108. Hostels: Accommodations where the facilities may be somewhat similar to dormitories, usually
associated with youth travel.
109. Hotel Garni: A term used to designate European hotels that do not have a restaurant.
110. Hub and Spoke Concept: A concept involving the establishment of a particular city as a central
point to which longer-haul flights are scheduled and which serves as a connecting point where other flights are deployed or made to smaller cities. The routing of schedules through a central connecting city ensures heavier passenger loads.
111. Incentive companies: Professional firms assisting clients with designing, promoting, and
executing of incentive travel programs.
112. Incentive Travel: Travel providing an incentive reward for sales or work performed by sales staff,
distributors, or members of other organizations when the sales or work performed exceeds particular quota levels.
113. Inclusive tour (IT): An advertised package or tour that includes accommodations and other
components such as transfers and sightseeing.
114. Independent Arbitration Panel: A panel of three independent persons with the authority to hear
appeals brought by agency organizations when the ARC has adapted rules or fee changes such organizations deem to be unreasonable.
115. Individually Owned Chain: Each member outlet, for example, hotel, restaurant, travel agency,
within the retail chain is individually owned but features common signage and advertising, following a unified marketing concept, and operates in a uniform manner.
116. In-plant Branch: An operation established by a travel agency to serve the client at its own
location but using the client’s own employees to do the agency work. In this situation, a split commission system is arranged.
117. Institute of Certified travel Agents (ICTA): An organization established in 1964 that is concerned
with developing and administering educational programs for travel agents, in order to confer professional certification.
118. Interline Agreements: Agreements involving two or more air carriers who cooperate on specific
actions such as interline travel rights and privileges or share airport facilities or other resources. 119. Intermodal: Using different types of transportation, as in a tour using a combination of rail, air,
and motorcoach services.
120. International Air Transport Association (IATA): A trade association of international airlines that
promotes a unified system of air transportation on international routes; sets fares and rates, safety standards, and condition of services; and appoints and regulates travel agents to sell international tickets.
121. International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN): The trade name of the Passenger
Network Services Corporation (PNSC) created by IATA as the international counterpart of the ARC in appointing and regulating travel agencies.
122. Itinerary: The travel schedule provided by a travel agent for his or her client. A proposed or
preliminary itinerary may be rather vague or very specific. A final itinerary, however, spells out all details—flight numbers, departure times, and so on – as well as describing planned activities. 123. Jitney: A car, Van, or small bus to carry a small number of passengers.
124. Joint Fare: A fare agreed upon by two or more carriers to provide service from origin to
destination, or a fare for an off-line connection (within a country).
125. Joint Marketing Organization: A company that markets the products of selected suppliers through
its ranks of member agencies.
126. Junket: (1) a promotional low-cost tour package offered by a particular sponsor such as a
gambling casino, hotel, or other travel supplier; (2) a nonessential trip usually taken at the expense of the public taxpayer.
127. Late-show: A passenger or customer holding a reservation who arrives at the check-in desk after
the designated time.
128. Limited-Service Travel Agency: An agency that specializes in selling only one type of travel
product, for example, domestic airline tickets, and generally offers discounted tickets as the primary basis for attracting clients.
129. Load Factor: The ratio, expressed as a percentage, of carrier capacity sold to total capacity
offered fro sale. The two most common measures are the number of paying passengers to number of available seats and the number of seat miles to revenue passenger miles. Example of the latter: If an airline operates 100,000 seat miles and its sales total is 50,000 revenue passenger miles, it is operating at a 50 percent load factor.
130. Meeting and Convention Planner: A professional consultant who specializes in the planning and
execution of conventions and business meetings.
131. Minimum Connecting Time: The amount of time required to change planes, established by
regulation.
132. Modified American Plan (MAP) A meal plan that includes two meals daily (usually breakfast
and dinner) with the price of accommodations.
133. Motorcoach: A bus designed to carry passengers for touring, frequently equipped with toilet
facilities.
134. National Tourism Office or Organization (NTO): Also known as National Tourism
Administration (NTA). The Primary government agency charged with the implementation of national goals and public policy with respect to tourism. 135. Net Rate: A wholesale rate before markup for resale.
136. 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 tour to cover distribution, promotion, and so on.
137. Nonscheduled Services: Revenue flights that are not operated in regular scheduled service, such
as charter flights and all non-revenue flights incident to such flights.
138. Official Airline Guide (OAG): A publication that provides current data on available airline
services between city-pairs. There is also an electronic edition of the OAG.
139. On-Time Performance: The number and percentage of aircraft, flights arriving on time, or flights
arriving within fifteen minutes of the carrier’s published scheduled arrival time for any specified flight or group of flights during any specified period.
140. Open Jaw: An arrangement, route, or fare, authorized in a tariff, granting the traveling public the
privilege of purchasing round-trip transportation from the point of origin to one destination at which another form of transportation is used to a second destination, at which point the passenger resumes the original form of transportation and returns to the point of origin; or from such destination to another destination that is in the general direction of the original starting point. 141. Option: A tour extension or side trip offered at extra cost.
