be Prepared [theory] I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel s sake. The great affair is to move. prelim Unit 3 preliminaries Intermediaries INTERMEDIARIES Robert Louis Stevenson Wholesalers Tour operators outbound Travel agencies inbound package tours exchange rate fluctuation fuel price change inbound tour operator inspection intermediary margin outbound tour operator sea, sun and sand destination tour operator wholesaler 50 S ome tourists don t have a lot of travelling experience and may be anxious about booking a holiday, that s why some companies act as intermediaries. 24 Intermediaries benefit suppliers because: they can reach a wider part of the market they know the tourist market better they can reduce marketing and promoting expenses. Intermediaries benefit customers too because: they know the travel product they sell they can obtain lower prices as they buy in bulk they can provide help with the language, payments and a representative based in the destination. There are three main types of intermediaries in the tourism system: wholesalers, tour operators and travel agencies. 1. Wholesalers buy in bulk a particular type of service and sell it to tour operators and travel agencies. 2. Tour operators combine different tourist products and services into a fixed price package. The outbound tour operator offers a package to its customers who want to travel abroad. If, instead, the tour operator is based in the destination country (inbound tour operator), it specialises in providing packages to visitors coming from abroad. Tour operators research the tourist destination and product by conducting inspections, they negotiate prices with the suppliers by buying in advance and in bulk, they put together all the costs and add a margin for themselves and fix a final price for the package. Then, they advertise and promote it and finally sell it, through travel agencies or other intermediaries, the Internet included. The process of creating the final package normally lasts more than a year, but the long time between purchasing the services and selling them leaves tour operators vulnerable to many factors, like exchange rate fluctuations, fuel price changes, or collapse of demand, due, for example, to natural disasters, diseases or wars. Nowadays not all the tour operators sell mass-market packages: big ones traditionally still concentrate on putting together low-cost holidays to sea, sun and sand destinations, other tour operators, though, choose to offer a specific type of holiday, targeting particular types of travellers, like old or single people, sports fans, etc.