Venture Concept No. 1

Flying across borders has become easier than ever before. With the world becoming a more inter related market place and with air travel becoming more accessible, the desire to experience and discover new places, new languages, new accents, new foods, and new ways of life has become significantly easier. Landmarks and sights that were only heard of and only available via photos are now easily accessible and gives people a chance to see them with their own eyes. Whether it be for fun and pleasure, or to attend conferences and meetings abroad, everyone aspires to travel more. If surveyed and asked people around the world on what they would do with their free time, traveling would be on the top of their list. I think it’s safe to say that the draw of escaping from their daily lifestyle is a huge turn on for most people around the world and is a major trend in 2016.
Now, the statistics I pulled up on travel was surprising, even for me. I didn’t expect the number to be so high but here you go. In 2015, U.S travel and tourism industry generated over a trillion dollars! On top of that, international travel to the U.S will grow by 4.3 percent annually through 2020. To me and my future business, this GREAT news. Why? In my opinion, growth is one of the most important factor there is when it comes to opportunities. If there is no growth, I believe it'll be hard to have viable business that profits year after year.

So what is my business?

Throughout this course, I stood firm on the idea of a travel agency that assists tourists with booking/reservations, translations, and sightseeing packages in the U.S. My customer base is mainly focused on tourists from Asia and accommodating to what they want and crave to see when coming abroad to the U.S. However, as the semester went by, I decided to tweak things here and there to make my business stand out even more and have more ways to bring in money. I realized that I should not limit my customer base to just Asian tourists and I should broaden the base to ALL tourists that are visiting the states.

Why will customer choose our service?

I want to make my agency a one stop shop for tourists. Providing everything from translation services, pick-up and drop off services, real estate, immigration, tour packages, and even a rental car service. Having all those aspects that international tourists look for most might entice them to pay for our services. In addition to that, having a top notch quality service can also create a customer base that is always willing to pass on to friends and peers.

In terms of our services, here are the list of things I wish to offer to customers. 

1.)    Travel and tour packages: Offer several destination around the states that customers can choose from. Major landmarks and sightseeing are on the list and as well as customized private tours since not everyone has the same travel destinations

2.)    Simple Pick up and drop off services: These will be like our taxi/Uber aspect of our business. Trusted and timely can take you to places on a drop off and pick basis.

3.)    Real Estate: Offering realtor services to foreigners wishing to invest in the U.S and buying up land, houses or whatever they need.

4.)    Immigration services : For those who needs help with immigration services can also reach us and we will try get our team to help.

5.)    Rental Car Service: This is something I put onto my list of services recently because I feel like not everyone wants to be driven everywhere. Some are adventurous and might wish to explore the roads on their own. And because I am the type to try everything on my own and experience driving on different roads.

Who are the competitors?  What are their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities? 

There a lot of travel agencies out there at the moment but I believe that the weaknesses are that they are not as multi-faceted as mine. I will offer better services and MORE services than the others without losing the quality of those services. I also believe I will incorporate social media, and the drift of mobile devices to target a lot of people who are accustomed to doing business that way. Utilizing convenience, social, and spontaneity, I will try to beat out the competitors.

How would you organize a “business” to support the ongoing production of your new product, service, or process? How many employees? What roles are in the venture?  

I think the workforce/employee is the most important thing when it comes to my business. Because it is a servicing job that needs a human touch, training and recruiting those who excel in customer service would be preferred. I would have to start out with a decent size of employees to station everyone accordingly to each service area. I would say around 10 to 15 is a good number of people to start out with. Their roles would vary between the departments but I would stress that friendly service and customer service comes first.

What’s next for you? Assuming you launched, where do you want to be in five years with this venture? Where do you want to be, as an entrepreneur, in the next decade, and how does this first venture help you achieve your vision?

In five years, I would love to see this agency become a force in the travel and tourism industry. Becoming a staple for in terms of travel agency for the U.S. I think the company I want to compare my company to be something that is similar to that of Triple A. Covering everything from travel services to car insurance, the way triple A is, it’s a perfect comparison to where I would like my company to be like.

I think overall, this venture will help me get into many different aspects of business and when one service performs well, I can branch that out more and spin off to a whole different company.