TSOM / BTTM 2nd sem TU /Chapter 6-7

Chapter-6

Documentation in tourism

6.1. File:

A folder or box for holding loose papers that are typically arranged in a particular order for easy reference.

6.2. Filing:

Filing means keeping documents in a safe place and being able to find them easily and quickly. Documents that are cared for not easily tear, get lost or dirty are calling filing.

A filing system is the central record-keeping system for an organization. IT helps to be organized, systematic, efficient and transparent. It also helps all people who should be able to access information to do so easily.

It is always a pleasure. When someone looks for something and is Able to find it without difficulties. In an organization people work in groups. They receive and send out documents on different subjects. And they need to keep these documents subjects. And they need to keep this document for future reference.

If these documents are not cared for, we cannot account for all our organizational activities. Everyone who needs to use documents should know where to get them.

6.3. When do we file?

This depends on how busy an office is .In very busy organizations filing is done at least every day and usually first thing in the morning. In a small or less busy office it could be done once or twice a week.

6.4. Equipment used for filing:

• Filing cabinet: It is used to keep flat files and suspension or hanging files.
• Steel cabinet: It is used to keep big files that need to be locked up.
• Date stamp: It is used to date stamp documents that are received on daily basis so that they are filed in chronological order and so we have a record of when we received the document.
• Register: It is used to record files taken out and files returned.
• Filing shelves: It is used to file box files.
• Box files: This is a big file that is used to keep big documents that cannot go into a filing cabinet. They are kept in shelves.

6.5. What files are used and how are they used?

Clip folders: They are used for documents that need to be taken out very often; they hold documents highly so that they do not fall out.

Folders:  Paper or Cardboard folders are used to keep loose document together. The folder is placed inside suspension or box files.

Suspension file: The suspension files are used to keep documents in filing cabinets. The file is put into the drawers upright. The suspension files hangs down from the cradle. These files are always remaining in the cabinets but folders inside them can be taken out.

Box files: They are used to keep big documents including magazines and books.

Lever arch files: Documents are kept firm in these files and allow one to look at documents without taking them out of the file.

6.6. Method of filing

There are 5 methods of filing;

1. Filing by subject/ category.
2. Filing in Alphabetical order
3. Filing by Number/ Numerical order
4. Filing by Places/ Geographical order
5. Filing by dates/ Chronological order.

These ways of filing is called classification and means organizing things that are alike, together. One can, however, combine some of these methods. For example, files that are kept together according to the subject but, inside each file the documents could be filed according to date order.

6.7. Objectives of filing:

Qualities of good filing

The word filing means keeping the records in files. The method of sorting, arranging and storing records to ensure quick location for reference is called filing. Filing is regarded as the keystone of business organization because files are the memory house of information for the business. Good filing system is one, which ensures speed and accuracy in reference. The following are the essentials of good filing system.

1. a)It should be simple to understand and handle.
2. b)It should ensure easy and quick reference of records.
3. c)It should be economical.
4. d)It should be compact so that it can make proper use of space.
5. e)It should facilitate cross reference of records.
6. f)It should be made up to date.
7. g)It should b flexible.

6.8. Types of files basically: Types of files basically handled by the correspondence department of a travel agency:

1. Guest file

1). Master file: A file that contains all the documents related t a travel of a particular pax/ group right from the first inquiry of a guest until the closing of a file. The documents here include inquiry letter, costing sheet, booking slips confirmation copies, copy of invoice, bank deposit voucher, payment receipt etc. This is very important file to a travel agency as all the correspondence is kept in it. If the file is lost, it will be very difficult to retrieve all the documents again. That is why the master file is not taken out but kept safe in the office.

2). Operation file: An operation file is another important guest file that works as a summary of a master file. It is opened once the tour or trekking is confirmed. Few days prior to guest are arrival. This file contains the important documents via, final itinerary, placard; service vouchers, airlines tickets, invoice, receipt etc. It is handled by the tour officer and closed immediately after the departure of guest/ group.

