products, which appear in the form of solidified "product package" and integrate the commitment and service of travel agencies.

Travel agency products have a strong service nature, but they cannot be simply understood as equivalent to services. There are no examples of selling only "services" because they are divorced from specific products. Service is an accessory of the product, which is included in the product. Only by purchasing a specific product can we get the corresponding service. For example, if you buy a refrigerator, you can enjoy home delivery or after-sales maintenance service. In fact, modern marketing has attached great importance to the service process of products. At the same time, services depend on products. Without products, services themselves are abstract. "If the skin doesn't exist, the hair will attach." Undeniably, service is the most important function of travel agency products. Moreover, excellent service can improve the quality of travel agency products and the reputation of travel agencies.

The most important reflection form of travel agency products is actually produced by travel agency employees through market research, screening, organization, creative planning, service procurement, advertising design and other links. When tourists buy this "tourist route" and get legal approval (the invoice and contract are valid), the "tourist route" becomes a "travel agency product" by concretizing or becoming "tangible". Later reception services (tour guide service, logistics support, etc.). ) began to be released and integrated into the whole process.

Travel agency products are also individual travel service products necessary for tourism activities of scenic spots, transportation, accommodation, catering and other projects purchased by travel agencies from various travel service product suppliers, and these individual products are combined into various package travel agency products and sold to tourists in order to obtain operating profits. Combination and package products are the core of travel agency products and the main source of travel agency profits. However, with the constant changes of social and economic activities, the demand for personalization, fashion and humanization is increasingly apparent, which puts forward newer and higher requirements for travel agency products, and the connotation and extension of the products themselves are constantly enriched and extended. Personal sales of travel agency products have also become very important.

One of the main functions of travel agency products is to provide services related to tourism activities, and its output mainly appears in the form of services. According to the service classification scheme of Datong-low contact service, medium contact service and high contact service. The service products provided by travel agencies are highly contact services, because in most cases, tourists participate in the whole process of travel services provided by travel agencies from beginning to end. The so-called high-contact service is a concept relative to low-contact service and medium-contact service. It means that in the process of service promotion, customers participate in all or part of activities, and at the same time, it also shows the degree of tourists' dependence on services, because tourists may not be able to successfully complete this process due to the lack of certain services (such as language barriers, unfamiliar roads, unaccustomed habits, security, accommodation arrangements, etc.). Therefore, it is particularly important to provide tourism services.