Sightseeing Bus Tours Business Plan

Double Decker Tours of Washington will provide double-decker bus sightseeing tours throughout Washington and close-in memorials.  We will survey the national monuments, White House, US Capitol, and the many government buildings along the way during a 2-1/2 to 3 hour  tour.  DDTOW will run 12 converted London-style double-decker buses, giving our tour customers an unobstructed photo opportunity of the many beautiful sites in Washington. 

To make us different from the rest of the companies that operate here, we will aggressively advertise our services and stress and strive for the best service, tours and customer service in the industry.  To accomplish this, we will present surveys to our customers after every tour and we will evaluate our services at our weekly meetings to expand what we are doing right and correct what we are doing wrong.  Each night, our buses will be cleaned and serviced to prevent breakdowns and each day, before tours begin, we will inspect ourselves to make sure that we are presentable to our customers.  To expand our services to the widest amount of people, in the future, we will install a multilingual audiovisual system aboard each bus that will explain the tour in Spanish, French, Japanese and German, as our driver guide narrates in English.

3.1 Service Description

Double Decker Tours will be a full service tour and sightseeing company which will also provide charters for special occasions.  DDTOW’s knowledge of the nation’s capital, it’s rich history, and it’s local entertainment and cultural areas will ensure we provide our customers with a well narrated tour.  Our competitive rates and our focus on customer satisfaction will position DDTOW as a tour company that will be able to weather the economic climate that is facing Washington today and help garner repeat business. 

Our tours will consist of surveying the White House, Capitol, Senate Office Buildings, House Office Buildings, Library of Congress, Supreme  Court, Botanical Garden, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Museums, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, Hains Point, Jefferson Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Kennedy Center, Georgetown, Iwo Jima Memorial, Embassy Row, National Cathedral, Ford’s Theatre, FBI Headquarters, Union Station, Japanese-American Memorial and many other sites throughout the city.

3.2 Competitive Comparison

The Washington DC tourism and convention market before September 11, 2001 was robust and  hosted more than 18 million visitors annually.  Since that time, the industry has seen a reduction in the number of visitors because many of the sites that were open now have been closed or access restricted.  Although this may present a deterrent to many people, Washington has many visitors that still come for business and pleasure, so that while depressed, the market is growing and will climb back to previous levels in the future.  In the Washington metro area, over 4 million people make this their home so Double Decker Tours will have many customers to choose from.  DDTOW will tailor its tours to take advantage of areas that are still open.

3.3 Sales Literature

Brochures to feature our tours and services will be produced locally and distributed to hotels, information service kiosks and the Washington Visitor Center.  Direct mail, advertisements and sales promotion literature will be utilized as needed.

3.4 Special Interest Tours

Double Decker Tours of Washington will concentrate on the local sightseeing and tour services, but we will also develop special interest tours for Black History Month, Veteran’s Day, Cherry Blossom Festival and others to showcase the diverse cultural aspect of the city.  We will employ multilingual narrators to cater to our foreign visitors. 

In the future, DDTOW will add buses to our fleet so that we may offer a shuttle service narrative tour in the same way that Tourmobile does today.  We intend to expand into the Annapolis and Baltimore markets.