Tourism agencies and department coordination

It is very rare to find a travel agency that closes its year with numbers in the red, but the reality is that they could close it much better.

To achieve a higher profit margin, it is important to understand that coordination is the process of integrating the objectives and activities of interdependent units (departments or functional areas) of a company to efficiently achieve organizational goals. Without coordination, individuals and departments would lose sight of their roles at the center of the organization.

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Let us bear in mind that the need for coordination of each tourism company depends on the nature and the communication requirements of the activities carried out, as well as the degree of interdependence of the areas that carry them out. When areas (or units) require information flow, what is best is a high degree of coordination.

Based on these concepts, let's think about what is the most common Departmentalization style in a travel agency. Let us remember that the department can be made up of a single person and we are not necessarily talking about organizations with hundreds of members. The most widely used departmentalization is function-based, where each department is dedicated to a specific task or set of tasks.

It is important to bear in mind that huge amounts of documentation are produced by travel agencies: Where? Throughout the entire process of assembly, assistance, sale, and development of the trip. This documentation must flow harmoniously through the different departments of the company and is consulted and expanded at each step of the process (be careful with duplication of information).

All this amount of information must be managed by different hands and departments, which, if they are not well coordinated and procedural, generates great interdepartmental barriers, a decrease in the efficiency percentage of activities completed (delivered) vs. total activities, and time inefficiency (lower productivity and longer waiting time for the customer).

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Through information management, all companies share their values, vision, and objectives internally and between their areas of relationship in the market. This helps ensure that staff is aligned with corporate strategy and that teams are effective, productive, and flexible enough to successfully achieve strategic goals. Therefore, taking care of and formally managing communication is essential for the health of organizations.

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Most of the problems in travel agencies are directly related to poor planning and management of internal communication and workflow design. Failure to resolve these issues on time due to lack of knowledge, analysis, appropriate tools, or a professional approach compromises the organization and will end up having consequences on the results. The problems you have to deal with are:

• Difficulty in the detection of errors, caused by the stagnation of information or its lack of scaling (delay in reporting, data curation, etc.).
• Disorientation and difficulties in aligning staff with the agency's strategy.
• Delays in the planning of travel projects, due to having to repeat tasks.
• Difficulties in the circulation of travel and passenger information.
• Mistrust about the transmission of knowledge between departments of the agency.
• Problems of adaptation and updating to changes in status or prices of trips.
• Saturation of unproductive task management activity.
• The lack of collaboration spaces reduces staff motivation.
• Difficulty in managing the knowledge of the status of each trip (empty, available, complete).
• Complexity in effective decision making.

Fluid interdepartmental communication provides coherence and integration between objectives, plans, and actions. Travel agencies that think it has strategic importance and communicate fluently, make sure that the goals and objectives are well understood by everyone, and can develop all their abilities in a completely natural way.

Most of the problems in tourism companies are related to poor formal management of interdepartmental communication. Conflicts and situations are generated that damage efficiency, productivity, and the work environment. Failure to resolve these communication problems in time causes consequences that end up affecting the business objectives and benefits of the organization, as well as its communication, reputation, and company image.

It is key to understand that travel agencies must evolve towards more coordinated, flexible companies, without so many organizational complexes, with the focus on achieving the objectives set and not falling into the silos of organizational information of yesteryear.