EJBMR, European Journal of Business and Management Research Vol. 4, No. 6, December 2019 Operations and Market Analysis of Travel Agencies: An Empirical Study on Two Travel Agencies of Bangladesh Salma Akter Laboni and Shah Zubayer Abdullah Abstract—In last one decade, the number of people using international air passengers increased about 22.10% airline has increased in great number. Different international while domestic air passengers increased about 64.73% airlines use Bangladesh as a hub to take passenger. The aim of in Bangladesh in the last five years. A total of 5,231,580 the paper is to examine the business process of travel agent. To international travelers travelled through airlines, and know in which area or location passengers are traveling, the number increased to 6,388,050 in 2017. On the other percentage of domestic flights and international flights, Number hand, in 2013, the number of domestic air travelers was of transit ticket and direct ticket, type of buyer and 648,019 which increased to 1,067,537 in 2017. In the characteristics of passengers traveling on these international last five years, following entry of the three private flights. The main target is to show how travel agents are working airlines in the market, the number of domestic and in Bangladesh. This paper provides empirical study, collected international air travelers has seen a rise. Tourism is a data from field. In this paper, we are going to see the operations multidimensional sector which tourism board and aviation board alone cannot develop. Tourism based and market analysis of these two travel agencies. The result developmental model along with an overall promotion reveals that the main customers of travel agents are tourists and of the tourism sector is needed to be undertaken for its specially, mid-level tourists. Most of the people take return development. tickets and in economy class. This travel agencies offer different package to customers according their choice and need. In this B. Air Travel Demand in Bangladesh study we also found the socio- Demographic Characteristic of Air Travel demand is the critical and fundamental data in the customers, their gender, occupation, type of buyer etc. airport planning process. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been compiling statistics on air travel since start of commercial air travel [1]. Bangladesh is Keywords—Travel agency industry, Customer satisfaction, Bangladesh. a small country where the distances between the major cities are not large enough for air transportation to be very List of Abbreviation and Nomenclatures effective. Roadway is highly congested and accident prone KTT: Krishibid Tours & Travels Ltd and railway and waterway ae inefficient and slow. Air travel TBBL: Travel Booking Bangladesh Ltd demand is increasing rapidly in Bangladesh. The value for CAAB: Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh IATA: International Air Transport Association Air transport, passengers carried in Bangladesh was USBA: US- Bangla Airlines 3,815,870 as of 2016. As the graph below shows, over the ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization past 43 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 1 Manuscript Details 3,997,814 in 2015 and a minimum value of 431,400 in 1974. I. INTRODUCTION A. Background of the study In Bangladesh, the aviation or airlines industry is a booming one. Because of the increasing impact of globalization export and import activities is getting huge day by day in Bangladesh. Moreover, Bangladesh has increased its diplomatic and political activities in order to build stronger rapport with other countries of the world. Additionally, the number of Bangladeshi students going abroad for studies is larger than ever. As a result, everyday a huge number of cargo and passenger is getting in and out of the country through aircrafts. Furthermore, the number of domestic flights for transporting Fig 1: Air Passengers Carried in Bangladesh passenger and cargo is also on a rise. The number of 1 Published on December 5, 2019. Salma Akter Laboni, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. (e-mail: [email protected]) Shah Zubayer Abdullah, Chang’an University, Xi’An- 710064, China. (e-mail: [email protected]) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejbmr.2019.4.6.131 1 EJBMR, European Journal of Business and Management Research Vol. 4, No. 6, December 2019 C. Scope of the study C. Data and Source This is a case empirical case study. Collected data from two It is a case study of two travel agents. Our sample size is two travel agents for one is two months (July, August) and (Krishibid Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) and Travel Booking another one is three months (June, July and August) Bangladesh Ltd (TBBL). Through our questionnaire we have collected 430 passenger ticket information. From Krishibid D. Research Objective Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) in month June we got 50 passenger 1) Broad objective ticket information. We got 84 ticket information of month The main objective of the study is to identify the business June. Lastly In August, we got 64 passengers Ticket process of travel agencies in Bangladesh. information. From Travel Booking Bangladesh Ltd (TBBL) we got total 232 passenger ticket information, 98 of month 2) Specific objective June and 134 of month August. • To analyze the market segment. D. Data collection methods • Ticket selling ratio of domestic and international. We have chosen two travel agencies, one is Krishibid Tours • To know in which area or location passengers are & Travels Ltd (ktt) and another one is Travel Booking traveling or want to explore more. Bangladesh. First of all, we have sent them an email for • How they procure the business by selling direct getting the appointment. And then made a questionnaire tickets or transit ticket. based on data is needed for this paper. It is all about Passenger • To observe the difference of the ticket (Internal and Ticket Information (like Date of ticket issue, data of flight, external destination) destination country, city, name of airlines, is there any • To analyze the characteristics of buyer transit? If yes then number of transit, name of transit airport, • To analyze price range of the ticket. connecting flight, price, is there any discount offer, ticket sold for package tour etc.) After getting appointment, we have visited their office, one is in Banani and other one is Mirpur, II. METHODOLOGY Kazipara. We have showed them our questionnaire and tell A. Research design them what kind of information is needed. They gave fixed date and time to collect all ticket selling information. We To fulfill the main objective of this paper we need to focus on have collected information by taking face to face personal the business process of travel agents. To full fill main interview and from company daily register books. In objective of this paper we are focusing on the step by step Krishibid Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) it took 2 weeks to collect process how these two travel agents are doing its business. all this information. Krishibid Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) gave Their process of booking tickets and payment process, offers. data of month June, July and August. Travel Booking To fulfill the ticket selling ratio between domestic and Bangladesh Ltd gave data of month July and August. 232 international route, we will be going to examine the 430 tickets information we have collected from this travel agent. tickets and their routes whether it is a domestic flight or it is After getting all this information we have input all this data an international flight and by using excel we will make a in excel sheet. diagram about this for visual presentation. To fulfill the objective of market segment we will going to analyze the 430 E. Data analysis tools tickets from Krishibid Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) and Travel To analysis the data we have used Microsoft excel 2007. For Booking Bangladesh and going to focus on the destination of calculating different percentage and mean we use excel travelers and we will going to divide this route by different formula bar. In this study, we use D formula like, mean region like Indian sub continents, Malaysia-Singapore- =AVeRAGe() Thailand, North America and others location. We will go to Selecting cell range. observe the traffic and density or number of flights on this location. We will go to examine pricing of the tickets, F. Limitation of the study segment the price range in different category and observe the Accomplishing this study some complications have been average ticket price. To highlight the transit ticket and direct elevated while collecting data and preparing the report. Most ticket ratio we will going to analysis the data by using excel of the complexities have risen basically because of position formula. To fulfill all this objectives we are doing to make a and limited access. The major limitations that have been questionnaire and visit two travel agents one is Krishibid faced, like Limitation of sample size. For this research this Tours & Travels Ltd (ktt) and another one is Travel Booking sample size does not represent the absolute picture of airline Bangladesh and collect passenger ticket information. industry and if it was possible to collect more than this sample size or more travel agency’s ticket selling information it B. Sampling design would be more informative. Limitation of Time is another It is an empirical study to analyze the business process of one. There was a time limitation in conduction the study. travel agent. For showing the current market of travel agent Shortage of published Data is another limitation. Published and their working performance and market segment we are data are not that much available. Published journal about choosing two leading travel agencies in Bangladesh. One is Bangladeshi airline industry is few in number.