Benefits of the Idea
Discuss about the Travelling Business of Sustainable Urbanism.
In modern business times, it is of utmost importance for a business organization to undergo the process of innovation in order to make their business sustainable. If any organization fails to innovate new business ideas, then that particular organization will not be able to survive in the long run (Kuppuswamy & Bayus, 2018). This report will highlight the innovative idea of a travel mobile application, which will connect different tourists across the world like any other social media platform. This travel application will be launched by the business organization by Escape Travel. The organization plans and organizes travel holidays for customers (escapetravel.com.au, 2018).
Tourism sector has increased by a considerable percentage across the entire world. Australia is one of the top countries, where the number of tourists is on the higher side (Refer to Appendix 1).
In Australia, there are various tourists travelling in the country or across the world throughout the year. There are various reasons behind their travelling destination (Refer to Appendix 2). These reasons are as follows:-
- Exploring new places
- Attending any event
- Vising friends or family
- Academic purpose
- Short breaks
- Family outings
- International trips
However, the tourists face several problems via travelling. These problems can be in the form language barriers, cultural diversity, etc. Apart from this, there are several tourists who are planning to visit a particular tourist spot, however, they do not have any particular idea about theta particular place (Derudder & Witlox, 2016).
Therefore, it is of great essence to develop a mobile application for such travelers or tourists, so that they can connect with each other when they are in a particular place or planning to visit there.
There are several benefits associated with the given business idea. This mobile application will be useful to connect different tourists/travelers across the world, who are travelling or planning to go to a particular place. This will help the tourists in various ways which are as follows:-
- Eliminating the language barrier and cultural problems
- Homely environment for the respective tourist in an unknown place
- A tourist can take feedback of any particular place from any other tourist through this application
- People from different backgrounds, origins can connect with each other
From the business point of view, this mobile application can be considered as a profitable venture. The application will charge a membership fees from any customer after 3 months of joining. The members of this app can chat with other co-members via chat option. Not only this, they can call any particular co-traveler with his/her permission and the phone number of both the parties would not be disclosed. This application can be used a social media platform just for travelling purpose (Wirtz et al. 2016).
Proposed Business Model
Since, tourism sector is booming and certain tourists’ face several issues while travelling, therefore, the need of this application is inevitable (Linder & Williander, 2017). In addition to this, the respective organization can also enter into venture with several B2B business with other organizations in order to cater the market demand for the product (Brinckmann & Kim, 2015).
Key Partners Different Travelling agents Local Governments Various online payment platforms. |
Key Activities It is mobile application for tourists It can be used as a social media platform as well Minimizing cultural barriers across tourists of various countries. |
Value Proposition It will help to connect various tourists of different ages across various regions or countries. It will be of high brand loyalty if it is successful to cater the market for the first 3 months after its launch. |
Customer Relationships Direct interaction with the customers. Customers need to provide membership fees after first 3 months of free service . |
Customer Segments It will cater various ages of people travelling across the world Different classes of tourists can use this application for their purpose (Minimum 13 years of age) The user needs to provide a valid identity proof before becoming a member. . |
Key Resources High end technology to build the mobile application Human resource Start-up costs required for the online application. |
Channels Social media Mobile Application B2B business. Print media Television advertisement |
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Cost Structure Free-cost for initial 3 months of membership High-end costs for premium customers (Membership fees-Premium-providing calling facilities-Starting from $100 dollars) Normal membership fees (with no calling facility available) Taking advertisement fees in order to promote tourism of a particular region or country |
Revenue Streams Membership fees of the customers Social media advertisement Business to Business model via promoting several tourism areas/regions/countries (Demil et al. 2015) |
Table 1: Business model canvas of the given innovation
(Source: Barquet et. al. 2013)
The organization Escape Travel needs to organize all its resources before launching the mobile application. Resources can be in the form of human resources, marketing resources and technological resources. Without proper planning, the product would not be successful in the market (Casadesus?Masanell & Zhu, 2013).
