India - Domestic Tourism Survey, July 2008 - June 2009, NSS 65th Round

Visitors (or potential visitors), when planning and organizing their trip, often use the services of travel agencies in order to get information on different alternatives and for bookings. The function of these agencies consists mainly of selling the right to use a certain service provided by others at a certain moment in time and within certain conditions. They play the role of providing information and access to the visitor and are the middleman in the purchase of certain services. Tour operators are businesses that combine transport and one or more chargeable travel services (e.g., accommodation, meals, entertainment, sightseeing) and sell them through travel agencies or directly to final consumers as a single product (called a package tour) for a single price. The expenditure incurred for booking of travel services like transport, accommodation, etc. including the commission recognized to travel agencies selling the package tours to the visitors is to be considered here. It may be noted here that the actual cost of travel services should not come here. Only the cost of booking these services through travel agencies/tour operators related to a trip should come here.