Wholesalers are companies that promote and on-sell your product via the domestic and international travel agent network. Quite often wholesalers will have a preferred chain or group of agents that they work through.  

Wholesalers source accommodation, transport, tours and attractions, negotiate a rate and produce a brochure, which is the major sales tool used by travel agents.

Wholesalers also select individual product elements, link them with other complementary products to form packages, then present and distribute them in a brochure. For this service suppliers pay a commission.

Some of Australia’s major domestic wholesalers include Qantas Holidays, Virgin Blue Holidays, Great Aussie Holidays, Travelpoint Holidays and Creative Holidays.

The standard domestic wholesale commission is 25 per cent, 10 per cent of which is passed on to travel agents. The remaining 15 per cent is retained by the wholesaler to help cover the costs of:

• Central reservations system, including product loading and maintenance.
• Telephone/fax/email  
• Collateral (brochures and flyers)
• Marketing, including advertising and distribution
• Online booking system.

If you wish to work with wholesalers it is important to consider your ability to offer an allotment (more relevant to accommodation and tours), and/or freesale reservations, with a negotiated release back of unsold product.

Increasingly wholesalers also require a participation fee for product to be loaded into their central reservations system (CRS) and to be featured in their brochure.

Overseas travel wholesalers will often use inbound tour operators (ITO), who are Australian-based and act as the conduit for the wholesalers. There is an extra level of commission when dealing through an ITO.

Overseas wholesalers can come direct to the product in Australia and in this case the extra commission does not apply.

Travel Agents

Retail travel agents are the shop front of the travel industry and an important distribution outlet. Travel agents sell mainly product contained in wholesale brochures. Some travel agents work with a number of wholesalers, although increasingly they have preferred relationships with wholesalers and have little flexibility to sell other product.

For example, Harvey World Travel is a Qantas Holidays preferred agency network. Their agents predominantly sell products that are loaded into their CRS, hence the importance of being in a wholesaler’s brochure.

Retail travel agents are paid a commission, approximately 10 per cent, for bookings.