142. Out-plant Operation: An operation where the agency client performs most of its own itinerary
work, then transmits the information to the agency, with the agency doing the actual ticketing. The commission is generally split according to a negotiated arrangement between the client and the agency.
143. Overbooking: The practice of preselling more hotel rooms (or airline seats) than the hotel (or
airline) has to offer.
144. Override Commission: An additional commission paid above the normal commission to travel
agents by suppliers based on incremental quantity or volume of sales.
145. Package: Prearranged elements of a trip such as hotel accommodations, meals, sightseeing, and
transfers, less inclusive than a tour.
146. Parador: A Spanish word referring to castles, abbeys, or other historic buildings that have been
restored for use as lodging accommodations.
147. Passenger Name Record (PNR): The record of an airline reservation stored in a computerized
airline reservation system. The record contains all pertinent information such as passengers’ names, travel times, flight numbers, and cost of ticket.
148. Passenger Network Services Corporation (PNSC): See IATAN.
149. Passenger ships: Ships whose primary purpose is to transport people from one destination to
another as opposed to simply pleasure cruising.
150. Passport: Issued by national governments to their citizens for out-of-country travel as verification
of their citizenship.
151. Pension: A French word widely used in Europe meaning guest house or boarding house. 152. Person-Night: A statistical term denoting one paying guest staying one night at a destination. 153. Preferred Supplier Program: An arrangement whereby an agent, working in concert with a
supplier, agrees to give preference to that supplier’s travel products. In turn, the agent gets incremental commissions or overrides above the standard.
154. Principal: The dominant participant in any given situation. More Specifically in travel: (1) a
primary producer of any unit of travel merchandise—an airline, a hotel, a shipline; (2) any person (or company) who assumes responsibility for a travel program; (3) anyone who pays a commission to another for selling a travel program.
155. Queue System: An electronic ticketer file common to airline reservation systems; can be thought
of as an electronic mailbox or card file in which carriers place messages for the agent and agents place messages for themselves.
156. Rack Rate: The practice of charging, demanding, collecting, or receiving less compensation for
air transportation, or for nay service in connection therewith, than the rates, fares, or charges specified in the air carrier’s currently effective tariffs.
157. Recreational Vehicle (RV): A motorized self-contained camping trailer or a truck or van used fro
traveling. Also an off-the-road vehicle such as a dirt bike or dune buggy. 158. Regional Carrier: A carrier serving a particular area only.
159. Retail Travel Agency: A travel agency that sells travel products on a retail basis on behalf of his
or her principals—airlines, cruise lines, hotels, car rentals, and so on—for a commission to the general public.
160. Reentry Permit: A document allowing alien residents to return from trips outside the country. 161. SABRE: The Computer Reservation System developed by American Airlines and introduced in
1976. (Acronym stands fro Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment.)
162. Sailing Permit: A document required of U.S. Residents having ―resident alien‖ status who are
traveling abroad, attesting that they are not delinquent in the payment of any income tax liability. 163. Satellite ticket Printer (STP): A printer at another location other than the main premises that can
dispense tickets for travel products for travel agencies.
164. Seasonality: High and low seasonal fluctuations in market demand due to the time-of-year
specifics of the area’s attractions and their ability to attract visitors.
165. Self-Drive: A car hired to clients without the driver. Conditions of hire vary from agency to
agency and may be based either on mileage or on an hourly or daily basis. 166. Side Trip: An optional trip offered to participants of a tour.
167. Sightseeing Company: A local tour bus company providing guided sightseeing in a city, town,
area, and so on.
168. Sightseeing Tour: A tour within the city limits showing clients the main places of interest, scenic
and historic places, churches, museums, monuments, and so on.
169. Sliding Commission Scale: A commission system whereby the percentage of commission to a
travel agent increases as the volume of sales of a particular supplier increases.
170. Special Fare: In contrast to normal fares, special fares have various restrictions—for instance,
advance purchase, specified length of stay, limited or no schedule change privileges, and limited or no cancellation rights.
171. Special Interest Tour: A prearranged, packaged itinerary designed to appeal to or respond to a
request by a group of persons who have a particular interest area of study or activity, for example, culture and the arts, sports, preservation, wilderness, shopping, cuisine, and so on.
172. Stockholder Licensee Group: A corporation whose members are stockholders, providing a
vertically integrated format, with an elected board of directors to ultimately judge the business decisions of management and to whom management reports.
173. Structure Fare: The particular fare charged for trips of varying distances and the relationship
between coach fares and fares for the other classes of service. The manner in which the fare level should be distributed to, and recouped from, the passenger transport services operated by the air carriers. Used most often in rate making.
174. Subscriber-Based Network: An organization that provides subscriptions such as airline and hotel
guides and publications such as hotel facility listings to travel agencies for their corporate travelers.
