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Table of Contents

Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................1
Task 1.....................................................................................................................................................2
Part a – Company profile.......................................................................................................................2
Part b - Performance.............................................................................................................................3
Performance in other areas...................................................................................................................4
Task 2.....................................................................................................................................................4
Part a - Actions to weakness..................................................................................................................4
Part b - Existing performance and strength...........................................................................................5
Part c - New areas..................................................................................................................................5
Task 3.....................................................................................................................................................7
Part a – Existing business activities........................................................................................................7
Part b – Review of business plans..........................................................................................................7
Part c – Action plans..............................................................................................................................8
Task 4.....................................................................................................................................................9
Part a – Proposed changes....................................................................................................................9
Part b – Plan........................................................................................................................................10
Part c – performance of the business..................................................................................................10
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................11

Executive Summary

The basic purpose of the assignment is to choose a company from the Dragons Den series of
the most successful startup companies and analyse their profile in detail with respect to the
industry the business is currently focused on, the organisation profile etc. the second part is to
analyse the actions which will enable them to overcome the current weakness and apprehend
the ways through which the strengthens can be maintained, the third part is mainly intended
to assess the business objectives and plans and review the plans to state the changes and
prepare detailed actions plans for implementing the changes and the last part is focused to
analyse the impact on the changes on the business and its employees, plan how such changes
can be managed well in the business. The company which is considered for the analysis is
Mainstage travel, a youth focused travel and tech company based in UK which is focused to
provide an unforgettable positive experience to the tourists who are between the age group of
18 – 24 years with low cost holiday clubbing.
Task 1
Part a – Company profile
Name of the business
The company which is considered for the analysis is Mainstage travel, a youth focused travel
and tech company based in UK which is focused to provide an unforgettable positive
experience to the tourists who are between the age group of 18 – 24 years with low cost
holiday clubbing.
Owner structure
The company was founded in 2011 by two entrepreneurs, Rob Tominey and Aden Levin,
who are mainly focused in offering rich and positive once in a life time holiday experience to
the youths, the company sold 15% of the stake to the Dragon investor Piers Lenney for a
value of $100,000. However, the original partners runs the company as partnership company.

History / Background
The business was started in 2011 with the main idea of offering low cost holidays to a niche
segment of the market, the company is always focused in creating a ultimate holiday
destination for the youths who are in the age group between 18 to 24 years, the major holiday
destination differs include the Ayia Napa, Magaluf, Snowboxx winter festival etc. the
company is in existence for more than 8 years and posted revenue of more than GBP 69.25
million and employs more than 70 individuals. With the continued success in the above
holiday destination the company has also added new destinations which include Magalove,
Croatia Rocks etc.
In the year 2013, the company has made a significant progress by receiving the funding
through the Dragons Den program, the source of funds received were nearly £100,000 to
Piers Linney, the entrepreneur has chosen Piers due to its technology which is focused to
offer the flight technology and booking systems for best festivals organised in Europe.

Activity
The company is involved in providing unique holiday experience for the youth segment
concentrating on new areas which are unexplored, this tend to bring more joyous and positive
thoughts in the young minds, furthermore, the company is working on various technology
aspects so as to combine the innovative technology with the tourism industry so that the
customers gets richer experience at lower cost. The company is focused to offer flight
technology services so that they can connect the biggest festivals in Europe and attract more
customers for the shows, the major clients of the company include Soundwave festivals,
Outlook, Snowboxx festivals etc. In the year 2014 the company has launched new technology
for hotels called Hotel2020 which is focused to support the travel industry the all new
technology will assist the hotel companies to sell flight tickets to their customers, make the
necessary transfers for their passengers at a very low cost, furthermore the customers will be
charged the same irrespective of bulk bookings or individual bookings hence they will be
charged the same making it more affordable.
Business locations
The company is located in London, UK. The following is the detailed location of the
company
Mainstage Travel,
245A Coldharbour Lane
London, SW 9 8RR

The business can be reached using the phone +44(0) 2071121101 or through their email:
info@mainstreamtravel.co.uk

Strengths and Weakness


The strength of the company is that it concentrates only on niche market with the focus in
providing unique combination of technology and travel. The business is offering low cost
fares for unique destinations and has catered more than 10,000 tourists in the past 8 years
which is a unique advantage. However, the weakness is that the company is catering only to
young adults of 18-24 years and offers the same destination year on year, the company is
having few destination packages and they concentrate only in UK and fewer European
countries . (Della Corte, 2016)

