Dream Holidays A Complete Tourism Network

Broad Objectives:

The broad objectives of the study are to identify the mechanism of marketing effects of Dream Holidays Ltd in Bangladesh and to present some facts, findings and suggestions to some issues of their marketing activities and to assess the requirements of Tourism business. This particular study on Tourism activities of Dream Holidays will help to understand the overall activities and functions of tourism business and the range of if tourism sector in Bangladesh. Dream Holidays is the company that provides us with a precise idea of the operations, on the basis of which we will be able to conclude the followings:

1. The concept of customized services.
2. The structure of Tourism business of Bangladesh.
3. The present state of Tourism business in Bangladesh.
4. Modes of Tourism business.
5. Recent trend and future of Tourism business in Bangladesh.
6. Problems and drawbacks of Tourism business.

Specific Objectives:

In order to know specific Tourism activities, I have chosen Dream Holidays. My specific objectives concerning

   1) To outline the objectives and functions of the company.

   2) To trace the history and operations of DH

   3) To highlight the mechanism and procedure of the company.

Source of information:

 This internship report has been done on the basis of both secondary and primary data collected from the Dream Holidays office. The primary data was collected through direct interview with the executives in top management of the company. The study is mainly based on qualitative information extracted from various published reports, documents, and brochures.

Scope of the report:

The scope of the report is to identify the basic marketing functions observed in the Building Technologies & Ideas Limited. It is an organization that is committed to building resplendent future establishments for its prospective customers. This is a firm that is devoted to creating urban life-styles with style and comfort. This report deals with primary marketing activities performed for the excellence of the organization. The areas that I focused on are stated below.

•   The management of the Products and Services of DH.
•   The process of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning for its offerings.
•   The analysis of its Customers along with the services.
•   The overall Pricing strategies and tactics followed by DH
•   The Marketing strategies followed by the firm.
•   An analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses of the firm in comparison to its competitors.

 Limitations:

My report on current activities of Dream holidays is mainly based on qualitative data. For this reason there was not much scope for us to analyze the other company’s quantitative profile or financial aspects, so I did not get the opportunity of judging the policies of the competitors in respect of any specific act.

This report is not a performance of professional and expert hands. So it does not represent critical analysis of the comparative success of Dream Holidays. It only states the ongoing facts and features of its activities

Strategic Planning is one of the most significant aspects of marketing. But, due to my limited knowledge, this report could not encompass this area of analysis. Moreover, due to lack of proper information, I could not focus on the areas of Marketing Research and Information and Product Development Strategies. These two aspects are the integral parts of overall marketing management. Price is one of the essential elements of mix marketing. But due to many environmental factor and as it is a company secret and in respect for the company I could not discuss properly of pricing strategy. That was a pleasure to be able to come up with my own view about the marketing strategy of Dream holidays.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary:

Submission of an intern report is necessary for the completion of my MBA program, this report includes my experience while working in Dream Holidays as a General Manager and an inner view of the working environment and organizational goals. As an employee of Dream Holidays I played the role of a team player and took some decisions on my own with a proper guideline. The activities and achievements of Dream Holidays are attached to this report for an evaluation. As a student of Tourism and Hospitality Management my major concern was to find the crucial Tourism and hospitality related activities in the organization so that I can fulfill the intern requirements. The scopes and the application of the prospects of Dream Holidays have been considered as an important issue. Referential customer portfolio will help us to get to know about the strategic and prospective growth areas. Tourism and Event Management companies occupy an important place in this report, I tried to come up with the potentials of the over all Tourism market and the strategies that can be used to develop an infrastructure. The scopes and application of these strategies will decide the outcome of the whole effort by Dream Holidays.

Dream Holidays: A brief overview of the company.

Dream Holidays a kind of business organization that sells travel related products and services to customers, on behalf of suppliers, such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, sightseeing tours and package holidays that combine several products. In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, Dream holidays have a separate department devoted to making travel arrangements for business travelers as well as corporate traveling groups.

After the completion of our final exam, we had to find a suitable place to get on with our intern to fulfill the course requirements, and I had the privilege to work for Dream Holidays, as a General Manager.

I will try to come up with a brief description of the organization as we move on to the other part of the report.

Location:

Being located at Motijheel, Dream Holidays have the opportunity to reach the business travelers and the target customer groups living in the Old Dhaka of the town.

