Instructions on Assessment:
Travelution Tour and Travel Pte Ltd (3T) is a Singaporean tour operator and travel agency located in the Central Business District (CBD) area. Initially, the company operated as an inbound tour operator, providing Singapore based itineraries for companies based in Australia, Europe, China, Korea, and Hong Kong utilising English-speaking guides. The products they offer are designed specifically for the operators they work with, focusing on high-quality tours which enable the customers to see the ‘real Singapore.’
Within the last 10 years, the inbound tours have expanded, tripling capacity and the owners envisage that business will continue to grow. In addition to serving the current business model and market, the company is looking for a new challenge. ‘3T’ has the vision to create new product offerings meeting the needs and wants of the new growing market segments. ‘3T’ is currently working on designing overseas package holiday itineraries for Singaporean (and other) based customers.
‘3T’ is looking to expand the holiday products by offering innovative holiday packages within the Southeast Asia region to the Singaporean residents.
The company still wish to maintain their unique approach by offering itineraries to destinations which are a little unusual and enable customers to buy a package that is designed to showcase the best of Asia, or beyond. Their market profile is ABC1 clients, who consider quality very important and are willing to pay a little more for small group tours to unusual destinations. In order to plan for the new holiday packages, ‘3T’ has employed in a group of management consultants to assess opportunities for expansion. This consulting team is looking at a broad range of destinations that would complement the company’s existing operation which is focused on tours within Singapore.
The holidays are usually sold direct. They have a basic website that is for ‘information only’. There is no booking ability or availability checking access on the web site. The office has a trained sales team who are the first point of call for potential clients. The rest of the office staff, in addition to their main roles, are also trained to make sales calls in case they have a rush of bookings. The holidays are also sold using a network of specialist independent travel agents. These agents are sent a small number of brochures each season, and a 10% commission is paid on each booking. Marketing is predominantly in travel supplements in quality weekend newspapers and specialist magazines.
NB ‘3T’ is a fictitious company.
Your brief:
You are the lead management consultant for Travel Resources Consultancy (Asia).
You are to undertake secondary research and present a business proposal (it is envisaged that this will be approximately 3,000 words) that takes into account the current ‘3S’ product. You are to present plans and proposals for the viability of a future purchase/expansion as described above.
Your business proposal should be in a report style. It should be informative and persuasive in that it is based on secondary research.
Wherever possible you should justify your suggestions with reference to secondary research detailing trends, consumption, and patterns – e.g. Mintel reports, Travel and Tourism Analyst, and other relevant academic literature. You may also like to make reference to the current market by referring to situations as documented in the travel press.
Your report is expected to:
- Summarise the current position of ‘3T’, including a synopsis of their current product offering and organisational structure.
- Examine both local and global trends to help identification of a potential new product and market.
- Conduct a competitor analysis. The report should explain why these are considered competitors and opportunities where ‘3T’ can differentiate themselves.
- Clearly identify a new product/company and the appropriate market segment this will attract. Support your choice by providing detailed justification for the suggestions, including synergies with the current market segment and their existing products. (This can be either a single product or a collection of products).
- A detailed explanation of the operations of the proposed programmes. This will include an overview of the products on offer and details of the suppliers, making recommendations for the contracting of all components of the proposed programmes.
- Summarise the costs involved in producing the products, e.g. the core components (accommodation, airport fees), the additional costs (tax, insurance), and potential costs (fuel increases).
- Identify and justify the pricing strategy.
- An explanation of the regulatory and legal environment pertinent to ‘3T.
- Provide guidance about assessing Health & Safety.
- Include recommendations to improve and assess quality to maintain their reputation as a reputable tour operator
- Make recommendations for membership of industry-based organisations. You must evaluate the appropriate membership and likely costs and value for money.
- Once the product expansion has taken place, you need to make recommendations for changes that may be implemented in future years, such as changes to distribution.
