Travel and Tourism Entrepreneur

Task 1

1.1 Skills required to become a successful entrepreneur

A entrepreneur is the one who takes financial risk and starts a business. In order to become a successful entrepreneur lot of skills and efforts are required. The process starts with generation of idea and then converting it into an profitable business. I have personally observed that the travel and tourism industry has very potential opportunities for a business to grow and develop. Due to this reason I am planning to start an online travel agency, in which I will provide various tour and travel related services to people.

Task 2

2.1 Business development strategy of Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook is considered as very successful brand name in the travel and tourism industry of the world. The group is provides various kind of travel related services and it is also a listed enterprise in London Stock exchange. It was the efforts and hard-work of a single person names Thomas Cool who is the founder of Thomas Cook group. He was the first child of Elizabeth and John, who was born in the year 1808. At the age of 3 years, he lost his father and his mother got remarried. When Thomas Cook was 10 years old, he started to work as a garner in local market and after that he also worked as a cabinet marker. During his childhood days only Thomas was well equipped with the qualities such as hard working and dedicated towards his works. Along with this, start from the beginning he was always in favor of education and has always promoted the same.

The story of founding Thomas Cook company begins when Thomas Cook was waking on the roads of Leicester and got a idea to merge the power of railways and locomotion's. He through that this will be a great social reform and will support the development of society. He called a meeting and presented an idea of starting a train from Leicester to Loughborough. All the people which were the part of meeting appreciated the idea and efforts of Thomas cooks. Further the train was arranged and it was the beginning of his such a big empire. This idea became great success for Thomas Cook and after this a series of trains were arranged between Birmingham Leicester, Derby and Nottingham. The trip which he arranged to Liverpool in 1845 is termed as his first commercial venture. One of the most impressive thing about him was that rather than focusing on one single venture he always looked for diversified areas. The development of his business was only because of his risk taking abilities, innovative thinking and efforts. Most of the time Thomas Cook was in the favour of participative style of leadership where he used to encourage the views and suggestions of employees towards accomplishment of the aim of business.

2.2 Success of Thomas cook's business

Thomas Cook was achieving success year after year and in the year first ten years only his company grown really when in areas of UK. Further he not restricted his vision and was looking forward to start his operations in Europe also. He saw a great opportunity in one of the international exhibition which happen in Paris during those days. Thomas Cook tried to communicate with the companies but his offer was rejected. But rather than taking this rejection in negative manner and getting dispersed he started focusing on other alternatives. The route between Harwich and Antewerp was another opportunity lying in front of Thomas Cook and he grabbed the same. On the other hand, he also started escorting people as a tourist to Europe. He never stopped and always tried to expand his operations in different countries of the world.

Task 3

I am looking forward to start my own online travel agency and want to become one of the best and most successful UK's online travel service provider. Establishing a new business is not easy and I need to put lots of time and efforts to achieve success. Some of the objectives of my online travel agency which I have developed are stated below as:

• To attain high level of customer satisfaction
• To carry out enormous advertisement and promotions
• To deliver high quality and effective services to tourist
• To grow with the rate of 10% every year

All these objectives can be achieved only with hard work and efforts. I need to stay focused on my goals and objectives. Along with this, I am required to always stay positive and at every level I need to ensure that my services quality is the best among other players in market. I am well aware of the fact that the level of competition is very high and in order to gain competitive advantage, creativity and innovation in services is also required.

3.1 Sources of funding

Every individual is required to define what are the sources of finance or funding is available to them. Further a new venture always require lot of human and financial resources during its early stages. I am planing to start an online travel agency. The reason why I have selected this business is that the use of internet is increasing day by day. In addition to this, the scope of online travel agents is also very high. In this process I will establish a online website through which I will be promoting and providing travel related services. What I will also tie up with various hotels and airlines in order to make sure that my services run smoothly. I have personally observed this thing that all the travel agents are providing same kind of services to guest. Rather than providing common services I will be focusing on three main areas which are adventure tours, wild tours and honeymoon tours on romantic destination. I will also carry out promotional activities on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Sources of finance

Before starting my travel agency I need to identify and evaluate various sources from where I can raise funds fro my new venture. The sources are mentioned below as...

Bank loans

I can get finance from various banks of UK in order to establish my business. Further I think that it is one of the best option available as I will easily get funds and I will require to repay that amount in installments and with interest.

Venture capital

It is a process in which some investors, invest in your project by providing required amount of funds. Mostly such kind of capital is provided by parties or individuals. I think that getting funds in terms of venture capital is not a good option for me because in such kind of funding a person is required to pay low interest in initial stage but when the business grow, one needs to pay very high interest.