1. Inquiry file:All the inquiries received by the agent is replied and kept in the inquiry file. If there is seen an opportunity of business then the documents are shifted to master file.
2. Agent file:It is an individual file opened for each agency like international travel agencies, local travel agencies, regional travel agencies, hotels, and transport companies guide agencies, trekking agencies, rafting agencies etc. All the correspondence done with an agency is kept in it including the rafters, tariffs provided by them. These files are treated as very confidential files.
3. Feedback file:  The form filled up by the guest at the end of the tour/ programmed evaluating the services is kept in the feedback file. This file is used as a reference and a decision making tool for the future.
4. Schedule and timetable file:The schedule and timetables published by airlines, cruses, trains, and transport associations are kept in this file.
5. Foreign exchange file:Documents related to foreign currency exchange should be kept in separate files as government imposes different rules for the same. In Nepal, there is different process and procedure to deal with foreign currency, set by Nepal Rastra Bank. So files should be maintained properly.

Other files that are maintained by travel agency are

1. Staff salary file: Staff salary on monthly basis is maintained in a separate file.
2. Tax file: Each and every agency should abide by the rules and regulations of the government Tax is one of the important aspects of any business and it is inevitable. The tax should be paid on timely basis and the tax clearance documents need to be filed in a systematic manner.

6.9. Importance of filing system:

If the office is in a mess and one doesn’t know where to start when it comes to filing away all the files and documents. If this is the situation, it won’t be an easy task to sort the mess out. For this it is necessary that one should have some kind of office filling or scheduling system that keeps the office organized.

Organize and bring in uniformity. Documents need to be filed away in a proper order so that when a particular document is needed it can be found in no time. Offices are required to store files and documents so they cannot just be thrown away. These may be records of the transactions that the company gas made throughout the years, all the accounts and annual reports of the company, important bank account details of the company and client details.

If these documents are kept in a hazard way, the company will not be able to find them when they are required. These documents may be needed as proof. In case the company is involved in some and of a low suit.

7.0. Vouchers: A travel voucher is a form used by business travelers to keep track of their travel expenses. At the end of the trip or another convenient interval, the traveler turns in the voucher to a representative of the employer. This allows the employer to compensate the traveler for any of pocket expenses. Another kind of travel voucher is provided by travel companies when a pre-purchased trip is not available such as a canceled airline flight. The traveler can redeem the voucher for another trip at a later time.

Aside from tourism, business is one of the most common reasons for people to travel. Unless they are directly involved in the transportation field, most arrangements for employees. Instead, they allow the employee to take care of the details of the journey. Once the trip is done the employee will turn in a travel voucher with an itemized list of all expenses. Some companies required employees to turn in applicable receipts along with the voucher.

The travel voucher is a commonly used in the airline industry and to a lesser extent, by other travels companies as well. There are many reasons why passengers may be prevented from taking flights they have already purchased. A flight may be canceled or delayed, or it may be overbooked, meaning there are more ticketed passengers than there are seats in the plane. These events are not the fault of the passenger and sometimes are not within the control of the airline. In these cases, the airline may offer a voucher for a later flight.

In the case of an overbooked flight the airline will sometimes ask for volunteers to take later flight. If the next flight does not go out until the following day, the airline will often offer to compensate the passenger for an overnight stay in a nearby hotel, as well as providing a travel voucher. If a traveler has no pressing need to reach a destination immediately this common procedure can actually work out to the passenger’s advantage.

7.1. Type of vouchers:

1. A) Hotel voucher:A voucher is issued by a travel agency requesting a hotel to provide the services mentioned in it. Voucher assures the hotel that the payment is secured and it will be paid by the travel agency on behalf of the client.

1. B) Service voucher:A voucher that is sent to any service providing agency by a travel agency or touring company. When a tour is agreed by the guest and service agencies also confirmed the space and services the travel agency collects payment from the guest. After receiving the payment the travel agency issues Service Voucher (Service Order) to the service agencies. The original copy is carried by the guest to get the services and duplicates copy is sent to the service agencies. It proofs that the guest has made the payment. Now guest does not need to carry the money. It can be used for money transfer purpose. It guarantees the service to the guest and business to the agency. A service order serves the problem created by “here and there”.

