BOGAZICI UNIVERSITYSCHOOL OF APPLIED DISCIPLINES

TOURISM ADMINISTRATION

INTERNSHIP THESIS

Student: Neşe RomanInternship Organization : Setur Servis Turistik A.Ş.

Advisor : Duygu Salman Öztürk

CONTENTS

Preface……………………………………………………………………………..1

Introduction………………………………………………………………………..2

Incoming Department……………………………...……………………………....4

1.1. Corporate Business………………………………………………………........5

1.2. Sa / Ugm / Gta Business……………………………………………………....6

1.3. Koç Family & Private Groups Business……………………………………....7

Setur Incoming Department SWOT Analysis…………………………………......8

Evaluation………………………………………………………………………...11

References………………………………………………………………………...13

Appendix

Chart 1…………………………………………………………………………….14

Chart 2…………………………………………………………………………….15

Table 1…………………………………………………………………………….16

PREFACE

This thesis is written to provide information about SETUR and its

incoming department. The author, who interned at the incoming

department of the travel agency, aims to compare her theoretical

information with her internship experience.

Thanks to MURAT ABAMOR (Incoming Deparment Director ), SABRİ

GÖREN (Incoming Department Supervisor), BEYZA KUTUN (Internship

Advisor) for their support.

INTRODUCTION

SETUR SERVİS TURİSTİK A.Ş.

Setur was founded by Koç Holding in 1964, upon the enactment of a

legislation, which enabled duty free services to be practiced in Turkey. While

Setur Servis Turistik A.Ş., was only a duty free service provider initially, later,

in early 1970’s it became the Turkish agent of Diners Fugazy Travel, founded

by Diners Club and thus, took its first step into the tourism sector. Mid 1970s

its name was changed to Setur World Travel. By the end of the 1970s, the

company became "Setur Seyahat Acentesi" and tourism activities were

accelerated.

Today, domestic and foreign tour operations; IATA ticketing; congress and

seminar organisations and other local services make up the base of the tourism

services Setur provides. Also Setur is the authorised retail agent of The Cruise

Line, Costa Cruise and Orient Express products in Turkey. The company has

acquired BookinTurkey.com, the biggest on-line tourism portal in Turkey, in

2003 and has started expanding on the Internet sector as well.

Setur, with its many agencies providing tourism services all over Turkey, with

almost 100 retail and online agents, with duty free shops and with over 560

employees.

INCOMING DEPARTMENT

Incoming department was established in 1970s. It works under the control of

the incoming and outgoing operations which directly depend on GM/ Tourism.

It organises private and business meetings, tour programs, flight tickets and

daily excursions of individuals and/or groups who come from abroad, with

experienced and professional guides.

Setur also serves the customers of the most important tour operators of U.S.A,

Europe and Far East in Turkey.

Setur’s incoming department works with Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA)

which is one of the world's leading wholesalers of hotels and SA Tours which

is one of the largest and most renowned travel and tour operators in

Singapore.

The deparment has three employees supervised by one manager. (Chart 2)

Every employee has different job categories. These can be listed as Corporate

Business, SA / UGM / GTA Business and Koç Family Business.

1.1.Corporate Business:

With the advances in information technology, Setur offers the biggest on-

line tourism portal which ables corporate firms to make their own

reservations. Today many of the companies have meetings and trainings.

This means they spend big chunks of money and time to plan for these

areas. Bookingturkey system provides user friendly menus and an easy

reservation program. Corporate firms are able to see room rates at hotels.

Mostly the HR or corporate communication departments use this program

and they make the reservation for their employees and wait for

confirmation which is done by Setur. The incoming department’s staff, sees

this reservation demand, checks the hotel, arranges transportation and

confirms the reservation.

1.2.SA / UGM / GTA Business :

Sinoamerica (SA) is the largest tour operator in Singapore. Uniglobal

Exotic is one of region’s leading wholesale travel operators specializes in

the Middle East, North Africa, East Europe, Russia and CIS region.

Gullivers Travel Associates GTA offers the largest selection of hotel

accommodation and local services at highly competitive prices. This is

available to the travel industry via the company's unique Web-based

reservations system. Setur works with this three different tour operators

and the Department Manager prepares different quotations for every tour

group. (Table 1) . Depending on the annual agreements with hotels, he

determines the rates for the group size and decides the profit margin.