Goal of Dream Holidays

• Establishing themselves as the leading Tourism company in Bangladesh.
• Building an infrastructure for extended Tourism Services.
• Building the trends and making people aware of Dream Holidays.
• Making An image of Dream Holidays and What it is all about to the potential customers..
• A study of the latest and most popular Event management and tourism services so that a platform can be set and a pre-planned measure to draw the attention of the potential customer can be taken.
• Widening up the capacity and extending the technical and financial capabilities of Dream Holidays.
• Coming up with new business trends.

Services:  Dream Holidays has a wide range of services to offer. Innovative and tailor made tour packages as well as advanced event management services are the major services of Dream Holidays. Along with    

1) Package tour.
2) Event management.
3) Air ticket and hotel booking.
4) Providing travel and visa processing information.

5) Customer oriented Tour operation.

6) Value added services.                  

Package Tours:

Dream Holidays arranges corporate or group tours all over the country as well as overseas. A fair deal of advertisings has to be done to attract the clients. There were a few cases where I had to get to the field or the corporate offices to close the sales with a presentation.

Event Management:

Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of festivals, events and conferences.

Event management involves studying the intricacies of the brand, identifying the target audience, devising the event concept, planning the logistics and coordinating the technical aspects before actually executing the modalities of the proposed event. Post-event analysis and ensuring a return on investment have become significant drivers for the event industry.

The recent growth of festivals and events as an industry around the world means that the management can no longer be a specialized service offered. Events and festivals, such as the Asian Games, have a large impact on their communities and, in some cases, the whole country.

The industry now includes events of all sizes from the Olympics down to a breakfast meeting for ten business people. Many industries, charitable organizations, and interest groups will hold events of some size in order to market themselves, build business relationships, raise money or celebrate.

Dream Holidays offer a variety of areas including corporate events like product launches, press conferences, corporate meetings and conferences and marketing programs like road shows, grand opening events, and special corporate hospitality events like concerts, award ceremonies, film premieres, launch/release parties, fashion shows, commercial events, private (personal) events such as weddings.

 Air ticket and hotel booking:

Dream Holidays plays the role of an agent for various airlines as well as some worldwide hotels. Booking with Dream Holidays can enable the clients to get a certain percentage of discount on every purchase of tourism and travel related services.

Providing information about the procedure:

In general, Tour operators give advice on destinations and make arrangements for transportation, hotel accommodations, car rentals, tours, and recreation.  They also may advise on weather conditions, restaurants, tourist attractions, and recreation.  For international travel, agents also provide information on customs regulations, required papers (passports, visas, and certificates of vaccination), and currency exchange rates. And also provide a vast amount of travel information on the internet.

Providing Information about the destination and other procedures:

Tour operators are expected to be able to advise travelers about their destinations, such as the weather conditions, local ordinances and customs, attractions, and exhibitions. For those traveling internationally, agents also provide information on customs regulations, required documents (passports, visas, and certificates of vaccination), travel advisories, and currency exchange rates. In the event of changes in itinerary in the middle of a trip, travel agents intercede on the traveler’s behalf to make alternate booking arrangements.

Tour operators who primarily work for tour operators and other travel arrangers may help develop, arrange, and sell the company’s own package tours and travel services. They may promote these services, using telemarketing, direct mail, and the Internet. They make presentations to social and special-interest groups, arrange advertising displays, and suggest company-sponsored trips to business managers.                                             

Customer oriented Tour operation:

Tour operators plan, organize, and conduct long distance cruises, tours and expeditions for individuals or groups.  The responsibility of the travel agent is to assist travelers with the constantly changing airfares and schedules, thousands of available vacation packages. To sort out the many travel options, tourists and business people often turn to Tour operators, who assess their needs and help them make the best possible travel arrangements.  Also, many major cruise ships, resorts, and specialty travel groups use travel agents to promote travel packages to millions of people every year.

Value additional services:

Tour operators assist travelers by sorting through vast amounts of information to help their clients make the best possible travel arrangements. Travel agents offer advice on destinations and make arrangements for transportation, hotel accommodations, car rentals, and tours for their clients. In addition, resorts and specialty travel groups use travel agents to promote travel packages to their clients.

Inbound tour destinations:

Dream Holidays operates inbound tour packages in various places. As far as inbound package tours are concerned we had these packages.

Our Best Deals:

Malaysia

Multiculturalism has not only made Malaysia a gastronomical paradise, it has also made Malaysia home to hundreds of colorful festivals. It’s no wonder that we love celebrating and socializing. As a people, Malaysians are very laid back, warm and friendly.

