Group Venture Plan

Part A

Part B

Part C

Part D

Analysis on possible market gap/opportunity According to the research, there are 8.8 million people visiting Australia from other country, a 6.6% increase on the previous year. The top five countries people visit Australia are from China, New Zealand, USA, UK, Japan and Singapore. Chinese tourists spent around $10.4 billion while in Australia in 2017. New Zealand tourists spent $2.5 billion in Australia in 2017. USA tourists spent $3.8 billion in Australia in 2017. Japan tourists spent $1.6 billion in Australia in 2017. Singapore tourists spent $1.4 billion in Australia in 2017. And all main purposes of them were for holiday. The most popular state is NSW, there was a total 4.2 million internationals visitors to New South Wales in 2017. The total spent in NSW was $10.4 billion which accounted for 25% of all income in Australia for a year. And other top 2 is Victoria and Queensland, which was a total of 2.9 million and 2.7 million internationals visitors in 2017. In the summer season - December, January and February will attracted the most of internationals visitors about 2,511,300 in total. The warmer weather combined with popular season sporting events are main factors in high international arrivals during the summer. (“Australian Tourism Statistics [ATS]”, 2019) Youth has an important proportion of Australian tourism. The age of young tourism is between 15 and 29 years. They contribute 25% of all tourism travel to Australia and 46% of all tourism spend. A research shows at the end of June 2017, the number of youth travel to Australia has increased by 8.6% to 2.1 million, while they spend $18.7 billion, up 12.2% for the same period. They spend $7,900 per trip and average nights stayed are 63 days. 34% of youth tourism visit 3-7 locations in Australia, and 12% of them visit more than 8 locations. Youth travellers spend more than any other leisure traveller in Australia mainly due to higher than average length of stay and propensity to combine work, visiting friends and family, and leisure experiences. The working holiday maker program allows young adult (18 to 30) from eligible partner countries to work in Australia while having an extended holiday. There are 333,000 WHM arrived in Australia, they spend more than $3.4 billion per year. The average spends for one trip is more than $10,100, and they will stay in Australia for about 151 days. 42% of them will visit 3-7 locations, and 28% of them will visit more than 8 locations. (“The importance of the global youth sector”, Oct 2017) However, there are huge amount of youth tourism travel to Australia every year, but they are not familiar with Australia. Normally, before youth tourism come to Australia, they have two ways to make their itinerary, first is travel agency, the other one is research by themselves. Travel agency is a choice which is better than research online. Because they may miss some interesting and meaningful attractions, or expensive flight ticket. But not all of travel agencies can give them great advice or specific schedule. They can provide flight reservations, accommodation, car hire, delivery service, visas, travel insurance even emergency services. But if the advice or schedule that they provide is unsatisfactory, youth tourism will unhappy and leave a bad impression on Australia. The trip that travel agency provide for the same place or attraction are normally for a group tourist which has identical schedule that means it will be very boring and humdrum. So, our goal is to build a company that can provide personalised travel plans for youth tourism. We are going to make different travel plans according to their preferences. For example, some of them like adventure, so we will make some adventure activities combine with trips. And some of them like nature, we will choose some scenic spots which are close to nature to make them enjoy the process of the trip. We firmly believe personalised trip will become the first choice for youth tourism.  

Part E Product innovation is the exploitation of new ideas that lead to the creation of products, services or processes. The goal of innovation is to bring the idea to a productive position within a market that can attract creditable profit margin using a better product or, better way of doing something. What makes our product attractive in a continuously growing market is the factor that we are Australian-based, convenient and money saving. Through statistical analysis we can identify a target market through age and geological demographics. In 2018, 9.2 million overseas residents arrived in Australia for a short-term stay. Men and women had a similar median age (40.9. years for men and 40.4 years for women). However, the largest groups of visitor arrivals were between the age of 25-29, with 47% of these short-term visitors states the main reason for journey was ‘holiday’ (Australian Bureau of Satistics, 2019). Almost instantly, we have identified our age demographic target audience that we can market our service too. The overall influx of tourism in Australia is growing significantly, seeing a 36% increase in short-term visitors from the year of 2008 and 2018 (5.6 million – 9.2 million). At this moment in time, the most popular visitors by countries belong to; - China - New Zealand - the United States - the United Kingdom - Japan and; - Singapore Dramatic growth is expected to continue with projections estimating the number of international arrivals to increase to 15 million by 2026-2027 (Budget Direct, 2018). We can target our service and apply advertising and marketing strategies amongst these countries to gain a credible reputation for our service and business. Thinking of a holiday can be simple, however implementing a plan can be difficult for any overseas travellers. Money is certainly the biggest factor when taking a family or a group on a trip and limitations need to be set in the correct areas, whether it be through places individuals want to visit, when they want to eat something, buy something or just manage time better. With our service being based in Australia, target markets (such as the countries listed above) will benefit from out service in areas such as; Cost Saving choosing a holiday package in a total amount, which includes the cost of everything, would be a far lesser cost then adding individual costs such as airfares and hotel rooms separately. The simple reason behind our company offering you a holiday package is to find the best affairs, hotel offers and rates that suit the group alongside saving costs. Complete Tour we manage to devise a complete list of all major spots so that customers get the best value for their money. Best Services by opting for an al-inclusive holiday package, tour groups can enjoy services available at a hotel, starting from accommodation to facilities like swimming pool, spas and saunas. Safe Travelling our company can offer packages that are completely aware of situations in a particular place, risk and safe zones allow you to enjoy a safe holiday. Zero Headache by choosing a holiday package, you get rid of all the holiday activities, starting from booking flights, accommodation availability, hotel availability, etc. Our company promises to deliver a convenient service to the younger generations who look to travel safely in one of the world’s most beautiful countries. Complete tours issued with the best services takes the headache out of booking through availabilities. In a continuously growing market (currently contributing to $47.5billion to Australia’s GDP), we can provide a credible service in the tourism industry with the ability to provide opportunities for employment both nationally and internationally.