Part b - Performance
Similar sized business
Though there are no direct competitor to the company at the current location, the closest
competition is Expedia travel which is focused on offering unique travel experience to the
customers
Business in same industry
The various business in the same industry are :
1. Top deck
2. Expat Explore travel
3. Globus
4. Insight vacations
5. MacBackpackers
Industry averages
Great Britain is on the growth of tourism industry and the business is expected to touch a
total revenue of more than £225 billion in the next 6 years, with the expected growth of
nearly 9%, moreover the industry is expected to employ more than 3.5 million jobs
supporting the country in growth and development. (Batabyal, 2015). The impact of the
tourism business is amplified through the growth of the economy so its impact is more wider
than the direct spending levels. There is also a higher inflows of tourists from Asian countries
which is expected to have a inflow of nearly 1 billion tourists in 2019, a growth of more than
6.5% when compared with previous year. The major recovery in the European Union is
expected to add more revenue to the tourism business, furthermore recovery in Turkey, Egypt
and strong demand from China, Hong Kong and France will support in enhancing the
demand for tourism in the country. (Cole, 2012)

Performance in other areas


The company is mainly involved in the tourism operations and services, the company has
employed more than 70 employees to cater to the needs of the tourists, the business is
enhancing its operations through the application of new technology which will assist the
tourists to opt for the needed services during the travel and stay. The company is enhancing
the services with the assistance of its new clients like Snowboxx etc. however, they hold
various less clients and offer the same destinations in the recent years. The millennial
generations always look for unique experience with a personalised touch and self satisfaction,
therefore the company need to address the with the value for money, marketing the tourist
services in social networking tools like Web 2.0, implementation of new technology etc.
(Ljubicic, 2016)

Task 2
Part a - Actions to weakness
The major weakness of the company is that they have very few tourist destination and clients,
hence the service offerings were being the same in the recent years. the company is always
focused in creating a ultimate holiday destination for the youths who are in the age group
between 18 to 24 years, the major holiday destination differs include the Ayia Napa,
Magaluf, Snowboxx winter festival etc. this considered as a standard tour package for the
tourists. The company need to expand the office base in other parts of the country as they are
focusing only in London, the business need to enhance their existing technology in order to
attract more tourists, The company has the potential to expand to new tourist destination,
hence the business need to attract more investments, this can be done through raising
additional funds through crowdfunding or hedge fund investments. (Del Vasto-Terrientes,
2015). The company can also look to add additional services through tieup with domestic
hotels which can provide their customers a better place to stay and have food which can
enhance their travel experience. Furthermore, the business need to focus in expanding their
advertisement using new tools like Facebook, Youtube etc. this will increase the market
awareness of the company and attract more tourists from domestic markets and international
markets. The company is on the expansion phase hence more concentration to be given to the
quality of services, therefore a comprehensive CRM (customer relationship management)
team can be formed so that they can attract new customers and retain old customers. The
team can concentrate on higher education schools, colleges and universities so as to target the
population of 18 – 24 years of age, this also add to cross sell various services to the tourists
who look for unique experiences. (Cacchiani, 2015)

Part b - Existing performance and strength


The existing performance of the company is growing strong from a less than 1.5 million
revenue company in 2011 to more than 22 million revenue generating company in 2018,
which is considered as exponential growth. The company possess unique services and there
are no close competitors for the organisation currently in the domestic market. The company
is also concentrating only on the niche market of 18 – 24 years of age which is a welcome
measure as there is a huge increase of tourists in this age group. The company is having a
structured management team with the unique expertise in the tourism industry, these aspects
enable the customers to contact the team and get their details confirmed and sort out any
issues. The company employs unique team which supports the clients like Snowboxx
manager, Magaluf, AKA luke etc. these teams will liaise with the customers and provide the
needed information, assist them during the trekking and other tourism requirements and
ensure that the customers tends to get rich experience more than their expectations. (Hong,
2015)