Singapore

Lying almost on the equator, Singapore is a thriving city-state that has overcome its dearth of natural resources to become one of the juggernaut economies of Asia. A dynamic city rich in contrast and color, you’ll find a harmonious blend of culture, cuisine, arts and architecture here. Brimming with unbridled energy, this little dynamo in Southeast Asia embodies the finest of both East and West.

Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand draws more visitors than any other country in Southeast Asia with its irresistible combination of breathtaking natural beauty, inspiring temples, renowned hospitality, robust cuisine and ruins of fabulous ancient kingdoms. Few countries are so well endowed.

Unique Tourist Attractions in Egypt

Egypt is a popular place which is known in the whole world because of its major role in the history. It is actually located in the North part of Africa. This houses wonderful monuments, historical attractions and activities. NileRiver is the most famous destination of the tourist because almost all the attractions are lined up along this river. Aside from this, Egypt also provides wide facilities for visitors and tourists.

                                               A Sample Travel plan

                         Dhaka – Bangkok  – Pattaya – Coral Island – Dhaka
                                                       05 Nights   06 Days

End of tour

Hotel Name:RegencyPark at Bangkok and Grand Sole at Pattaya or similar..

Package price:  BDT. 35,900/-  Per Person.

Basics of arranging a tour:

There are some checklists that have to be gone through when that comes to design a package thus the best of services can be provided to the customers. There were many cases where we had to come up with tailor made packages for the clients as well.

• Providing Basic Information.

• Booking the transports.
• Confirm accommodation.
• Dining arrangements.
• Provide security and guide services.
• Estimate the expenses.
• Coming up with an travel plan
• Executing the program.

Providing Basic information:

Providing information to the prospective clients through a sales presentation and making sure that the travel information is getting through to the target market through a proper channel is very important for a tour operator. Many Travelers opt for coming directly to the travel office to get to know about a certain destination without a prior set up of buying the services, that is why it is very important that the potential clients are provided with the information they seek which may increase our chances of getting a sale through a channel. If a tour operator has to succeed in the business he has to let his customers know.

Booking Transports:

Booking the transports is one of the most important things that are done by a Tour operator, whether that is a inbound or outbound tour that will definitely take some planning about the transports. When that comes to an inbound tour for example: Dhaka-Chittagong, one has to book the land transports like buses and an extended tour to Saintmartin or Coxsbazar may need a reserved sea truck or bus. For Outbound Tours there must be air tickets or Railway tickets booked. Many travelers go to India or Nepal by bus as well.

Confirm Accommodation:

Confirming the hotel booking plays a crucial role as well. There may be a case that the travel agency is having to deal with a large corporate group or a student group, that is why an early hotel booking always helps. In peak seasons that becomes really difficult to get a hotel booking as well. Categorized in terms of stars or the assumed services expected along with the value evaluation and expectation, a tour operator selects the hotels.

Dining Arrangements:

Tour operators do not only operate domestic tours but also in the international circuit, thus it may not be always easy to get the right cuisine of food at a certain destination. For example: When the destination is France, we are very unlikely to get a Indian Cuisine there at a reasonable price. Sometimes a tour operator may decide to take a chef with them who can prepare the meals for them. There are some people those whom fancy the local cuisines and they may not mind spending some money I some star rated hotels.

Providing security and guide services:

One of the major objectives of the tour guides is to provide security to the travelers. Dream Holidays have the most experienced and skilled people in the industry with years of experience and industry knowledge. There may be a case that a traveler group is having to face difficulties because of there lack of knowledge about a certain destination which is not expected and that is why many traveler groups are prepared to pay a handsome amount to an experienced guide. The security staffs of DH are well trained in protecting themselves as well as the travelers with licensed gun operation capability.

My Responsibilities:

As The General Manager of Dream Holidays, I had to play the role of a leader as well as policy maker. Along with the help of my colleagues, I tried to provide my best to the organization. I am listing a general

Designing a Tour Plan:

My first duty as the General Manager was to come up with  tour plan for various destinations. On some occasions we had to collect some information from our potential clients and go through a sales presentation thus we can get on with the planning process. There were times when our client groups asked for specific destinations as well as accommodation or food services.

Communicating:

Arranging a tour takes a lot of preparation .I had to communicate with the transport or Airlines for advance booking of tickets as well as booking the hotels and develop a plan B for emergencies.

Distributing the responsibilities:

That is extremely difficult for the General Manager himself to go through all the checklists and make sure that it is all getting done perfectly.  I had to take the help of my executives to ensure that the preparations are getting along nicely with a proper distribution of duties.

