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Ad Hoc One-shot Groups - Special Groups that only arrive once or twice (as opposed to circle tours.)
Airline Fare- Price charged for an airline ticket. There are several classifications:
Regular- Unrestricted fare.
Excursion - Round-trip completed within a specified period of time.
APEX (Advanced purchase excursion) - Heavily discounted excursion
fares usually with cancellation penalties attached.
Tour Basing - Heavily conditioned fares on specified routes. Requires the
purchase of a land package.
Visit USA- Only available to foreign visitors and purchased overseas.
Point to point travel for a flat rate, heavily conditioned.
Group- Usually round-trip travel in a specified period of time, usually a
minimum number of participants is requires.
Promotional - Usually round-trip, restricted tickets used to stimulate traffic
on specific routes.
Open Jaw - Fare established where the passenger departs the originating
city to a destination; but returns to the originating city from another
destination.
All Expense/All Inclusive Tour - Misused expression since virtually no tour
covers every expenditure. This tour offers all or most transportation, lodging, meals, sightseeing, etc. for a pre-established price.
American Plan - A hotel rate that includes a sleeping room and three meals.
Baby Boomers - Ages 39 - 59
Baggage Allowance - Weight of volume of baggage a passenger may carry without additional charge.
Baggage Liability - Legal limits of a carrier's financial responsibility for checked baggage.
Bed and Breakfast (B & B) - Overnight accommodations usually in a private home of boarding house, often with either a full, American-style breakfast or Continental breakfast included in the rate.
Block - A number of rooms, seats or spaces reserved in advance, usually by wholesalers, group tour operators or travel agents who intend to sell them as components of tour resale.
Blocked Space - Reservations made with suppliers by wholesalers or travel agents in anticipation of resale.
Booking or Reservation Form - Signed by customers purchasing tours stating exactly which tour is being purchased. The form also outlines all liability requirements.
Bulk Fare - A wholesale fare or discounted fare available only to tour organizers or operators who directly purchase a specified block of seats from a carrier at a low, non-commissionable price. The organizers or operators then sell the seats at a marked-up price, which provides their product.
Certified Tour Professional (CTP) - A designation conferred upon tour professionals who complete prescribed academic study, professional services, group travel employment, and evaluation requirements. The CTP Program is administered by the National Tour Foundation (located in Lexington, KY) and is open to individuals employed in any segment of the group travel industry.
Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) - A designation attesting to professional competence as a travel agent. It is conferred upon travel professionals with five years or more of industry experience who have completed a two-year, graduate level travel management program offered by the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (located in Wellesley, MA).
Charter - To hire the exclusive use of a motor coach, aircraft, vessel or other vehicle.
Charter Flight - A flight booked exclusively for the use of a specific group or groups who are traveling on an inclusive tour charter program.
Circle Trip - A journey with stopovers that returns to the point of departure without retracing its route.
Commission - The amount which travel agents receive from a supplier for selling transportation, accommodations or other services.
Common Carrier - Anyone or any organization that offers transport for hire to the public.
Consortium - A loosely knit group of independently owned and managed companies such as travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, etc. with a joint marketing distribution process.
Confidential Tariff - A schedule of wholesale rates distributed in confidence to travel wholesalers and travel agents.
Consolidator - A person or company which drives groups to travel on air charters or at group fares on scheduled flights to increase sales, earn override commissions, or reduce the possibility to tour cancellations.
Customer Age Base - Students (under 21); Young Adults (ages 22 - 38); Baby Boomers (39 - 59); Seniors (age 60+)
Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) - A non-profit marketing organization for a city, state/province, region or area whose primary purpose is the promotion of the destination and which is representative of at least three of the multiple components (lodging, attractions, restaurants, etc.) of the travel industry within that city, state/province, region or area.
Double-Occupancy Rate - The price per person for a room shared with another person. This is the rate most frequently quoted in tour brochures.
Double Room Rate - The full price of a room for two people, sometimes misused to indicate double-occupancy rate.
Escorted Tour - A pre-arranged travel program, usually for a group, with escort service. Fully escorted tours may also use local guide services.
Ethnic Tour - A tour designed for people of the same heritage traveling to their native origin or to a destination with ethnic relevance.
European Plan - A hotel rate for a sleeping room only. Any meals are extra.
Familiarization Tour or FAM Tour - A complimentary or reduced rate travel program for travel agents, tour operators, airline employees and travel writers to acquaint them with a specific destination and to stimulate the sale of travel.
FIT (Foreign Independent Travel or Foreign Individual Travel) - An international pre-paid tour, unescorted, but including several travel elements such as accommodations, rental cars, or sightseeing. An FIT operator specializes in preparing and operating FITs at the request of retail travel agents.
