Why Wait? Start Your Travel Business Today!

While it is a fantasy that has crossed many minds and gotten dismissed as a pipe-dream, if you want to start your travel business, it can be as simple as deciding to go for it. A passion for travel and love for people are all the skills you need to get started. Though there are important skills and knowledge you must obtain along the way, these are all things you will pick up as you network, plan, and delve into the travel industry.

Travel is an ever-evolving industry. Demands will change, trends will go in and out of style, your audience will age and regress, but the core principles of your success will remain the same. If you want to start your travel business, you need to plan in stages and do your research.

The Plan

Choose Your Business and Niche

Do you want to make the holidays or just sell some really good ones? If you want to make the holidays as well as sell them, you should start your travel business as a tour operator, rather than a travel agent. What type of holidays do you want to sell? Choosing a niche will not only help you stand out, but help you to prioritise the right tools for your business.

Decide if You Want to Sell Flights

This may seem like a very specific step, but this will determine whether or not you need to acquire an Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL).

Choose if You Want to Go Fully Online

This is another specific question that will affect the structure of your entire business. This could also determine some costs. If you want to work alone and fully from home, you can cancel out the costs for an office, but you will need to think more about how you want to handle admin in a smaller space. In this situation, it is highly recommended that you take all admin digital from the start, meaning you will need to factor in the cost of a software system. For example, if you became a member of Protected Trust Services (PTS), our market-leading travel software is included in membership, includes everything you will need to manage and start your travel business, and reports a reduced admin time of 40%.

This decision will also affect card payments. If you want to start a shop, you can afford to use other methods at the start. Whereas, if you want to work from home, however, card payment services are essential. If that is a cost you need to factor in, you’ve come to the right virtual place! PTS is making selling travel simple for all members, with quick and affordable set up for card payment services.

Get Familiar With The Regulations

This one may sound daunting, but we promise no one expects you to memorise the Package Travel Regulations (our writer did that once…he doesn’t recommend it). What this does mean, is you should do your research to get an understanding of how these regulations apply to your business. This is so you can write your own terms and conditions without accidentally causing a clash that could get you in trouble later. At PTS, we make it even simpler, ensuring each and every one of our members is PTR compliant for the duration of their membership (that’s one less thing off the brain).

Choose Your Financial Protection

Before you start selling anything, you must have financial protection in place. This is something you may have come across while investigating regulations. The PTRs will accept one of three forms of protection: insurance, bonding, or a trust account. While there is a lot of debate around which protection method is better (we are, of course, heavily in favour of a trust account as long as it is run correctly), the decision this really comes down to is the provider. This decision could very well tie into what kind of overall support you want.

This is where PTS comes into your decision. If you want to start your travel business and you want access to all the tools you could ever need (ATOL, card payment services, financial protection, PTR compliance, all-in-one software, currencies, suppliers, and expert support), but you don’t want anyone bringing your business onboard their own flight deck, setting sail with a percentage of your profits, or confining you to the limits of their own cruise ship, PTS is the support package for you. While we are making selling travel simple for your business, we are leaving your business safely in your hands, restriction-free, profits untouched.

Make a Great Travel Business!

While there are a lot of elements to consider when you start your travel business, the most important part is bringing your passion to your travellers. If you become a member of PTS, everything else will be sorted out behind the scenes for you. If you’re ever in doubt, whether you’re a start-up or you’ve been going for decades, the travel industry is full of passionate experts ready to share their knowledge. So don’t be shy, we’ve all been in your shoes, and we can’t wait for you to jump into the exciting world of travel!

If you’d like to discuss further, please get in contact with one of PTS’s lovely staff members by calling 0207 190 9988. Or, you can visit our member support and travel trust account pages to learn more about how we protect you.