Threats:
- Intense competition
- Canadian market is attracted for foreign investors.
- Walmart attracting their consumers with low prices
- Walmart taking over market and putting shops like the Super Store out of business
- Not being able to compete with Walmart because they have different strategies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Subject: Option 1
“Make an appointment with a travel agent and discuss the impact of the Internet on his/her travel agency. What challenges and opportunities are being encountered? How have training and educational requirements for travel agents changed? Have there been changes in the relationship between agents and customers? Etc. Based on your interview and your literature research. ”
Thanks: We wanted to thank Sophie Izard, who agreed to answer our questions and gave us precious assistance in writing this essay.

Introduction

Since the second half of the twentieth century, Internet has become today one of the most important tools for millions of businesses around the world. Currently, globalization and increasing demands from consumers have required companies to stay ahead, and therefore take the advantage offered by Internet. The development of the e-commerce or the improvements of information systems are some examples of impacts of Internet in business. In this essay, we are going to focus on the Tourism sector, and especially on the travel agencies.
A travel agency is a retail business specializes in making travel arrangements on behalf of other people. At times, the services of a travel agent can be extremely useful, because agents often have access to cheap fares, hotel deals, and other travel perks which average consumers cannot get on their own. (Wise Geek´s definition) The increased of Internet users has been an important change for this kind of business.
This essay will discuss the impact of Internet on travel agencies. In a first part, we will present an analysis of the challenges and opportunities that Internet offers, then, the training required for the travel agents and in a last part, how the internet has changed the relationship between consumers and agencies.
For a better understanding, each point will be separated into two parts, the first based on literature research and other based on the interview of a travel agent.
A. Presentation of the Interview

For this essay, we decided to interview a French travel agent. In order to facilitate the communication, we did the interview by e-mail.
The travel agent is Sophie Izard. She worked at Thomas Cook in Enghien-les-Bains, in the suburb of Paris. Created in 1841, Thomas Cook is a leader of the tourism sector all over the world. In 2012, the group realized a turnover of more than 11 billion of euros. (A propos de, Thomas Cook, 2010).
Sophie Izard worked at Thomas Cook for 33 years; she lived the development and arrival of internet in her agency.
In the following parts, she will explain the different changes of internet in her work, the different trainings needful and also the different impacts on the relationship with customers.
B. Challenges and opportunities
A. Literature Research

Today the Internet is one of the most important issues for travel agencies. On one side is an opportunity to use the large amount of users that exist on the web that can have access easily and also up to date, but on the other hand means a challenge from competitors and companies that sometimes don´t need to travel agencies as intermediaries, for example the airlines.
Research has demonstrated in addition to booking, online leisure travel travelers use the internet for three purposes: ideas, inspiration and information. (Roy A. Cook, Laura J. Yale and Joseph J. Marqua, 2010)
According to a survey conducted in February 2002, the United States is the first country in internet usage around the world, with 210.00.000 users at that time, and then is followed by China, Japan, India and Germany. (Roy