Accompanying the traveling groups:

  I had to go to a tour of Coxs Bazar and SaintmartinsIsland with Meghna group. These large corporate groups are a big source of our revenue that is why I had to keep a close look at this tour.

Key Account Management:

Different groups ask for different services and locations, that’s is why I had to play the role of a Key Account manager as well. On several occasions I had to go and meet the groups or individuals to know their exact desires and plan the tour according to that. Making sure that I provide the types of services that my clients look for is one of the major responsibilities. Some clients may look for affordable tour packages and there are times when the clients will prefer to have a personalized special tour.

Maintaining a good relation:

Establishing good relationship with other companies related to the industry is very important as well,  for example, that is always a good idea to build relationships with a ticket company and tour bus companies so that I may get discounted rates and nice accommodation when I avail their services,

 Trying to increase my contacts with different franchising hotels to get an affordable travel deal along overnight stay at famous hotels to my customers was one of my basic objectives and duties. I had to give something special to sell the package whichs no one gives in the competitive market so that I can plan my deals well.

Recruiting:

Finding competent staffs who can handle the corporate tours is also important. We had to look for reliable and friendly tour agents, tour operator and tour guides who will be responsible for the tour services that we offer such as romantic tours, family tour, senior tours and sightseeing services.

Following the client bases:

To improvise the sells target I had to introduce incentives and referrals to my current and potential clients. We decided to give corporate discounts to target companies. A tourism agency can also attract more people by giving group discounts and student discounts. The company might not make handsome profit on these tour packages but students and some other influencing groups help a lot in marketing.

The Marketing Mix of Dream Holidays:

Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

Product:

We have many inbound and Outbound packages. According to the customer’s demand we modified some tour packages and came up with new plans. We were prepared to offer the customers exactly what they wanted from us.

Place:

As far as my experience is concerned, I figured out that most of the Bangladeshi people look for an economy offer to travel overseas locations like Nepal or Thailand. Bangkok and Malaysia being a little more expensive than Nepal or Thailand is not the most preferred place for these types of travelers.

People:

Our major clients were the corporate groups as well as people traveling to overseas or inbound locations in their Eid or Puja vacations. There were some cases when we had to operate a student package.

Price:

If someone decides to stay in a 5 star hotel, the costing of a tour may go up to a percentage of 40% depending on the location. In some cases a traveler may choose to travel in business or first class rather than economy class. We had offers for various segments of people and groups,

Marketing Strategy

• Finding out the right customer segments.
• Making them aware of the services.
• Studying the Current trend and revise the business ideas.
• Making the customers aware of our latest offers.

Market Opportunities

We believe that by concentrating on the European travel market, offering a limited but extensive range of vacation packages and targeting our service at affluent professionals, we can meet the needs of our clients. Our specialized knowledge of Europe and adventure travel will allow us both to satisfy our customers and to surpass the services offered by our competitors.

We feel that by concentrating on European destinations, which is the largest market for both vacations in general and adventure vacations in particular, we will be able to have superior product knowledge. We will need to know only perhaps 100 destinations and activities well, rather than have only a passing knowledge of the 5000 adventure vacations available.

Our market research has also shown that many adventure travel agents are catering to the backpacker market, consisting mostly of individuals who are under 24 years of age and are generally very cost conscious. This can lead to very different types of clients ending up at the same destination, with some consequent dissatisfaction.

Customer Incentives

Publicity has the greatest impact on people’s choice of an adventure vacation travel agent, followed closely by having the right location and having a recommendation from a friend, relative, or colleague.

General press advertising seems to be fairly ineffective in this sector, and event specialist press advertising only brings in one out of seven clients.

Sales and Marketing

Excellent selling skills are vital in our type of business. Therefore all of our employees are fully trained in sales. Additionally, every month we  “audit” each other by observing half-a-day’s selling activity and giving feedback on strengths and weaknesses in skills.

We are using a “contact management” system that will allow us to monitor the effectiveness of different promotional strategies and of different marketing messages.

The key to our strategic advantage lies in having superior data on prospects and clients.

Hours of operation.

The telephone lines will be staffed 12 hours a day by live operators. During the period from 9 am to 9 pm our Tele Sellers are prepared to receive phone calls on land lines as well as dedicated cell phones, well known as a Hotline service to provide the callers with information about tourism destinations and other services.  We want to be available as their first point of contact with an informed friendly service.

