Assignment 29A - Venture Concept No.2
Alternative Travelling
Opportunity
Just like the name of the company, we are providing an alternative for UF college students spring, winter, and summer breaks' traveling options. According to the sampling research conducted, UF college students at least traveled 1-2 abroad and 5-6 domestic with their friends during their time in UF. The most visited destination for traveling abroad in Spain and Mexico. From this research, it is clear that the demand to travel is high.
The fact that the demand to travel is high, especially to Europe and Mexico, there are many competitors that offer similar services with better resources. So, why Alternative Traveling try to tap into the traveling business? Because with the increase of social media usage, UF college students are more exposed than ever to other places to travel other than Europe and Mexico. Also, with the growing usage of social media, there comes the need for competition to become more relevant than others by showing off the things they do, the friends they have, and more importantly the places they've been. According to the sampling research, 7/10 UF college students have heard and wanted to go to Bali during their college time. This data supports the idea that UF college students are seeking to travel to places most of their peers never been to, and support the idea that they are exposed by "Influencers", individuals with a lot of following in Instagram or Youtube, that traveled and shared the experience through the social media platform regarding their travel in Bali. Indeed, the past 5 years, more and more Influencers and celebrities went to Bali like the entire Kardashian family, Justin Bieber, Scott Michael, and so on.
Although it may seem that the market we are trying to tap into is lucrative, the major limitation we have is regarding the amount of budget our targeted customer has to travel. Traveling to Bali will approximately cost 3x more than to Spain and Mexico, mostly due to the flights. As we know, most college students have a limited amount of resources and most also still rely on their parents' income. So why does Alternative Travelling tried to sell a service that is out of the targeted customer's resources? Because to be more specific, our targeted customer is not the entire UF college students, but UF college students that come from medium to high-income family, part of a fraternity or sorority that wanted to travel to places as a way to be more relevant than the other, and really wanted to explore the world by going too far places.
The fact that Bali is ranked No. 1 as the best tourist destination by TripAdvisor shows that the opportunity is the biggest at this moment since publication about Bali is high and there are more options for cheaper plane tickets since the competition in the airlines market to Bali is high. And, the size of the opportunity could potentially be big if the early stage of the service is done right by creating a sense of credibility towards Alternative Travelling.
Innovation
The idea of Alternative Travelling is not only to provide an alternative place to travel other than Spain and Mexico but also to provide our customer with a sense of traveling to an exotic, faraway place just like what "Influencers" and celebrities do and to allow them to show their peers that they are up to something cool that not a lot of people has experienced, allowing them to post in their social media and talked about it with their peers to gain recognition for oneself (narcism) which the 21st century Millenials seem to seek.
The exact service Alternative Travelling is trying to sell is an intermediary, a bridge, to connect UF college students with the right people and business in Bali. However, we will not promote ourselves as an intermediary, but as an expert and private traveling agency for UF college students traveling to Bali.
So, how will we make a profit if we only serve as an intermediary to the local traveling agencies in Indonesia and Bali? We will personally plan their trips through a face to face meet up, on the things they want to do like diving, surfing, partying, learning the culture, and etc. Then, we will contact our partners and discuss the price for all the things. Moreover, we will also arrange their plane tickets and hotels through our partners. After the final amount comes out, we will add approximately 20% service fee for Alternative Travelling. The customer will not know the actual price of the service given by our local partners since we will push our partners to lower down the price with the promise of long-term partnership and size of the group in order to maintain a low price after adding the service fee,
From a rough calculation done for the customer that are traveling with 4 other people for 10 days in Bali, the total cost of the trip would around $1500-$2500 depending on customer's preferred choice of plane and hotels. Moreover, this doesn't include their personal spending on food and souvenirs. So from the rough calculation, Alternative Travelling would make $300-$500 for one individual.
In terms of price, the advantage that we have is that we don't mind having a minimum profit since we don't have to have a resources to carry this out. Our goal is to get as much customer as we can to build a reputation. The limitation would be that we might not have sufficient control regarding the service done by our partners. Some sort of trust and communication should be done as early as possible to make sure they are in line.