Gateway - City, airport or area from which a flight or tour departs.
Group Leader - An individual, frequently acting cooperatively with a tour operator, designated to handle tour and travel arrangements for a group. In some cases may also serve as the escort.
Hotel Classification - The following designations are generally understood throughout Europe, and to an extent, the world. There is neither an official nor generally accepted rating system for U.S. hotels.
Budget - Budget hotels and motels are reasonably priced accommodations and are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. lodging industry. In general, they provide a room with a bed, TV, telephone and shower, as well as free parking. They often do not have room service or a restaurant.
Deluxe - A top grade hotel, all rooms have private bath and all the usual public rooms and services are provided and a high standard of decor and service is maintained.
First Class and Luxury - Many luxury hotels in the U.S. exist in large cities, offering a number of special services to the business and leisure traveler. A U.S. first class hotel offers, for example, first class restaurants, banquet and conference rooms, valet service, room service, cable TV, and complimentary morning newspapers.
Moderate - These hotels account for nearly 75% of available U.S. hotel rooms. They have on-site restaurants, bars and perhaps conference rooms, as well as basic services.
Hub & Spoke Tours - Tours that utilize a central destination with side trips of varying length to nearby destinations.
Incentive Tour - A trip offered as a prize, usually by a company to stimulate sales or productivity.
Itinerary - The travel schedule provided by a travel agent for his or her client. A proposed or preliminary itinerary may be rather vague or vary specific. A final itinerary, however, spells out all the details, i.e. flight numbers, departure times, ect., as well as describing planned activities. It should be delivered shortly before departure.
Land or Ground Operator - A company that provides local travel services.
Markup - Difference between the cost and the selling price of a given product. Difference between the net rate charged by a tour operator, hotel, or other supplier and the retail-selling price of the service. Generally a percentage of the net rate rather than a fixed amount, as in a 20 percent markup on the net.
Minimum Land Package - A minimum cost of ingredients that must be purchased to qualify a passenger for an airline inclusive tour fare. For example, a certain number of nights lodging, sightseeing and entertainment or some combination of service.
Modified American Plan - A sleeping room including breakfast and one other meal.
Motorcoach - A large, comfortable, well maintained bus that can transport groups and their luggage over long distances.
Net Rate - A rate to be marked up for eventual resale to the consumer.
Net Wholesale Rate - A rate usually slightly lower than the wholesale rate, applicable to groups of individuals when a hotel is specifically mentioned in a tour folder. Rate is marked up by wholesale sellers of tours to cover distribution, promotion, etc.
Override - An extra commission. Airlines pay overrides in conjunction with volume bookings. Wholesalers pay them as bonuses for volume business. Suppliers pay them to provide a profit margin for wholesalers. Hoteliers pay them as volume incentives to wholesalers.
Packager - Anyone who organizes a tour including prepaid transportation and travel services, usually to more than one destination.
Package Tour - A saleable travel product that offers an inclusive price with several travel elements that would otherwise be purchased separately.
Receptive Operator - A tour operator or travel agent specializing in services for incoming visitors.
Resort - Nearly all resorts are located in regions associated with recreation and leisure, such as mountains, seashore, and natural or man-made attractions. A resort hotel or motel offers, or is located near, facilities for sports and recreational activities such as tennis, swimming, sailing, etc.
Retail Agency - A travel company selling directly to the public.
Retailer - Middleman, such as travel agents, who sell directly to the consumer.
Seniors - Ages 60 and above.
Students - Under the age of 21.
Technical Tour - Tour designed for a special interest group, usually to visit a place of business with a common interest. The tour usually includes part business/part leisure and is customized.
Themed/Special Interest Tour - A tour designed around a specific theme to match the special interest of the participants such as fall foliage.
Tour Catalog - A publication produced by tour wholesalers listing all of their tour offerings. Catalogs are distributed to retail agents who make them available to their customers. Bookings by retail agents are commissionable.
Tourism - The business of providing and marketing services and facilities for travelers.
Tour Operator - A company that creates and/or markets inclusive tours and/or performs tour services and/or subcontracts their performance. Most tour operators sell through travel agents and directly to clients.
Tracking - A method for monitoring the number of tours that come into a specific hotel, restaurant, or area.
Vouchers - Documents issued by a tour operator to be exchanged for accommodations, meals, sightseeing, admission tickets, etc.
Wholesaler - A company that usually creates and markets inclusive tours and FITs for sale through travel agents. Often used interchangeably with 'tour operator,' but several distinctions might be drawn: 1) a wholesaler presumably sells nothing at retail; a tour operator often does both; 2) a wholesaler does not always create his or her own products; a tour operator virtually always does; 3) a wholesaler is less inclined than a tour operator to perform local services.
Young Adults - Ages 22 - 38.
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