175. Suite: A living room connected to one or more bedrooms.
176. Supplier: One who offers the products or services sold through the travel retailers or in some
cases directly to the public.
177. Supporting Document: Any document used as supporting evidence in a transaction—for instance,
a birth certificate, health certificate, passport, visa, voter registration card, military discharge papers, and so on.
178. Through Fare: The total fare from point of origin to destination, which may be a local fare, a joint
fare, or a combination of separately established fares.
179. Ticket Stock: The supply of tickets an agency keeps on hand and for which the agency has legal
responsibility.
180. Timesharing: The concept dividing the ownership and use of a lodging property among several
investors; generally each timesharing purchaser is able to use the unit for a specified interval (for example, two weeks) each year for a specified period of time.
181. Tourism Plant: Facilities, amenities, and services explicitly built and provided for tourst use in a
given area.
182. Tourist: A temporary visitor staying at least twenty-four hours in the country visited and the
purpose of whose journey can be classified as leisure—recreation, holiday, health, study, religion, sport, business, family, mission, or meeting.
183. Tour Basing Fare: A reduced-rate excursion fare available only to those who buy prepaid tours or
packages, including inclusive tour, group inclusive tour, incentive group, contract bulk inclusive tour, tour basing, and group round-trip inclusive tour basing fares.
184. Tour Breakage: Usually operators’ fixed cost items such as meals, transfers, admissions, and so
on, costed into the package but not used by the purchaser. Tour operators often put an estimated percentage return of breakage in their costing elements. Breakage may represent either increased cost efficiency or extra profit for the operator.
185. Tour Broker: A person or company that organizes and markets tour products.
186. Tour Desk: The desk at a hotel or airline that is used for selling tours and packages.
187. Tour Escort: A person designated as the leader of the tour group, usually for the entire travel
experience, although he or she may be assisted by other guides.
188. Tour Operator: An operator that provides services including responsibility for the delivery and/or
operation of all facets of the tour, usually providing an escort. Tour operators may also be wholesalers as well as local operators.
189. Tour Package: A joint service that gives a traveler a significantly lower price for a combination
of services than could be obtained if each had to be purchased separately by the traveler. Thus, the total price of a tour package might include a round-trip plane ticket, hotel accommodations, meals, sightseeing bus tours, and admission fees.
190. Transfers: The services of transportation from an airport, railway station, or other terminal to the
hotel of the clients.
191. Travel Advisory: A caution issued by some authoritative body, for example, the State
Department or a foreign ministry, regarding the safety, changing conditions, or practices of a specific travel destination that may be detrimental or harmful to travelers from the advisory body’s country.
192. Travel Agent Arbiter: Person designated with the responsibility to rule on ARC complaints
against individual travel agents and also individual agents’ complaints against ARC.
193. Travel Agent Commission: The payment by airlines and other travel suppliers to a travel agent of
specified amounts of money (usually a percentage) as compensation for the agent’s sales of travel products.
194. Travel Agents’ Handbook: A manual published by IATAN setting forth procedures and
guidelines for IATAN-appointed agencies.
195. Traveler Profile: Characteristics describing various travel market segments.
196. Travel Industry: The composite of organizations, both public and private, involved in the
development, production, distribution, and marketing of products and services to serve the needs of travelers.
197. Travel Industry Distribution System: The process of moving travel products and services from
suppliers to ultimate consumers.
198. Travel Insurance: Regular insurance tailored to cover travelers and their personal effects. May be
sold by a regular broker; however, most travel agents and tour carrier personnel are specially licensed insurance agents with the power to issue such policies and immediately bind the insurance company.
199. Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP): A credit card program operated by airlines, primarily fro
frequent travelers.
200. VFR: Classification of travelers whose purpose for travel is to visit friends and relatives.
201. Videotex: An electronic transmission process whereby written and image material is displayed on
a video screen.
202. Visa: An endorsement on a passport or document used in lieu of a passport by a consular official
indicating that the bearer may gain entry into the country of issue.
203. Voucher: document to be exchanged for goods or services, substantiating that payment has
already been made. Also called an exchange order.
204. Wagon-Lit: A European Pullman. A sleeping car on European railroads, consisting of a private
bedroom, including pillows, blankets, and a sink, to accommodate one or two people.
205. Wholesaler: A company that usually creates and markets inclusive tours and packages or buys
services in bulk for sale (or resale) 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 own products; a tour operator virtually always does. (3) A wholesaler is less inclined than a tour operator to perform local services. Industry distinctions for this term are far from clear; many travel companies perform any or all of the functions of travel agent, contractor, tour operator, and wholesaler.
206. Wide-Bodied Aircraft: A generic and commonly used term applied to any and all of the newest
generation of jet aircraft with a fuselage diameter exceeding 200 inches and a per-engine thrust greater than 30,000 pounds (for example, Boeing 747, McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Lockheed L-1011).