Part c - New areas


Domestic tourism opportunity
The company need to focus in adding more tourism destinations located in UK and other
European Countries, the issue prevailing the Brexit may hinder the overall performance of the
company in the short run. However, they can look to add more destinations mainly in the
countryside which is the most happening tourist destination preferences among young
tourists. There is a huge opportunity in the domestic tourism with the expected turnover of
more than 30 billion in 2019 and the expected visitors were around 32 million. These aspects
can be focused by the organisation in order to overcome the issue of offering new and unique
services to the tourists, furthermore they can also expand the client base from the home
country as well apart from attracting the visitors from outside UK. (Cacchiani, 2014)
Attraction of international customers
The company need to focus in expanding the marketing innovations to other countries like
US, France, China, Middle East and South Asian countries, it is noted that most of the
tourists visitors to UK are from these countries, hence the company can now focus to move to
the international visitors and also increase the domestic visitors, these aspects will enable in
increasing the growth of the company in revenue and profitability, enhance their
sustainability as they do not focus only on 1 market. (Jankovic, 2011)
Other age groups
The management can look to attract the other age groups in the range of 25 – 34 years, who
are also interested to possess unique tour experiences, furthermore the generation Z and
Millennials are the top travellers in the current context, hence the management need to focus
on these age groups so that they can enhance the business presence, profitability and
sustainability in the future. (Batabyal, 2015)

Task 3
Part a – Existing business activities
The latest trends show that there is effective growth in transport and tourism, and that this
development is coming to an end. Countries benefit from adequate tourism, as they allow
them to increase their employment opportunities, sources of income and promote them
worldwide. The tourism industry is growing rapidly and tourism problems are increasing as
the economy grows. Evidence shows that the number of tourists visiting France is increasing,
but the number of visitors actually decreases, as the proportion of visitors in France is
significantly reduced. The estimated rate of growth is 2%, but real growth is only 0.1%. On
the other hand, Britain also increases the number of visitors effectively, but actually also
reaches a low interest rate. In the UK, the number of visitors increased by 5%, while the
planned rate fell by 6.1%. K is a rich culture because many different groups live and
contribute effectively to their culture. Important considerations are to incorporate various
things like literature, art, theater, music, comedy, fashion, education, media and philosophy.
Different religious groups live in the UK and their festivals enrich their culture. The rich
culture helps to solve a number of important issues such as language, food and drink as well
as tourist support. In most countries, poor culture prevents the development of tourism. (Della
Corte, 2016)

Part b – Review of business plans


Based on the overall analysis the company can focus more on the above stated areas like
domestic markets, concentrating in attracting new and unique age groups and also focus in
getting more tourists from international countries, these aspects helps the company to
enhance the business and sustainability. The UK is based on a much stronger and more
developed country. The foundation of society is strong enough because of the diversity of
religion. Diversified religion helps provide sufficient tourism support so that tourists do not
have to deal with problems such as communication problems and more. The natural property
attracts much of global tourism and is very effective in terms of British physical properties.
Many destinations attract tourists, such as seaside resorts, leisure facilities, opera and more.
Tourism is supported by your government as it promotes your tourist destination around the
world. National tourism requires efficient state support to improve its infrastructure through
the renovation, maintenance and service of these destinations. These activities provide
effective employment opportunities and are considered as a source of income for natives or
residents. The authorities use the resources available to renew the tourist destinations well.
Governments develop effective policies, rules and regulations for maintaining tourist
destinations. There are enough tourist destination limits to avoid various unwanted activities
such as junk, writing (unwanted modifications) and others. To increase the popularity of your
destinations, increase the security of your destinations. National or international tourists
should receive effective assistance from their government to increase their tourism. To
increase the popularity of tourist destinations, it is necessary to improve the quality of
services to attract tourists with ease. Tourist attractions are being improved and improving
local attractions, such as improving hotel and restaurant services.

Part c – Action plans


The following is the action plan of the company

Particulars Begin date End date Days required


Creation of marketing
team for International
tourists 02-15-2019 03-02-2019 15
Placing advertisements
in social networking 03-03-2019 03-18-2019 15
Monitoring the inflow
of tourists 03-19-2019 03-29-2019 10
Implementing data
analytics to analyse the
niche market trends 03-30-2019 04-14-2019 15
Collection of data and
interpretation of the data 04-15-2019 05-05-2019 20
Decision of the
management based on
the analysis 05-06-2019 05-21-2019 15
Implementation of CRM
team for effective
customer engagement 05-22-2019 06-21-2019 30
Getting feedback from
the past and future
customers 06-22-2019 07-07-2019 15
Implementation of the
strategies 07-08-2019 07-13-2019 5
25-May-19
05-May-19
06-Mar-19

