Tourism As An Economic Contributor

TASK 1

A) Traits and skills to become successful travel and tourism entrepreneur

An entrepreneur has an important role while bringing up a new venture project. The effectiveness and efficiency of an entrepreneur largely depend upon one's skills and traits, which they utilise to achieve organisational short-term as well as long-term goals and objectives (Cassel and Pettersson, 2015). Their major goal is to undertake activities which ensure maximum customer satisfaction. In order to become successful in travel and tourism sector, one must have the following skills and traits:

TRAITS

Passion: A travel and tourism entrepreneur must possess immense passion towards the venture project, and this paves the way for encouraging them to take such efforts that ensure the success and growth of the business enterprise (Carson, Carson, and Eimermann, 2018).

Innovation: This is the key to the success of a business organisation. An entrepreneur should possess an innovative mind and come up with unique and creative ideas that can ensure the development of solutions to economic and social problems being faced by the population in relation to the travel and tourism sectors (7 Essential Skills Required to Succeed as an Entrepreneur, 2019).

Competitive spirit: An entrepreneur who is employed within the travel and tourism sector must possess confidence in one's abilities and undertake such activities and processes that have the capability to bring about a positive change within society. Taking strategic decisions and devising effective strategies to gain an edge over competitors is the key trait of a successful entrepreneur.

Goal-orientated: In order to become a successful entrepreneur within the travel and tourism sector, it is essential that one devises the short-term as well as the long-term goals. This helps them to measure the variances between actual and desired performance at a later stage and undertake steps that can assist in the reduction of these variances in a future context.

SKILLS

Leadership: It is essential for a travel and tourism entrepreneur to possess leadership skills, as this provides assistance to one while taking important decisions independently (Bredvold and Skålén, 2016). They are the ones who are responsible for assuming all the risks within the project. Thus, effective leadership assists them in building communication with other employees so as to ensure that activities and processes take place within the venture projects in accordance with the set targets.

Constant planning: It is imperative that an entrepreneur does constant evaluation and analysis of the travel and tourism markets in order to make plans that are aligned with the strategies of competitors and ensure maximum customer satisfaction. It is after the evaluation of the market and competitors that entrepreneurs are able to devise effective strategies that can render the upcoming project a strategic edge over rivals and assist it in gaining a higher stake in the market.

Risk handling: A successful entrepreneur assumes all the risks that act as hindrances for the upcoming project and takes steps so as to overcome or reduce the damage caused by these risks. By undertaking risks in the case of a new travel and tourism company, the scope for growth and success of the business enterprise enhances, as the implementation of an emerging technology or process may assist the entity in increasing the stake in the market as well as the profitability levels.

Effective communication skills: It is significant that an entrepreneur possesses optimum communication skills so as to build healthy relationships with clients, suppliers, and other key stakeholders. This skill renders a competitive advantage to travel and tourism entrepreneurs, as they possess the capability to persuade people to buy the products or services delivered by the company by way of lucrative tour and holiday packages. Also, communication assists the entrepreneur in building healthy relationships with employees and keeping them motivated at all times.

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B) Self-appraisal of entrepreneurial traits against benchmarked development

The traits and skills possessed by an entrepreneur are a key factor that determines the chances of growth and success of an enterprise (Deale, 2016). It ascertains the performance of an entrepreneur in the direction of facilitating business growth and also takes into account the extent to which an organisation succeeds under one's leadership. In this regard, I have conducted self-assessment, which assists me in gaining insight into my strengths and weaknesses for becoming a successful entrepreneur within the tour and travel industry. For this, I have awarded every trait and skill of mine a score out of 10, on the basis of which I have classified them into strengths and weaknesses. Following are certain traits and skills that act as strengths and weaknesses for me for successfully starting a venture project or carrying out an established business:-

TASK 2

A) Development of entrepreneurial enterprise

One of the most famous personalities who have earned huge name and fame in taking travel and tourism industry to great heights is the owner of Virgin Atlantic, Mr. Richard Branson. This famous personality developed the organisation owing to the traits and skills possessed by him, which assisted in meeting the vision of becoming one of the leading firms within the industry (Nikraftar and Hosseini, 2016). The personality traits as well as skills of Richard Branson due to which Virgin Atlantic is at a top position in global market are as follows:

Leadership: These skills assisted him in building a huge empire under the name of “Virgin Group” and also established an effective image within tour and travel industry. The biggest merit of his personality was that he acted as a leader but only with the agreement of his staff members, which facilitated a feeling of cohesion as well as cooperation among employees (Khan and Krishnamurthy, 2016). Owing to this, Richard Branson always asked for views and opinions of other members of organisation and considered them important for effective decision-making.

