Chinese is stepping as much as travel the plate in deterring North Korea from sporting out a sixth nuclear test by ordering a ban on institution tours to the North.
China News said on Sunday, tour packages to North Korea now do not appear on the websites of China’s leading tour groups together with C-ride and Carissa.
The Chinese government is also suspending Air China’s flights between Beijing and Pyongyang beginning Monday.
This comes after President Xi Jinping met with his U.S. Counterpart, Donald Trump, early this month, wherein Trump burdened China’s position in resolving the North Korea issue.
According to Chinese country-run media, inside the occasion of another travel nuclear Korea.
What a Tour Broker Is and How to Become One
A person who operates a tour company is a broker. A broker is a middleman. Brokers buy or arrange items or services and sell these items or services to the end buyer. Some examples of brokers are:
Independent insurance agents. These agents do not provide insurance; they arrange insurance for you from an insurance company. Insurance agents usually get a commission from an insurance company.
Stockbrokers. As insurance agents, stockbrokers help you buy and sell stock. They don’t own the stock. These brokers also receive a commission based on the amount traded.
Real estate broker. Again, these brokers do not own the properties they sell, and they get a commission based on the value of what they sell.
There are also tour brokers. Tour brokers serve a variety of customers. This article is about what a tour brokerage is and the basics of this business.
Here is a good description of a tour: A trip with visits to various places of interest for business, pleasure, or instruction.
Here travel is defined: To go from one place to another, as on a trip; journey.
A tour, then, does not only travel, but it is travel with the purpose being pleasure or interest. You may think of a time as extended travel with the object being to see and experience an area. A journey, on the other hand, is usually only about moving from one place to another.
A tour broker works with people continuously. If you are going to get involved in this type of business, you should like working with people – you have to be a people person.
Tour brokers are not traveled, agents. Travel agents arrange for the travel needs of their customers. Usually, a travel agent will only work with individuals or small groups (families, for example). Travel agents always buy something already in place (air travel, car rentals, hotels, etc.); they do not originate anything.
Tour brokers originate – they arrange tours, put the transportation, place the lodging, place the meals, and agree on other services for their clients. A tour broker plans on what kind of tour they want to operate.
Next, the tour broker makes arrangements for the various components of the tour – transportation, food, lodging, attractions, etc.
There are many types of tour companies. Some offer guided tours of a local area – tours of a city or an attraction, for example. Some offer tours in a natural setting – guided tours through the Grand Canyon fall into this category. Some offer tours to various national and state parks. Some offer tours through a large area; a multi-state time is a good example.
IF YOU LIKE TO TRAVEL – FOR FREE – THIS IS A GREAT BUSINESS TO BE IN
You may have to do inspections of the hotels and attractions that you will be making a part of your tour. If you have been taught correctly, you will know how to get “comp” (short for complimentary or Free) rooms and meals. If you go along with the tour, you should expect to get comps again. How to set it up so that you get comps is something your mentor should teach.
NOTE THAT THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HERE ONLY APPLIES TO THE US. OTHER COUNTRIES MAY HAVE DIFFERENT RULES
As I mentioned before, this is a people business. Liking to work with people and liking to solve problems is a prime requirement.
Like a church is a church because someone calls it a church, a tour broker is a tour broker because someone says they are a tour broker. There is no requirement for a license. If you do operate a business, you may need to get a federal tax number, and your county or city may require you to get a business license. As far as needing an appointment to become a tour broker, no license is required from the mid-1930s until the 1980s transportation was strictly controlled by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Under the Deregulation Act of 1982, a competition was allowed, and the need for federal authority became a thing of the past.
Depending on where you are, you may need a business license. Call your local county office and ask for the office in charge of business licenses. This should be easy as all they want is to file some paperwork and pay them a small fee.
If you are going to be making money (and why else get in the business?), you will have to obtain a federal tax number. This number is called a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and is used in industry much like your Social Security number is used for benefits.
I have looked at various sites on the Internet purporting to be concerned with how to become a tour operator. Most do not seem to understand what a tour operator is or does. Those who got close to the concept either offered to teach or provide links to sites that may prepare someone to be a tour guide. A tour guide is not a tour operator – at best, a tour guide works for a tour operator.
A tour operator runs their own business
It’s as simple as that – you own and run the business. If you plan to make a profit, you follow this rule – buy low, sell high. People tend to make things too complicated. You buy at one price and sell at another price, easy, huh?
The actual “trick” to making money in the tour business is to understand that concept of breaking even (BE). The break-even point is where you don’t lose money and where you don’t make money. To help you understand this idea, you have to realize that there are two types of costs in most businesses – fixed and variable. A fixed price will occur whether you have ten clients or 46. Office rent is a fixed cost. You have to pay the rent whether or not you operate any tours. A variable cost is a cost that is dependent on something else. An example of a variable cost would be the cost of an attraction (theme park). If you have 20 clients, the total cost of the interest is dependent (variable) on the number of clients you have.
The lack of good information on this business led me to believe that those in this business do not want competition or don’t have time to write about how they run their business. A well-thought-out tour, advertised correctly, can bring in thousands in revenue. For example, suppose that you operate a seven-day bus tour. The time sells for $985.00 (per person, double occupancy), and you have 36 people go on your tour. The gross revenue on this tour will be over $35,000.00, and you should be able to retain at least $10,000.00 of that amount.