When the quotation is done, the responsible staff begins to search

appropriate accommodation and transportation facilities. He/she finds the

hotel, hires the guide and bus in accordance with the quotation. Then the

tour program will be ready to start.

1.3.Koç Family & Private Groups Business

Koc Holding companies and members of the Koc family are also SETUR's

primary clients. All Koc Holding companies arrange their

employees' official business trips through SETUR. Additionaly, the Koc

family uses SETUR for their personal travels. Also any travel and lesiure

activities such as yacht tours, accomodating overseas guests of the family

are also being done through SETUR.

SETUR INCOMING DEPARTMENT’S

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

As a subsidiary of Koç Holding, SETUR has a strong and reliable

organizational structure.

Contrary to short lived travel agencies in a volatile incoming market

SETUR’s incoming department exists for a long time.

SETUR gives priority to Far East countries and aims to be in top five

travel agencies doing business in that market.

SETUR has established a strong and long term relationship with its tour

operator Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA).

SETUR has maintained a sustainable and reliable working environment

with its suppliers.

The technological infrastructure between SETUR and GTA is above

world standards.

SETUR has a worldwide sales network.

WEAKNESSESS

Corporate laws create extra legal burden on SETUR and these legal

responsibilities affects its competitiveness adversely.

SETUR depends on only one tour operator.

SETUR focuses only on Far East market.

As per the exclusivity agreement signed with GTA, marketing activities

are being carried by only this operator for SETUR.

A heavier corporate structure slows down SETUR’s operations and

responsiveness to the changing conditions.

SETUR has higher operating expenses compare to its competitors.

OPPORTUNITIES

The partnership between SETUR’s tour operator GTA and the biggest

tourism group CENDANT will create new markets and new

opportunities for the company.

Cheap ticket prices and the increased number of charter firms declaring

Turkey as a destination country will bring new business opportunities

for SETUR.

SETUR will take advantage of new trends in tourism as the industry

moves away from group operations to online sales and individual

businesses.

THREATS

Due to national political and economical conditions, Turkey still is not a

brand name in the tourism industry.

Regional political uncertainties adversely affect Turkey’s tourism

potential.

Travelers nowadays prefer shorter and regional destinations, rather

than faraway places.

EVALUATION

As an intern, I have worked for the incoming department of Setur Travel

Agency. During my internship, I analyzed company’s hr department, and

work flow of the incoming department.

HR department does not perform well. Their recruitment process based on

nepotism and this creates a distributing work environment. Every employee is

doubtful about their career pathway. From their point of view, every new staff

can be a threat for their job. They are not helpful and friendly to new comers

and most of them are scared of loosing their jobs. It is really difficult to get

used to work in this office environment. HR department does not offer

training programs , coaching or social benefits to employee. It is very common

to face with mobbing cases. For instance, I have seen that high school interns

have exposed to work place terror. One of them injured by a worker in the

elevator. HR department did not care, there was no warning. Also in the

company workers are motivated by impressive work titles. But there is no

difference in terms of their salaries. The other interesting thing is that the

sales department’s salaries do not depend on premiums.

The organizational structure is flat. There is few or no levels of intervening

management between staff and managers. Generally staffs are directly

involved in decision making process rather than supervised by many layers of

management.

The incoming department is the kitchen of tourism. All products are ready to

combine for incoming tour groups. Tour programs are prepared by incoming

staff depending on the culture and nationality of the tourist group. The hotels,

restaurants and guides are chosen carefully for the incoming group. They

organize everything in the office and do not see anything. When the tourism

product is ready to consume, nobody sees the consumer behavior in incoming

department.

REFERENCES

www.setur.com

CHART 1: ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL MANAGER

VICE GM / DUTY FREE

VICE GM / FINANCIAL

VICE GM / TOURISM

Dir. Business Development

Dir.Tourism product develoment and

purchasing

Coor. Sales & Marketing and

Corporate Com.

Dir.Human Resources

Dir. Information Technology

Dir. Internal Audit

Dir.Ticket Sales & Call

Center

Dir. Incoming and

Outgoing Operations

Dir. Incoming Department

Dir. BookingTurkey

Dir.General

Accounting

Dir.Budget Planning

and Finance

Dir. Group Marketing

Dir. Regional Sales

Dir. Convention &

Meetings

Dir. Tour Sales

Dir.Visa

Dir. UK Visa

CHART 2 : Departmental Organization Chart

Department Manager

Corporate BusinessSa / UGM / GTA

BusinessKoç Family Business

Supervisor