Travel Tour Agency Business Plan

Executive Summary

The tourism industry has undergone rapid growth of unsurpassed nature over the last several decades. This has mainly been due to the advent of a 'borderless' world and increased information dissemination about the majestic sceneries throughout the world, with the southern African region being no exception.

We are on the brink of penetrating a lucrative market in a rapidly growing industry. The current trend towards an increase in the number of tourists entering the country presents an opportunity for Sephats Tours to penetrate the market. An opportunity for Sephats Tours' success exists because the national tourism industry is growing at a rapid pace annually. Sephats Tours is poised to take advantage of this growth and moderate competition in the city travel portion of the industry, with a dedicated and experienced staff, excellent networking, and effective management and marketing. Sephats Tours intends to provide travel and adventure packages to tourists primarily in the Southern region, but also the whole of Botswana. Services and products provided by Sephats will initially include pre-arranged tours, custom packages according to clients specifications, travel consultation, and as time progresses making reservations for lodging amongst other related services. Sephats Tours seeks to differentiate itself as the premier adventure mobile operator in the greater Gaborone area.

Our services will be positioned very carefully: they will be of extremely high quality, comfortable, informative and tailored to the clients needs such that they will enable individuals to have a greater appreciation of the natural environment and its intricacies.

Our marketing strategy will be based mainly on ensuring customers know about our existence and the service(s) we fulfill. Hence our intention is to make the right information available to the right target customers. This will be done through implementing a market penetration strategy that will ensure that we are well known and respected in the tourism industry. We will ensure that our prices take into consideration peoples' budgets, that these people appreciate the service(s), know that it exists, and how to contact us. The marketing will convey the sense of quality in every picture, every promotion, and every publication. Our promotional strategy will involve integrating advertising, events, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and the Internet, details of which are provided in the marketing section of this plan.

It is important to recognize that we do not intend to just take individuals on sightseeing excursions, but also to ensure that they appreciate nature through informative briefings on objects' origins. This element will assist in differentiating us from our competitors and contribute towards the development of a sustainable competitive advantage. Hence we need to engage the right people in the right place at the right time if we are to ensure optimum growth. We intend to develop our team so that our people can grow as the company grows - a mutually beneficial relationship.

We project sales to increase from more than P350,000 (Botswanan Pula [P]) the first year to more than P556,500 the second, and P630,000 in the third year.

In a nutshell, we do not just intend to market and sell our service, but to market and sell travel solutions and a total-quality environment. This will ensure we establish a reputable corporate image.

1.1 Objectives

Our business strategy will revolve around the need to provide quality service to our various target customers, in the process fully satisfying their needs. This shall be undertaken through recruitment of a professional team and the provision of good quality custom-designed travel packages, catering to the client's particular needs.

With time our marketing campaign will increase the awareness of our services in the various market segments we shall be targeting. This is particularly so with the organization looking at establishing a clear advantage(s) in an increasingly competitive market. We will provide clients with the opportunity to focus on their core activities whilst their transportation side needs are fully satisfied. Marketing material shall be professionally done so as to be reflective of our intended image and reputation. We shall position ourselves as a quality commercial transportation operator that provides customer-need fulfillment, enjoyment, reliability and a good image. We intend to establish a good rapport with all the relevant stakeholders, especially hotels and travel agents.

We also intend to have well-designed brochures and other promotional material that will enable clients to have an understanding of the types of services we offer and advantages of utilizing them. In addition well-done, informative brochures, fact sheets and business cards often have a triggering effect on clients contemplating utilizing our services. Hence this will undoubtedly generate increased sales of our service.

In summary we intend to attain the following objectives:

• Continuously provide enjoyable quality excursions/trips on time and on budget.
• Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
• Establish a market presence that assures short-term and long-term profitability, growth and success.
• We are fully committed to supporting growth and development in the tourism and overall economy of Botswana.
• Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.

1.2 Mission

Internally we intend to create and nurture a healthy, exuberant, respectful, and enjoyable environment, in which our employees are fairly compensated and encouraged to respect the customer and the quality of the service we intend to provide. In addition follow-up will be mandatory so as ensure customer satisfaction and make any improvements as recommended by the customers in future. We seek fair and responsible profit, enough to keep the company financially healthy for the short and long term, and to fairly remunerate employees for the work and effort.

1.3 Keys to Success

The keys to Sephats Tours success will undoubtedly be effective market segmentation through identification of several niche markets and implementation strategies. Along these lines the company intends to implement advertising, personal selling and direct marketing strategies to the target markets. Our personal selling marketing strategies will rotate around keeping in touch with hotels and travel agencies for major customers, and advertising for more individual customers. Hence our key success factors will include the following:

1. Excellence in fulfilling the promise: We intend to offer completely enjoyable, comfortable and informative travel excursions that will ensure that travelers are thoroughly satisfied and appreciative at the end of their trip.


2. Timely response to customers' requests: We cannot afford to delay our clients for whatever reason, as this will have a negative bearing on our image and reputation, including future business. Hence we need to be continually communicating with the client, including hotels and lodges so as to ensure that we are constantly available to the client meeting their expectations.


3. Solid and fruitful strategic alliances: Considering the nature of our services and our relative infancy on the market, we realize the importance of establishing and maintaining fruitful strategic alliances with various stakeholders, including hotels, lodges, and travel agencies, amongst others, so as be assured of a constant flow of customers, fulfilling their needs at every opportunity.


4. Marketing know-how: As a relatively new company on the market there will be a need to aggressively market our business and the services we provide so as to be continuously at the top of our prospective clients minds. This will also act as a temporary deterrent for companies contemplating entering our market. Advertising shall be undertaken on a regular basis.