ABC Travel and Tours

Kantipath, Kathmandu

   Tel: ...............................

Email: ……………………….

Website: ………………….

                                               SERVICE ORDER

Exchange order no o65

Date: ……………

File no: ………..

To ……………………..

Name of Pax: …………………….

Required Date: ………… Required nights: …………..  No of Pax: ……………………………..

Gender: …………..                                            Age: ……………..

Room- SGL: ………  DBL: ………… TPL: ………… Others: ……..

Meal plan- EP: ……….. BB: ………..MAP: ……….. AP: …………….

Special service requested ……………………

In exchange for this voucher please provide ………………………………………

And collect all the extras directly.

Arrival Date: ………….. By …………… From………………………..

Departure Date: …………………….. By …………. To ……………..

 (AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE AND AGENCY STAMP)                       

…………………………………………………………………………

Chapter-seven

Frontier Formalities

7.1. Introduction

Frontier formalities in general refer to the rule and regulations to be followed by any tourist or foreign nationals rather than his own place of origin. Formalities refer to the rules and regulation implemented by the government or the authorities at the destination. It includes passport, visa, health check document and other travel relate documents. In travel field, travel information manual is required to know the information about frontier formalities.travel information manual is a book issued by IATA with 122 members in publishing day to day regulation regarding travel in various parts of the world which instructs the travelers to abide by this. Travel information manual (TIM) is that book which informs individuals or traveler on the type of passport, visa regulations, health certificates, customs regulation, currency regulations, airport taxes, weather conditions, type of clothing and other miscellaneous information a traveler might need at the destination. In short, travel information manual is a handy book for a traveler which serves as a guide for movement. This applies mainly to air travel where embarkation and disembarkation activities have a meaningful action at the destination. In any country, general identification of its public is of great value which can be easily marked by the type of passports, and travel documents issued in favor of an individual by the concerned government. While dealing with passport any travel agency or a tour operator should be well acquainted with different type of passport and visa. International community has categorized passport of different categories.

                     In the international field, man’s movement has to be identified on the basis of nationality, the profession one has and the time to be spent at the destination for a rules of the country visited or to be visited. The UN convention of 1963 has amended the general rules on passport of 1878 to read as, “A passport is a legal identification provided by the government or the operatives of the originating country to its citizen recognized as a bonafide dweller of a country. This permit an individual to move outside its perimeters provided, a visa is issued by a concerned government of the destination. It has also classified different types of passport to be recognized by the universal community or the government at different destination.

7.2. Passport

A passport is a document, issued by a government to its citizens, which certifies the identity and nationality of its holder for the purpose of international travel. The element of identify contained in all standardized passports include information about the holder, including name, date of birth, gender,  place of issue, date of expiry and place of birth.

A passport does not of itself entitle the passport holder entry neither into another country nor to consular protection while abroad nor any other privileges. It does however normally entitles the passport holder to return to the country that issued the passport. Rights to consular protection arise from international treaties, while the bearer’s right to return to the passport’s country of issue depends on the laws of the issuing country. A passport does not represent the right or the place of residence of the passport holder in the country that issued the passport.

7.3. Types of passport

A rough standardization exists in types of passports throughout the world, although passport types, number of pages and definitions can vary by country.

• Ordinary passport(tourist passport , regular passport):

It is issued to citizens and other nationals and generally the most issued type of passport. Sometimes it is possible to have children registered within the ordinary passport of the parent, rendering the passport functionally equal to a family passport.

• Official passport (service passport, special passport):

It is issued to diplomats and other government officials for work-related international travel and to accompanying dependents. Although most persons with diplomatic immunity carry diplomatic passports, having a diplomatic immunity. A grant of diplomatic immunity has to come from the government of the country in relation to which diplomatic status is claimed. Also having diplomatic passport does not mean visa free travel. A holder of a diplomatic passport must obtain a non-diplomatic visa when travelling to a country where he is not currently nor is giving to be accredited a diplomat, if visas are required to nationals of his country.