SWOT Analysis:

SWOT analysis is a procedure to measure the strengths, weaknesses and the threats and opportunities of an organization. The analysis was done based on the current market situation and the existing as well as potential customers and some facts and statistics.

Strength of DH

Features: Dream Holidays has an extended number of services starting from arranging customized tourism packages to event management, that has to be considered as one of the major strengths of Dream Holidays.

Location: Location still remains a vital point to notice about Dream Holidays, located in the heart of the town Motijheel it has definitely spotted itself as a major tourism spots to gather at.

 Connections:  Dream Holidays have a extended connection with various industries

 related to tourism like hotels and Airlines as well as local transport companies and banks.

Strong client portfolio: Dream holidays have already got a strong client portfolio, Meghna Group and Fresh cement are some of their corporate clients.

Skilled and experienced staffs: All the employees of Dream holidays are skilled and experienced and when that comes to operate a tour all these points prove very useful.

 Weaknesses of DH 

Large Number of competitors: There are quite a few competitors in the market, for example Asian Holidays covers up to 50% of the total tourists that travels to Thailand form Bangladesh and Mountain club have managed to capture the Nepal tourist groups by a margin of 40 %.

Lack of investment: I noticed a lack of investment in some cases which may not help the organization when that comes to extend the market, if an organization have to be successful in the market scenario there must be an effort made to make sure that the potential clients get to know about the organizations. An extended investment policy will help the organization to come up with more revenue.

Marketing activities: As a matter of fact I did not see too much of a marketing activity in Dream Holidays, the top management decided not to go for the advertisements and try to pull the sales off with direct sales effort as they picked some young students to market the products.

 Opportunity of EBS

• A strong contender for becoming the market leader in the corporate sector.
• A strong client portfolio can lead to some ore corporate clients.
• The first firm to come up with a variety of customized ideas.

Threats of EBS

• Organizations with an extended advertising campaigns have appeared to be a threat for Dream Holidays.
• Individual Tourist groups have been declining in a large number.

Recommendations: Dream Holidays may find some extended advertising and marketing activities helping them.

Dream Holidays QUESTIONNAIRE

(Your replies are anonymous so confidentiality is assured)

1.  Gender:                 †Male              †Female

     Married:                †Yes               †No

     Children                † Yes              † No

  Age:                                      † Under 16                 Income:          † Under 10,000 BDT

                                                † 16 – 24                                             † 10000-20000 BDT

                                                † 25 – 35                                             † 20000-30000 BDT

                                                † 36 – 45                                             † 40000-50000 BDT                                                  †

45+Over 50000   BDT

Occupation:                  Self:………………………………………………………….

                                       Partner:…………………………………………………….

2. How many adventure vacations have you taken in the past three years?

•                         † None – never considered taking one
•                         † Considered, but not yet taken a vacation
•                         † Taken one adventure vacation
•                         † Taken two adventure vacations
•                         † Take at least one adventure vacation every year

3. If you take adventure vacations, how much do you spend per head per vacation?

•                         † Under 10,000  BDT
•                         † 10,000-!5,000 BDT
•                         † 15,000-30,000 BDT
•                         † Over 30,000    BDT

4. Whom did you buy your last adventure vacation from? 

•             † Traveled independently
•             † Directly from the tour operator
•             † Via the Internet
•             † From a specialist adventure travel agent
•             † From a general travel agent

5. How did you hear about the last adventure vacation that you took?

•                         † From a friend/colleague/relative
•                         † Via an advertisement in general press
•                         † Via the Internet
•                         † Saw it in the travel agent’s window
•                         † Via an advertisement in specialist adventure travel press
•                         † Editorial in press/TV/radio

6. What impressed you most about the people you bought your last adventure vacation from?

7. What did you dislike most about the last adventure travel vacation that you took?

                        † The other people on the vacation were not compatible.

                        † Too expensive

                        † The travel agent/tour operator did not properly explain the true

                           nature of the vacation

                        † The administrative arrangements were poor.

                       † Something else !   _________________________

8. What was the destination of your last adventure travel vacation?

                        † Europe                                                         † Asia

                        † N. America                                                  † Other

                        † Africa                                                          † India

9. If you have never taken an adventure vacation would you consider taking one from a reputable travel agent with proven expertise in this market?

                        † Yes              † No

10. Have you ever been on an adventure vacation organized by your employer?

                        † Yes              † No

Conclusion:

As a student of tourism and hospitality management, I am considering myself lucky to have been able to submit a report that is similar to my field of study and professional interests.