What is Facilitation in Tourism? Mention various Type of Facilitation.

Facilitation is a service available to a traveller by the travel agency to facilitate his travel. This is an important function of a travel agency which it offers generally as a courtesy service or for a nominal fee.

List of Various types of facilitation’s in tourism

Passport:

This is the most important document to travel abroad. The agency helps the travelers with obtaining proper forms and submit it to the passport office on behalf of the client as well as receive it from that office. It is an obligation of travel agency to check if

• There is an old passport.
• It is still valid and
• More pages are required for stamping in visa of different countries.

Visa:

After obtaining passport, a visa from each country of visit needs to be obtained to travel. Assistance of submission and collection of papers is done by the travel agency. But quite often some countries wish for a private interview with the travellers.

Health:

Travel agency needs to advise the traveller of the health regulations for travel such as requirement of cholera inoculation, yellow fever etc. An agency should give guidelines of what precautions to take while travelling and whether insurance is advisable.

Insurance:

Travel insurance specially for health is available in India for overseas travel and in some countries like Germany it is mandatory to have such insurance for the period of their stay.

Customs:

Each country has its own customs regulations and allows restricted quantity of items to be brought or taken along with personal baggage. The agency should inform its clients on the customs regulations specially of ones own country and some important features of other countries.

Immigration:

This is responsible to check and endorse final permission for the passenger to leave or enter the country. In India one of the important check is the:endorsement on the passport

Permits:

There are areas where your client will be visiting. It is the Agent’s responsibility to find out if he requires any special permission to visit the area.

Baggage:

The customer must be told in advance how much baggage can be carried free and the charges for excessive baggage. He should also know what items are not allowed in hand baggage. The procedures to be followed for baggage security checks like x-ray, baggage identification etc. should also be told particularly to the first time traveller.

Airport:

Because of rapid growth in air traffic, some cities may have more than one terminals, e.g. Delhi has three terminals i.e. Domestic Departure Terminal, Airbus Departure Terminal and International Departure Terminal-II. It is the duty of the agent to inform the passenger which terminal or airport to go to and which terminal or airport he will land.