Glossary Of Terms
American Society of Travel Agents - ASTA: Trade association of retail travel agents.
Confidential Tariff: A schedule of wholesale rates distributed in confidence to travel wholesalers and travel agents.
Consolidator: A person or company which forms groups to travel on air charters or at group fares on scheduled flights to increase sales, earn override commissions or reduce the possibility of tour cancellations.
Destination: The place to which a traveler is going; or any city, area, region or country be marketed as a single entity to tourists.
Destination Marketing Organization: A company or other entity involved in the business of increasing tourism to a destination or improving its public image.
DMC (Destination Management Company): A local company that handles arrangements for tours, meetings, transportation etc. for groups originating elsewhere.
Escort: A person, usually employed by a tour operator, who accompanies a tour from departure to return as guide or trouble-shooter; or a person who performs such functions only at the destination. The terms host-escort or host are often used, and are preferred, to describe this service.
Escorted Service: A prearranged travel program, usually for a group, with escort service. Fully escorted tours may also use local guide services.
Familiarization Trip: A complimentary or reduced-rate travel program for travel agents, airline or rail employees or other travel buyers, designed to acquaint participants with specific destinations or suppliers and to stimulate the sale of travel. Familiarization tours, also called fam tours, are sometimes offered to journalists as research trips for the purpose of cultivating media coverage of specific travel products.
Foreign Independent Travel or Foreign Individual Travel - FIT: An international pre-paid unescorted tour that includes several travel elements such as accommodations, rental cars and sightseeing. An FIT operator specializes in preparing FITs documents at the request of retail travel agents. FITs usually receive travel vouchers to present to on-site services as verification of pre-payment.
Ground Operator: A company that provides local travel services, including transportation or guide services.
Hotel Package: A package offered by a hotel, sometimes consisting of no more than a room and breakfast; sometimes, especially at resort hotels, consisting of (ground) transportation, room, meals, sports facilities and other components.
Incentive Tour: A trip offered as a prize, usually by a company to stimulate employee sales or productivity.
International Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus - IACVB: Worldwide association of convention and visitors bureaus, based in Washington, DC.
Itinerary: Travel schedule provided by a travel agent for his/her customer. A proposed or preliminary itinerary may be rather vague or specific. A final itinerary, however provides all details - flight numbers, departure times, reservation confirmation numbers - and describes planned activities.
Net Rate: Price of goods to be marked up for eventual resale to the consumer.
Packager: Anyone organizing a tour including prepaid transportation and travel services, usually to more than one destination.
Package Tour: A saleable travel product offering an inclusive price with several travel elements that would otherwise be purchased separately. Usually has a predetermined price, length of time and features but can also offer options for separate purchase.
Rack Rate: The official cost posted by a hotel, attraction or rental car, but not used by tour operators.
Receptive Operator: A tour operator or travel agent specializing in services for incoming visitors, such as meeting them at the airport and facilitating their transfer to lodging facilities.
Retail Agency: Travel Company selling directly to the public, sometimes a subdivision of a wholesale and/or retail travel organization.
Supplier: The actual producer of a unit of travel merchandise, such as a carrier, hotel or sightseeing operator.
Tour: Any prearranged (but not necessarily pre-paid) journey to one or maore places and back to the point of origin.
Tourism: The business of providing and marketing services and facilities for pleasure travelers. Thus, the concept of tourism is of direct concern to governments, carriers, and the lodging, restaurant and entertainment industries and of indirect concern to virtually every industry and business in the world.
Tour Operator: A company that creates and/or markets inclusive tours and/or performs tour services.
Tourism Industries, US Department of Commerce: The federal agency responsible for tracking and analyzing international visitation to the United States.
Travel Agent: The individual who sells travel services, issues tickets and provides other travel services to the travel services to the traveler sat the retail level.
Travel Industry Association of America - TIA: The non-profit umbrella trade organization of companies and government agencies representing all segments of the travel industry formed to promote travel to and within the US. www.tia.org
Visit USA Committee: Non-profit organizations in various European countries, including Germany and the UK, funded by its members (US DMOs) through a yearly membership fee. The Visit USA Committees provides support to the trade and consumers in their respective countries through various marketing initiatives (e.g. consumer trade shows, fulfillment, travel agency workshops, familiarization trips etc.)
Wholesaler: A company that usually creates and markets inclusive tours and FITS for sale through travel agents. Usually sells nothing at retail, but also does not always create his/her own product; also less likely to perform local services.