26-Mar-19

15-Apr-19
14-Feb-19

14-Jun-19

04-Jul-19
Creation of marketing team for International tourists

Placing advertisements in social networking

Monitoring the inflow of tourists

Implementing data analytics to analyse the niche market trends

Collection of data and interpretation of the data

Decision of the management based on the analysis

Implementation of CRM team for effective customer engagement

Getting feedback from the past and future customers

Implementation of the strategies

Task 4
Part a – Proposed changes
The management should emphasize the possible characteristics of an efficient development
of the tourism sector. The nation must use responsible tourism as it helps to improve its
potential properties and minimize its negative social, economic and environmental
characteristics to increase the level of tourism. The nation uses revenues to ensure efficient
development of the website. In Thailand, responsible tourism is becoming increasingly
efficient as it helps to improve employment prospects, increase income and effectively
develop the service sector such as hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues, the level of
service. With the help of tourism, they can promote their culture all over the world. When
others know their tradition and culture, the number of tourists increases. (Del Vasto-
Terrientes, 2015). Their government is also beneficial as their currencies grow efficiently to
help them in foreign trade effectively. The best example is the UK. The British tourism
industry is showing stability and helping to improve tourism. This stability enables an
effective level of growth, employment and income, but above all to minimize the negative
effects on tourism. Several factors include adverse effects such as terrorist attacks, local
crimes and others. The UK government and the tourism industry are turning to technology
such as the Internet portal, social media and others to promote tourism. They utilize their
potential functions, such as culture and heritage, to attract many tourists to their country.
(Jankovic, 2011)
Part b – Plan
Information technology has played an important role in hospitality and tourism over the past
decade. The technology has helped to cut costs, improve operational efficiency and improve
customer service and experience. Customers and companies benefit from better
communication systems, reservations and customer support. The technology has helped
tourism and the hotel industry to replace expensive human work with a technical workforce.
This reduces labor costs, but also avoids customer service issues. Here are some examples of
how IT will further enhance the hospitality and tourism industry. The Internet has a great
impact on the hotel and tourism industry. Your first business experience visits your site about
your business. This includes searching for images and comments from previous customers. It
is important for a company to effectively use Internet advertising, social media, blogs and
online shopping to facilitate customer work, especially when competitors do the same.
Computer systems enable more communication between major hotel chains in different
locations. They help employees work on the same side and make it easier to access
information, improve visitor experiences. The customer's requirements, service information
and bookings are in the system. (Jankovic, 2011)

Part c – performance of the business

Revenu
e  
2011 1500000
2200000
2018 0
CAGR 39.89%

Employe
es  
2011 11
2018 70
f(x) = NaN x + NaN
12

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Conclusion

From the analysis it is noted that the business was started in 2011 with the main idea of
offering low cost holidays to a niche segment of the market, the company is always focused
in creating a ultimate holiday destination for the youths who are in the age group between 18
to 24 years, the major holiday destination differs include the Ayia Napa, Magaluf, Snowboxx
winter festival etc. The company is involved in providing unique holiday experience for the
youth segment concentrating on new areas which are unexplored, this tend to bring more
joyous and positive thoughts in the young minds, furthermore, the company is working on
various technology aspects so as to combine the innovative technology with the tourism
industry so that the customers gets richer experience at lower cost. The company is mainly
involved in the tourism operations and services, the company has employed more than 70
employees to cater to the needs of the tourists, the business is enhancing its operations
through the application of new technology which will assist the tourists to opt for the needed
services during the travel and stay. The major weakness of the company is that they have
very few tourist destination and clients, hence the service offerings were being the same in
the recent years. the company is always focused in creating a ultimate holiday destination for
the youths who are in the age group between 18 to 24 years. There is a huge opportunity in
the domestic tourism with the expected turnover of more than 30 billion in 2019 and the
expected visitors were around 32 million. The company need to focus in expanding the
marketing innovations to other countries like US, France, China, Middle East and South
Asian countries, it is noted that most of the tourists visitors to UK are from these countries,
hence the company can now focus to move to the international visitors and also increase the
domestic visitors
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contract theory perspective", Economic Modelling, vol. 47, pp. 180-184.
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Destination Experiences: Description and Point of View in Community Travelogs",Linguistic
Insights - Studies in Language and Communication, vol. 165, pp. 195-215.
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da Silva Oliveira, Eduardo Henrique & Panyik, E. 2015, "Content, context and co-creation:
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Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro, Departamento de Eletrónica, Telecomunicações e
Informática, Universidade de Aveiro & Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico de
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Hong, S. & Lee, H. 2015;2014;, "Developing Gamcheon Cultural Village as a tourist
destination through co-creation",Service Business, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 749-769.
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Ljubicic, D. 2016, "Analiza odrzivog razvoja turisticke destinacije/Sustainable Development
Analysis of Tourist Destination Case Study Dubrovnik", Nase More, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 29.

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