In exceptional circumstance, a diplomatic passport is given to a foreign citizen with no passport of his own, such as an exiled VIP who lives, by invitation in a foreign country. This is the case of King Constantine II of Greece who has travelled on diplomatic passports for Denmark (the ancestral home of his royal house) and Spain (the adopted country of his sister queen sofa).

• Emergency passport (Temporary passport):

Emergency passport is issued to persons whose passports were lost or stolen and who do not have time to obtain replacements passports. Sometimes Laissez passer is used for this purpose.

• Collective passport:

It is issued to defined groups for travel together to particular destinations, such as a group of school children on a school trip to a specified country.

• Family passport:

Family passport is issued to family members –father, mother, son, and daughter. There is one passport holder. The passport may travel alone or with one or more other family members. A family member who is not the passport holder cannot use the passport for travel unless accompanied by the passport holder. Travel document in passport- booklet form.

• Laissez passer:

Laissez passer is issued by national government as emergency passports, or for travel on humanitarian grounds. Laissez passer (from the French let pass) is also issued by international organizations (most notably the UN) to their officers and employees for official travel.

• Certificate of identity (Alien’s passport):

A document issued under certain circumstances – such as statelessness – to non – citizen residents. Sometime alien’s passports are issued as internal passport to non – residents.

• Refugee travel document:

Document issued to a refugee by the state in which she or he normally resides allowing him or her to travel outside that state and to return there. Refugees are unlikely to be able to obtain passports from their state of nationality (from which they have nationality and therefore need travel document so that they might engage in international travel.

In Nepal, there are following types of passports

A). Ordinary passport (Green in color)

B). Official passport (Sky blue in color)

C). Diplomatic passport (Red in color)

D). Travel document (Black in color, Emergency passport)

7.4. International Civil Aviation Organization Standards

The international civil aviation organization (ICAO) issues passport standards which are treated as recommendations to national governments. The sizes of passports normally comply with ID-3 standard, which specifies a size of 125*88 mm (4.92*3.465inch). This size is the B7 format.

7.5. Standard passport format

The standard passport format includes the name of the issuing country on a passport cover, a national symbol, a description of the document (example: passport, official passport, diplomatic passport) and if the passport is biometric – the biometric passport symbol. Inside, there is a title page, also naming the country. This is followed by a data page, on which there is formation about the bearer and the issuing authority, although passports of some European Union member states provide that information on the inside back cover. There are blank page available for foreign countries to affix visas and to stamp for enter and exit. Passports have numerical or alphanumerical designators (“serial number”) assigned by the issuing authority.

7.6. Machine –readable passport standards

Standards for machine –readable passports have been issued by the ICAO, with an area set aside where most of the information written as text is also printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition.

7.8. E-passport standards

To confirm with ICAO standards, a biometric passport has an embedded contactless smart card, which contain data about the passport holder, a photograph in digital format and data about the passport itself. Many countries now issue biometric passports. The objectives for the biometric passports are to speed up clearance through immigration and the prevention of identify fraud. These reasons are disputed by privacy advocates.

7.9. Visa

A visa is a form of permission granted for a non-citizen to travel to, enter, transit or remain in a particular country. A visa does not guarantee entry. That remains the right of the immigration officials of the country concerned.

Some countries may ask visitors to present return tickets and evidence of means (availability of funds) to cover their intended stay. Some countries may refuse entry to visitors who do not comply with their requirements regarding general appearance and clothing.

Some countries have compulsory currency exchange regulations on first entry. Only the country/countries plan to visit can provide up to date information about visa requirements.

8.1. Types of visa include;

• Single entry visa: valid only for one visit within the validity period.

• Multiple entry visas: allows any number of visits within its validity periods.

• Business visa: for a short visit to conduct discussions, negotiations and or presentations but not to take up employment.

• Tourist visa: allows freedom to move around the country and briefly cross its frontiers to another country and return. Generally they are valid for less than 9 months. At the point of entry visa is stamped for 3months which can be extended up to 9 months. The tourist visas are issued for single entry, double entry, multiple entry and re-entry.

• Residence visa: allows an extended stay but does not grant permission to take up employment.