Venture Concept
In the early stage, it will be hard to gain credibility which is the most important part in order for this business to work. Despite the obvious demand for innovation, Bali is a place that is 28 hours away from Florida and Alternative Traveling is a new company. So, how will we tackle this problem? Marketing.
We have to make sure that we will provide a personal service to defeat the big time competitors by selling me, as an Indonesian in UF with experience in traveling to Bali. We also have to share amazing pictures and videos about Bali to create an awareness. This could be done through guerrilla marketing and inviting Influencers that traveled Bali to share their experience directly or through Instagram and Youtube promoting Alternative Travelling and Bali.
Other
Secret Sauce
The fact that I'm Indonesian in UF with circles of friends that have been traveling to Bali many times. Basically, I have to sell and put myself on the line in order to gain the initial credibility.
What's next?
If Bali is successful, Alternative Travelling will branch out to other places in Indonesia that I'm familiar with like Sumba, Jogjakarta, or Flores. Moreover, with volume, the cost for our customer would hopefully decrease a well.
Where do you want to be as an entrepreneur in a decade?
I would use Alternative Travelling as a stepping stone for myself to learn about managing a business, how people from that part of Indonesia works, building connection and local support to hopefully gain enough capital to start a micro-finance business in Indonesia.
Feedback
From the comments and the "What's Next" interview, I'm fortunate to receive some constructive feedback that I considered in this Venture Concept. These are the following feedback I considered:
1. Focus more on lowering the cost of the flight
2. Maintain the expected level of service with the local partners is hard
Changes
From feedback No.1, I decided to change the way the service works by making sure the customer will plan and book the trip to Bali way ahead time, like 6 months to a year, depending on their budget since flight tickets will likely be the majority of their cost. By doing this it could save 30%-50% of the flight cost, especially if the customers are traveling with groups.
From feedback No.2, I decided to be there in Bali during the trips in order to make sure that everything works according to plan and there is actually someone that is watching the local partners because disappointing a customer that traveled halfway around the world just from bad service is extremely bad.
Opportunity
Just like the name of the company, we are providing an alternative for UF college students spring, winter, and summer breaks' traveling options. According to the sampling research conducted, UF college students at least traveled 1-2 abroad and 5-6 domestic with their friends during their time in UF. The most visited destination for traveling abroad in Spain and Mexico. From this research, it is clear that the demand to travel is high.
The fact that the demand to travel is high, especially to Europe and Mexico, there are many competitors that offer similar services with better resources. So, why Alternative Traveling try to tap into the traveling business? Because with the increase of social media usage, UF college students are more exposed than ever to other places to travel other than Europe and Mexico. Also, with the growing usage of social media, there comes the need for competition to become more relevant than others by showing off the things they do, the friends they have, and more importantly the places they've been. According to the sampling research, 7/10 UF college students have heard and wanted to go to Bali during their college time. This data supports the idea that UF college students are seeking to travel to places most of their peers never been to, and support the idea that they are exposed by "Influencers", individuals with a lot of following in Instagram or Youtube, that traveled and shared the experience through the social media platform regarding their travel in Bali. Indeed, the past 5 years, more and more Influencers and celebrities went to Bali like the entire Kardashian family, Justin Bieber, Scott Michael, and so on.
Although it may seem that the market we are trying to tap into is lucrative, the major limitation we have is regarding the amount of budget our targeted customer has to travel. Traveling to Bali will approximately cost 3x more than to Spain and Mexico, mostly due to the flights. As we know, most college students have a limited amount of resources and most also still rely on their parents' income. So why does Alternative Travelling tried to sell a service that is out of the targeted customer's resources? Because to be more specific, our targeted customer is not the entire UF college students, but UF college students that come from medium to high-income family, part of a fraternity or sorority that wanted to travel to places as a way to be more relevant than the other, and really wanted to explore the world by going too far places.
The fact that Bali is ranked No. 1 as the best tourist destination by TripAdvisor shows that the opportunity is the biggest at this moment since publication about Bali is high and there are more options for cheaper plane tickets since the competition in the airlines market to Bali is high. And, the size of the opportunity could potentially be big if the early stage of the service is done right by creating a sense of credibility towards Alternative Travelling.