Innovative mindset: Richard Branson is known for possessing an innovative mind, owing to which he has always come up with unique and creative ideas. It has been observed that he shares his visions and ideologies with the staff members in order to attain feedback upon the same. This provides assistance in taking fair decisions in context of Virgin Atlantic.

Building healthy relationship: It has often been noticed that Richard Branson is an individual who believes in socialising and building effective relationship with employees so as to develop a collaborative culture with least scope for conflicts. The staff of Virgin Atlantic considers him as a role model and looks upon him as a counsellor as well as motivator.

Obsession for work: It has been observed that Richard Branson has been a highly dedicated, motivated and obsessed employee who emphasises adopting such activities which ensure betterment of company and achievement of organisational goals. He considers every activity as a challenge and strives to make sure that his performance yields effective outcome for Virgin Atlantic.

Evaluation of factors leading to success of organisation

Virgin Atlantic is an airline which was founded by Mr. Branson in 1984. The main factor that takes the Virgin Atlantic, in fact the whole Virgin Group, to top position is the strategies adopted by its entrepreneur. Branson achieved a number of milestones on the journey towards becoming a leading airline. He also joined hands by way of joint venture with the airline of Malaysia & Singapore.

Owing to the personality traits as well as skills, Virgin Atlantic is at a top position in airline industry in the present context. This owes to the business development strategy which was adopted by Richard Branson with the passage of time, which shape the current achievements of company, This is as follows:

Strategy of new venture: Over years, Virgin Atlantic has entered partnerships or joined hands with other airlines, hotels and tourism companies so that this firm can attract a large number of consumers by providing good-quality services associated with accommodation along with the air tickets. For this, Branson adopted the strategy of joint venture with both the Malaysian and Singapore airlines, such as Delta and significantly attained success, thereby gaining a high stake in  market and enhancing the profitability of airlines. Further, this organisation entered into joint venture with TCS so as to invest effectively in operational efficiencies and technological innovations with the aim of gaining market leadership. The partnership of Virgin Atlantic with TCS assisted the organisation in enhancing its infrastructural facilities so as to assist in company's key business objective of becoming a leading airline (Virgin Atlantic Airlines Extends Strategic Partnership with TCS, 2019).

To make this joint venture successful, Branson adopted a number of assisting strategies and ways, which acted as the success factors to help Virgin Atlantic achieve its vision of becoming a leader within airline industry. Such assistance strategies (success factors) are described below:-

Promotional campaigns: Virgin Atlantic and Delta together launched their first joint marketing programme with an aim to market and promote each other's transatlantic flights with an emphasis upon brand's alignment with provision of excellent customer service delivery. To create awareness about their partnership among the population, they introduced experiential pop-up spaces in the vicinity of New Year Stock Exchange and also in Canary Wharf of London. Here, demonstration of cabin crew, business class cabins, and check-in desk staff's use of Google Glass technology were given, along with trials for visitors to attend flight simulator besides the pilot of Delta (Virgin Atlantic and Delta launch first joint marketing push, 2019). Further, Virgin Atlantic also uses a number of promotional strategies to create awareness among customers about their business and high-class facilities. Promotion is done by company by using different promotional techniques such as TV, Radio, social media and others (Omerzel, 2015).

Discounts and other offersFor increasing sales, Virgin Atlantic use the strategy of offers and discounts or one free ticket with two. By providing concession on the tickets for the children, they also use this strategy for increasing the sales.

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TASK 3

The travel and tourism entrepreneur is planning to launch a new hotel under the name of "Fantasising Travels,” which will have some unique facilities to offer to assist in gaining the attention of a large population. Fantasising Travels is a hotel which will have 24-hour check-in and checkout facilities, which aims to provide assistance and convenience to population. Further, services such as free internet, television, fun activities, concerts, fitness centres, spas, laundry, boutiques, etc. will be rendered to public so as to attract people towards the business. Online booking will be available for hotel rooms via the website of company and the feature of electronic ticketing will be provided to the customers to ensure their convenience.