• Work visa: gives the permission to stay and take up employment for a specific job and only for a limited period job and only for a limited period called also work permit.

• Electronic visa: permission recorded in a computer instead of being issued as a certificate or stamp.

• Airport transit visa: This type of visa is valid at the airport only. The holder of this visa is not allowed to leave the airport. Generally this type of visa is valid for less than 12 hrs.

• Transit visa: will allow the passenger to use the country for limited time. The passenger may clear the immigration, custom and visit the country for limited time. The visa is valid for mostly 24 hrs.

• Visitor’s visa: are issued for the visitors to visit their relatives. The visa is issued on the basis of valid invitation. Visitor’s visa is valid for one year. At the point of entry visa is stamped for 6 months which can be extended to one year.

• Diplomatic visa: Ministry of foreign affairs will issue this type visa to the holders of diplomatic passport and to their family.

• Official visa: This type of visa is provided to the officials working in different government offices as a consultant, adviser. Immigration department will provide visa on the recommendation of the concern government department.

8.2. Custom: All baggage must be declared and cleared through the customs on arrival at the entry point. Personal effects are permitted free entry. Passengers arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) without any dutiable (taxable) goods can proceed through the green channel for quick clearance without a baggage check. If you are carrying dutiable article you have to pass through the red channel for detailed customs clearance.

• Import: Apart from used personal belongings visitors are allowed to bring to Nepal free of duty: Cigarettes (200 sticks) or Cigars (50 sticks), Distilled liquor (one/1.15 liter bottle) and film (15 rolls). Also bring in the following articles free of duty one condition that take them out with you when leave; binoculars movie or video camera, still camera, laptop, computer and portable music system.
• Export: The export of antiques requires special certification from the department of archaeology, national archive building ram shah path, Kathmandu. It is illegal to export objects over 100 years old such as sacred images paintings, manuscripts that are valued for culture and religious reasons. Visitors are advised not to purchase such items as they are Nepal’s cultural heritage and belong here.
• Driving into Nepal: Overland tourists entering Nepal with their vehicles must possess an international carnet. Carnet is an international custom document that allows the holder to temporarily ( up to one year) impact goods without payment of normally applicable duties and taxes, including value –added tax.

 8.3. Airport tax: Airport tax is included in ticket whether it is domestic or international. Every departing/embarking passenger must clear the airport tax. The tax may differ from    airport to airport, from country to country, from national to international and from destination to destination. TIM under the heading of the respective country provides the information about the airport tax.

8.4. Health document: It is passenger’s responsibility to ensure that all visas and other documents necessary for travel are in order. Before travelling to many tropical or sub tropical destinations, immunizations and other precautionary measures are advisable or even required. Often these measures must be taken a certain length of time prior to ones departure. Make sure to get the right information about the area you will be visiting tour to six weeks before departure.

        The carrier cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of any irregularity –passport and any necessary visas must be presented before departure and upon arrival.

• Medicines: take prescription with you if you are carrying prescribed medicines. Do not exceed the quantities needed for personal use during trip, as large quantities of drugs can create suspicion.
• Immunization: There is In general, no immunization requirement which travelling in EU. However there is requirement or recommendations for certain of the EU’S overseas territories.

8.5. Visa fees for foreigner in Nepal:

15 days - US $ 25.00 for 15 days single/multiple entry. 30 days - US $ 40.00 for 30 days single/multiple entry. 90 days - US $ 100.00 for 90 days single/multiple entry. There is no visa fee applicable to the passport holder of member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for 30 days. Indian nationals do not currently need a visa to enter Nepal. If you wish for your tourist visa to be multiple entry an additional USD $20 is payable (90 day visa includes this fee but be sure to ask when paying that it's a multi-entry visa). Nepal visa fees may be paid for with USD or other convertible foreign currency equivalent thereto (Euro or GBP most common - however see note below for Visa on arrival). Additional visas and fees: Business visas are USD $30 for one month - $300 for one year or $1000 for 5 years. Student visas are USD $75 per year. Non-tourist visas are USD $100 per year. Residential visas are USD $200 first year and $100 thereafter.