The Tourism Intermediation System: The Relationship between Travel Agencies and Tour Operators

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the characteristics of the relationships between travel agencies (TA) and tour operators (TO). Through an empirical analysis, we highlight the weight, the number, and the duration of the relationships that are created in the Italian tourism intermediation system. An empirical research was conducted on a sample of Italian travel agencies (202, covering all of the regions in Italy). Results show that, although the products supplied by TOs are fundamental to the realization of TA turnover, in most cases channel relationships are of short duration and highly variable. This could mean that vertical channel relationships do not sufficiently exploit areas of potential cooperation.
Classification-JEL:
Keywords: Travel agencies; Tour operators; Tourism; Business to business; Disintermediation