A) Sources of finance and support for proposed project

The travel and tourism entrepreneur have to undergo several difficulties and challenges while procuring funds for starting a new venture project. The entrepreneur has decided to open a new tour and travel enterprise under the name "Fantasising Travels,” for which he would require capital. There are a number of sources of capital required for starting a new business within travel and tourism industry. Some of the available sources for initiating a new travel and tourism company are:

Personal Investment: This is one of the best sources of capital which is available to the travel and tourism entrepreneur. This source is easy and very quickly accessible for the entrepreneur. Further, the added advantage here is that there are no payback terms or equity transfers in this source of finance (Sheldon, Pollock and Daniele, 2017). This is commonly referred to as seed capital.

Family and Friends: This is yet another easy source of procuring finance for starting a new tour and travel business. This source of finance does not require any kind of documentation and here the funds can be easily accessed.

Bank Loan: Banks, also usually referred to as conservative lenders, grant loan to travel and tourism entrepreneur against pledge of any external asset. This source of procuring funds requires immense documentation and other formalities and also involved payback conditions together with interest associated with it. This source is generally hard to tap owing to inadequacy of assets (Omerzel, 2015).

Investors: It is most common source for procuring funds for opening a new tour and travel business. Here, funding is dependent upon venture investors who maintain their stake in ownership of funded venture project.

Overdraft facility: This is a facility given by banks to entrepreneurs wherein they allow the account holder to withdraw excess money over the existing balance in their savings account. This is a type of credit agreement which is entered between account holder and financial institution (Bassey, 2015). This provides assistance to tour and travel entrepreneur for raising short-term cash to initiate a business.

Post the evaluation of available sources of funds, entrepreneur has decided to raise capital through a combination of three sources, namely, bank loan (30%), personal investments (10%) and investor's shares (60%).

B) Development of a business plan with market assessment, business analysis and cash-flow analysis, along with Justification of potential for success

For starting a new venture, it is essential that firm takes into account the market and industry so as to develop tactics and strategies that can provide an edge to company over existing companies within tour & travel sector (Rodrigues, Rodrigues and Peroff, 2015). In this regard, before starting "Fantasising Travels" the entrepreneur has done market analysis

The market potential for this company is huge and this entity will give tough competition to the existing rivals owing to the high-quality accommodation and entertainment facilities that this venture is striving to provide. The target segment of customers for the entrepreneur of Fantasising Travels will be personnel who travel on a routine basis for business or leisure. Trekking enthusiasts are expected to get attracted to this enterprise as the company will offer affordable packages with lucrative offers for trek. The target market is selected to be London, United Kingdom. London has been strategically selected as the location for this upcoming project as being the capital of UK, This city is equipped with high-quality infrastructure, communication, transportation and other services which are necessary for entrepreneur to formulate the setup of the new start-up business project.

(Source: Contribution of Travel & Tourism to UK GDP, 2019)

 Travel and Tourism industry plays a significant role in the growth of UK economy. The total contribution of this sector to GDP of country has been constantly increasing over a period of last few years and reached 218 billion British pounds in 2018. This reflects the potential for  Fantasising Travels to provide high-quality services and excel at UK marketplace.

C) Persuasive business plan for Travel and Tourism start-up

The business plan for Fantasising Travels is as follows:

Start-up Summary: This entity will be situated at the heart of London in Mayfair area so as to gain the attention of a large number of tourists and local people. The startup expenses, inclusive of capital, are estimated to be approximately 215,000 dollars. The funding will be sourced by owner, investors and bank loan. This entity will operate within hospitality industry to provide high-quality accommodation and entertainment facilities.

Business Objective: The objectives of Fantasising Travels are proposed to be as follows:

• To conduct business affairs as per the code of conduct and practices prescribed for the hospitality industry.
• To offer high-quality accommodation and other related services to customers for ensuring maximum consumer satisfaction.

Vision: To become a leader in the tourism Travel industry in a time span of 3 years and increase the profits by 35%.

Mission: To provide a relaxing and comfortable stay to guests and provide leisure activities for their entertainment.

Key attractions: excellent customer service, 24-hour facilities, high-quality services, and ambience of the hotel.

Marketing Channels: This organisation will make use of social media marketing through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and also focus on making use of chatbots to communicate with clients on its website.

Financial Projections: To enhance the sales of the company by 16% by the end of 2 years.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of above report, it has been concluded that entrepreneurship is a risky and challenging activity which puts across various hurdles in front of an entrepreneur. Thus, entrepreneurs have to adopt strategies that assist in business growth and ensure sustainability of organisation for a long time. Further, it has been analysed that self-evaluation is an effective measure to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of one's characteristics and traits. Besides this, it has been acknowledged that it is essential for an entrepreneur to devise and formulate a business plan so as to effectively start a new business and gain entry into travel and tourism

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