Owner capital

It is the source in which the business owner invest his own money in the new project. When I got this plan of establishing a travel agency, I have started to save money and arrange finances. This is also a very good source of funding as I wont be required to pay any kind of interest and there won't be any kind of pressure on me regrading repayment of the amount.

After identification and evaluation of various sources of finances, I think that owners capital and bank loans will be the best ways of getting funds. In addition to this, 30% of the funds will be raised by me and the remaining 70% will be taken as a bank loan.

3.2 Justification of the success

After the analysis of market, I have observed that rather than looking forward to satisfy the need and demand of all the people in market, it is better to satisfy the needs of particular market segment. Most of the youngsters in schools and colleges seeks for wild and adventurous tours but they are not able to find a travel agent who can satisfy their need. I will not provide any kind of holiday packages but will focus on satisfying the needs of the above stated people. I will offers wild and adventures tours which will be also considered as my specialty. Along with this, I will be also providing separate honeymoon packages for couples. This will help me to cover one more market segment and grow in effective manner. My plan can be termed as suitable, affordable and feasible in every aspects. It is suitable because there are no entry barriers in travel and tourism industry. Further I have observed that there are potential opportunities for growth and development in this industry. On the other hand, it is affordable because I wont have any kind of problem in arranging finances and banks will easily get agree to finance my venture. In the end, it is also feasible because I wont have any kind of difficulties in executing my project.

3.3 Effective business plan

A business plan has been developed by me in order to start my travel agency. The plan is discussed below as...

Business concept

The entire concept of my business will be unique and creative. I am not going to focus on satisfying the need of entire market and I would concentrate on meeting the specific needs of people in market. I will create an online website through which I am going to promote and sell travel related services. I will be focusing three main areas which are wild tours, adventurous tours and honeymoon packages. The package will include food, accommodation and transportation.

Products and services characteristic

At the time of delivering services I will always make sure that they are unique and innovative. I will select most wildest and adventurous places for my packages. During the initial level I will charge nominal process and various discounts and schemes will be also provided. In order to gain high degree of customer satisfaction I need to ensure that satisfactory services are provided to them. Along with this the customer is going to always find the services as value for money.

Read More- Different Skills Required in Becoming Travel and Tourism Entrepreneur

Market potential

Travel and tourism industry is highly potential and this statement can be justified by the fact that it contributes more than 8% of the UK's total GDP. Most of the business which are operating in this industry are growing with a very good pace. The market is also full of potential customers and not they have started to purchase travel related services. Other than this, the students in schools and colleges are fond of wild and adventurous tours. Thus, I have an opportunity to target these people by providing them with such kind of tour packages. UK is also considered as eight largest destination in terms of number of travelers. This fact also reflects how potential the market and the industry is.

Plan for operations

I have also developed an operational plan for my business. The plan is below discussed as...

Identifying the needs of people

In order to become successful in market, each and every entrepreneur is required to deliver services as per the need of market. Therefore, during the initial stage of my operational plan, I am going to identify what are the need and demand of people in market. At the regular intervals I will be modifying and making changes in my existing services. This will help me in achieving higher sales and profitability.

Pricing

The price of tour packages will depend on the nature of the package which the customer has opted for. Further during the initial level, the prices will be nominal which will assists me to penetrate the market. Other than this, discounts and loyalty bonus will be also provided to customers in order to encourage repeat purchase from them.

Planning the tours

the third step of my operational plan will be of planning of tour in which I am going to make arrangements for food, accommodation and transportation. I am also going to book the tickets for the places where the customer wants to visit.

Briefing them about the tour guidelines

I will be going to provide the customers with tour guidelines which very customer will need to follow. It will contain some rules and regulation which needs to be addresses by the travelers.

Implementing the plan

It is the final stage in which the tour will begin as per schedule. Further there will be a tour guide assign for tours such as wild and adventurous tours. After completion of tour I will personally take feedback from the guest and will work upon the feedback provided by them.

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that the travel and tourism industry is very potential. After assessment of the business development strategy of Thomas cook, it can be concluded that in order to grow one has to possess a clear vision and need to be very hardworking. Furthermore, it can be concluded that bank loan and owner capital are the two major sources of finances which I am going to use for my online travel agency.

References

• Bailey, M., Mendez, J. and Zhai, J., 2014. Leadership Profile: Conrad Hilton. Perspectives in Asian Leisure and Tourism.
• Charypar, D. and Nagel, K., 2005. Generating complete all-day activity plans with genetic algorithms. Transportation.
• Gustafson, P., 2012. Managing business travel: Developments and dilemmas in corporate travel management. Tourism Management.
• Hall, M. C. and Page, S. J., 2014. The geography of tourism and recreation: Environment, place and space. Routledge.

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