Innovation
The idea of Alternative Travelling is not only to provide an alternative place to travel other than Spain and Mexico but also to provide our customer with a sense of traveling to an exotic, faraway place just like what "Influencers" and celebrities do and to allow them to show their peers that they are up to something cool that not a lot of people has experienced, allowing them to post in their social media and talked about it with their peers to gain recognition for oneself (narcism) which the 21st century Millenials seem to seek.
The exact service Alternative Travelling is trying to sell is an intermediary, a bridge, to connect UF college students with the right people and business in Bali. However, we will not promote ourselves as an intermediary, but as an expert and private traveling agency for UF college students traveling to Bali.
So, how will we make a profit if we only serve as an intermediary to the local traveling agencies in Indonesia and Bali? We will personally plan their trips through a face to face meet up, on the things they want to do like diving, surfing, partying, learning the culture, and etc. Then, we will contact our partners and discuss the price for all the things. Moreover, we will also arrange their plane tickets and hotels through our partners. After the final amount comes out, we will add approximately 20% service fee for Alternative Travelling. The customer will not know the actual price of the service given by our local partners since we will push our partners to lower down the price with the promise of long-term partnership and size of the group in order to maintain a low price after adding the service fee,
From a rough calculation done for the customer that are traveling with 4 other people for 10 days in Bali, the total cost of the trip would around $1500-$2500 depending on customer's preferred choice of plane and hotels. Moreover, this doesn't include their personal spending on food and souvenirs. So from the rough calculation, Alternative Travelling would make $300-$500 for one individual.
In terms of price, the advantage that we have is that we don't mind having a minimum profit since we don't have to have a resources to carry this out. Our goal is to get as much customer as we can to build a reputation. The limitation would be that we might not have sufficient control regarding the service done by our partners. Some sort of trust and communication should be done as early as possible to make sure they are in line.
Venture Concept
In the early stage, it will be hard to gain credibility which is the most important part in order for this business to work. Despite the obvious demand for innovation, Bali is a place that is 28 hours away from Florida and Alternative Traveling is a new company. So, how will we tackle this problem? Marketing.
We have to make sure that we will provide a personal service to defeat the big time competitors by selling me, as an Indonesian in UF with experience in traveling to Bali. We also have to share amazing pictures and videos about Bali to create an awareness. This could be done through guerrilla marketing and inviting Influencers that traveled Bali to share their experience directly or through Instagram and Youtube promoting Alternative Travelling and Bali.
Other
Secret Sauce
The fact that I'm Indonesian in UF with circles of friends that have been traveling to Bali many times. Basically, I have to sell and put myself on the line in order to gain the initial credibility.
What's next?
If Bali is successful, Alternative Travelling will branch out to other places in Indonesia that I'm familiar with like Sumba, Jogjakarta, or Flores. Moreover, with volume, the cost for our customer would hopefully decrease a well.
Where do you want to be as an entrepreneur in a decade?
I would use Alternative Travelling as a stepping stone for myself to learn about managing a business, how people from that part of Indonesia works, building connection and local support to hopefully gain enough capital to start a micro-finance business in Indonesia.
Feedback
From the comments and the "What's Next" interview, I'm fortunate to receive some constructive feedback that I considered in this Venture Concept. These are the following feedback I considered:
1. Focus more on lowering the cost of the flight
2. Maintain the expected level of service with the local partners is hard
Changes
From feedback No.1, I decided to change the way the service works by making sure the customer will plan and book the trip to Bali way ahead time, like 6 months to a year, depending on their budget since flight tickets will likely be the majority of their cost. By doing this it could save 30%-50% of the flight cost, especially if the customers are traveling with groups.
From feedback No.2, I decided to be there in Bali during the trips in order to make sure that everything works according to plan and there is actually someone that is watching the local partners because disappointing a customer that traveled halfway around the world just from bad service is extremely bad.
Hi Hans, great venture concept number 2 blog post. I really like how detailed your post is. This will make your journey as an entrepreneur much easier. It's important to persevere through any obstacles that come your way when things don't always go your way. Also, you made great changes to your post. Planning the trips farther ahead of time will make life much easier!
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