Introduction
The tourism sector in Turkey has been on a steady growth since 1980 when the country received 1.2 million tourists. This figure has increased almost 25 times as the country received 31.4 million international tourists in 2011. According to the World Tourism Organization branch of the UN (UNWTO) (2011), Turkey is ranked as the sixth most visited country in the world. This growth in the sector shows that there are business opportunities for potential tourism investors.
Beach tourism and tours to historical sites are the major products of the Turkish tourism sector. The country, however, offers other products such as health tourism, cultural tourism and spa tourism (Woodman, 2010).
Company Summary
Riany Tour Company will act as both a tour operator and a travel agent in the Turkish tourism sector. The company will provide airport transfers, car hire services and game drives to its customers and to those from other tour operators. The company will be started in July 2013 after completing the legal requirements of registration in Turkey. Riany Tour Company will have its offices in Istanbul; though, the company hopes to operate in various parts of the country.
Products and Services
Riany will offer tour operator services to domestic and international tourists. The company will develop several tour packages based on consumer needs and the demand in the global tourism market. It is essential to highlight that the company will offer pre-packaged tours and custom made itineraries.
The company will offer transport services as part of its product line. This is to ensure that the company diversifies its source of revenue; consequently, spreading the risk of financial losses. Riany will liaise with hotels and other tour operators that require airport transfer for their guests. The travel agency branch of the company will also sell their products to the tour operator arm. This is an essential step in creating an internal market for the company’s products. The tour operator arm of Riany will formulate some tours that will have game drives as part of their itinerary. When selling such tours, this arm of the company shall package them in a way that the transport services provider will be the travel agency arm of Riany.
Pricing
Riany Tour Company will price its products and services based on the trends in the market. This strategy is advantageous in ensuring that a company’s products and services are priced not too low or too high as per market standards (Schindler, 2011). This pricing strategy will be combined with the cost-plus approach to ensure that the company’s products and services are profitable.
Market Segmentation
The company will have two market segmentation plans based on the fact that it will have two categories of products: tours and travel services. The target market for the tour operator arm of the company will be health and heritage tourism. The company aims to provide tour packages that allow tourists visiting Turkey for medical reasons with an opportunity to visit some of the country’s historic sites such as the Blue Mosque. This segmentation strategy is based on the realization that some health tourists may only get one chance to visit Turkey (Woodman, 2010), and hence the need to maximize their visit.
The travel agency arm of the company will be mainly a B2B operation and will target tour firms and hotels in Turkey that find it not cost effective to own a transport system for their clients.
Budget
References
United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO] (2011). UNWTO Tourism Highlights. UNWTO. Retrieved from http://mkt.unwto.org/sites/all/files/docpdf/unwtohighlights12enlr_1.pdf
Schindler, R. (2011). Pricing Strategies: A Marketing Approach. New York: Sage Publications.
Woodman, J. (2010). Patients beyond borders Turkey Edition: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism. Istanbul: Healthy Travel Media