Part F

Marketing and Channel Strategy Approach

Marketing Strategy

Effective marketing strategy will help the business enhance its brand recognition, thereby promoting sales. Since our main target group is the youth generation, using a digital marketing strategy that uses digital technologies mainly on the Internet and mobile phones, can be more effective and cost-saving.

Travel Website

The travel website is where customers get the first impression of our company and our product, therefore it is crucial for us to put efforts into developing our website. Uploading beautiful pictures of destination along with attracting summary will increase the possibility of customers to start the deal with us. We will focus on highlighting our uniqueness, that is providing personalised trips for customers to give them different experiences, which will immediately differentiate our products from others.

Social Media

Driven by the advancement of technology, social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. has become more and more popular in terms of advertisement. According to MarketingSherpa, 95% of online adult ages 18 to 34 are likely to follow a brand and engage with their profile on social media (Smith, K. (2018). Therefore, it is highly valuable for us to use social media as a marketing tool. In addition, marketing through social media helps improve our brand visibility, thereby increase brand recognition. By posting our innovative travel products will be more appealing to customers, communication and interaction with key audiences will be improved.

Travel Magazine

Advertising on travel magazines can help our company target on the customers who are interested in the topic more precisely. In addition, magazines have a higher level of credibility, therefore the trust-relationship between customers and our company can be established more easily. Furthermore, people may pass magazines on to their friends and family to share the information, which will effectively increase the exposure of the advertisement. Therefore, it increases the likelihood for customers to buy our products.

Channel Strategy

It is undoubted that the rapid development in technology and constantly changing customer preferences have allowed the emergence of extensive channels that can be utilised by tourism organisations to distribute their products. According to Choi & Kimes (2002), it is noted that effective distribution can benefit revenue management, however the cost of different distribution tools also varies. In the modern world, multi-channel distribution has been commonly used since each distribution channel may appeal to different segments of the target market, therefore the principle of multi-channel is also deployed in our business model. In general, our company will mainly operate as an Online Travel Agency (OTA) while collaborating with retail travel agents to promote our products.

Travel Website

The information and communication technologies (ICTs) have evolved rapidly in recent decades, in which tourism demand and supply are promoted effectively. The flexibility offered by e-commerce is now more favoured by customers, and since our main target group is the young generation, who are mostly technology oriented. Moreover, the extensive coverage brought the travel website can help us reach out to oversea travellers easily. Therefore, establishing a travel website featured with suggested tour packages will appeal to this segment, and for the website, customer service will be installed to communicate with customers about their needs and expectation timely.

In addition, an online tour booking and payment system will be integrated into the website, so that customers can easily book a tour with us. It is also important for us to collaborate with IT companies to ensure the security of the system and the privacy of customers’ information.

Mobile Application

Another trend emerged due to advancement in ICTs is the use of smart phones. According to Colombo & Baggio (2017), the young generation use smart phones as an extension of their life, lifestyle and personality. As such, the mobile app also has advantages in terms of broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness that help us reach out a wider market. Similar to the travel website, customer service will be integrated to communicate with customers. Booking and payment system with tested security will installed to process orders.

Retail Travel Agents

Retailers can be in the form of online and offline that offers customers with an accessible place to book or enquire about travel products. Collaborating with retail travel agents will extend our potential customers. We will develop some most popular travel plans and pay a commission, usually around 10% to the retail travel agents (Tourism Australia, 2002). This distribution channel will provide a stable source of revenue for our company.

Part G

Part H

Reference list Part D Australian Tourism Statistics. (January 2019). Retrieved from https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/travel-insurance/research/tourism-statistics.html The importance of the global youth sector. (October 2017). Retrieved from https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/travel-insurance/research/tourism-statistics.html

Part E

Works Cited Australian Bureau of Satistics. (2019, Feb 19). Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Dec 2018. Retrieved from Asutalian Bureau of Statistics: https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/products/961B6B53B87C130ACA2574030010BD05 Budget Direct. (2018, March). Australian Tourism Statistics 2019. Retrieved from Budget Direct: https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/travel-insurance/research/tourism-statistics.html Part F

Aziri, B., & Nedelea, A. (2013). Business Strategies in Tourism. Ecoforum, 2(1).

Buhalis, D., & Laws, E. (2001). Tourism distribution channels: Practices, issues and transformations, London: Continuum.

Colombo. E., & Baggio, R. (2017). Tourism Distribution Channels: Knowledge Requirements. In Knowledge Transfer to and within Tourism: Academic, Industry and Government Bridges Bridging Tourism Theory and Practice, vol.8, 289-301. DOI: 10.1108/S2042-144320170000008016.

Camilleri, M, A. (2018). Tourism Distribution Channels. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product (Chapter 6, 105-115). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.

Kracht, J., & Wang, Y. (2010). Examining the tourism distribution channel: evolution and transformation. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 22(5), 736-757. DOI: 10.1108/095961110110538.

Pearce, G, D. (2009). Channel design for effective tourism distribution strategies. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 26(5-6), 507-521. DOI: 10.1080/10548400903163046.

Smith, K. (2018). 15 Reasons Why Marketing Through Social Media is a Must for Every Small Business. Retrieved from: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/marketing-through-social-media/

Tourism Australia. (2002). The Travel Distribution System. Australia: Author.