The organization needs to do the proper market research before launching its product. The organization needs to understand from where it will get its potential customer base. Based on a proper market research results, the organization will be able to target their prospective customers. In addition to this, it can be inferred that the organization needs to consider the feedback of the tourists and take steps to build the application. The feedback from the tourists will help the organization to build the mobile application in an effective manner (Magnusson, Wästlund & Netz, 2016)
The given business idea deals with an online mobile application. Therefore, it is inevitable for the organization to use and implement effective means of technology in order to make the online application successful (Dang et al. 2016). The success of this idea will depend how well the organization is technologically strong. Therefore, for the initial few years, the operational costs of the firm may be on the higher side to make the business sustainable. Due to this reason, the organization needs to identify effective sources of funds in order to raise the start-up costs (Rapoport & Hult, 2017).
It is of utmost important for the firm to have a contingency plan in order to protect itself from systematic and unsystematic risks. Every business organization faces a threat of market risk, economic risks, technological risk, etc. Therefore, if the organization do not have a contingency plan in order to overcome the risk, then, its sustainability will be at stake. Therefore, the organization Escape Travel needs to have a contingency plan in order to make the business sustainable in the long run (Hovhannisyan & Keller, 2015).
The feasibility of the idea can be evaluated with the help of cost benefit analysis for the given innovative idea of the travel mobile app. The forecasted financial analysis of the plan is as follows:-
Critical Success Factors
It is expected that the given product will touch its break-even point after the first year itself, if it meets up with all the critical success factors. The net present value of the product is also expected to be positive after a span of time. This can be considered as a positive sign and the product can be considered as feasible in the long-run.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the given mobile application of Escape Travel is expected to be successful in the market if it is successful to meet the requirements of the critical success factors. The feasibility of the business idea can be considered to be positive based upon its benefits and market demand. Therefore, it can be said that the product will be sustainable in the long-run.
I have worked collaboratively with others in a positive manner, so that the assignment could be completed. Appropriate research work was done based on secondary analysis. The innovative idea was selected based on secondary research and literature review of the articles.
References
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Brinckmann, J., & Kim, S. M. (2015). Why we plan: the impact of nascent entrepreneurs’ cognitive characteristics and human capital on business planning. Strategic entrepreneurship journal, 9(2), 153-166.
Casadesus?Masanell, R., & Zhu, F. (2013). Business model innovation and competitive imitation: The case of sponsor?based business models. Strategic management journal, 34(4), 464-482.
Dang, H. S., Huang, Y. F., Wang, C. N., & Nguyen, T. M. T. (2016). An application of the short-term forecasting with limited data in the healthcare traveling industry. Sustainability, 8(10), 1037.
Demil, B., Lecocq, X., Ricart, J. E., & Zott, C. (2015). Introduction to the SEJ special issue on business models: business models within the domain of strategic entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), 1-11.
Derudder, B., & Witlox, F. (2016). ‘… Travelling, where the Opponents are’: Business Travel and the Social Impacts of the New Mobilities Regimes. In International Business Travel in the Global Economy (pp. 171-188). Routledge.
Home (2018) Escape Travel <https://www.escapetravel.com.au/>
Hovhannisyan, N., & Keller, W. (2015). International business travel: an engine of innovation?. Journal of Economic Growth, 20(1), 75-104.
Kuppuswamy, V., & Bayus, B. L. (2018). Crowdfunding creative ideas: The dynamics of project backers. In The Economics of Crowdfunding (pp. 151-182). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Linder, M., &Williander, M. (2017). Circular business model innovation: inherent uncertainties. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(2), 182-196.
Magnusson, P. R., Wästlund, E., & Netz, J. (2016). Exploring users’ appropriateness as a proxy for experts when screening new product/service ideas. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 33(1), 4-18.
Rapoport, E., & Hult, A. (2017). The travelling business of sustainable urbanism: International consultants as norm-setters. Environment and planning A, 49(8), 1779-1796.
Wirtz, B. W., Pistoia, A., Ullrich, S., & Göttel, V. (2016). Business models: Origin, development and future research perspectives. Long Range Planning, 49(1), 36-54.