appealing travel packages that strives creativity and innovation.
(Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The behaviour standards of Enterprise X are often related to personal contact, which means that there is at least a telephone conversation or a personal meeting about planning a trip. Enterprise X finds that personal contact increases the confidence in the company’s professional skills and ease customer’s purchasing decision of the trip. Enterprise X serves its customers in Finnish and in Swedish and the company are not using a paid telephone service. Telephone or travel expenses for meetings are not high.
(Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The strategy of Enterprise X in terms of distinctive competence is that all the employees have a great enthusiasm for France. For example, they all have personal experience and knowledge of France, they can speak French and are willing to continue learning about France and tourism and its trends in general. The personnel of Enterprise X keep its France knowledge up to date for example by making study, meeting and exhibition trips to France and by reading books, newsletters and local French newspapers. During the 15 years of existence, they have collected tacit knowledge into an electronic database.
(Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The representative of Enterprise X says the competitors of Enterprise X are small, flexible, specialized, high-quality tour operators like them, such as company a, company f and company g, with whom they also partly co-operate. Other competitors are for example summer cottages, sofas, renovation as well as investment companies. Reason for this is that these matters take money, time and mental effort as much as a holiday trip. The representative of Enterprise X does not see big charter tour operators as their competitors. She finds their competitor’s strengths are individual service and quality products. She sees multidisciplinary products as weaknesses as competitors offer trips all around the world and therefore, they have not a deep knowledge of the destinations they are selling. Many competitors are no longer wholly owned by Finns which she sees as weaknesses too. The
representative of Enterprise X believes that competitor’s goals are business continuity at a basic level (smooth execution), high customer satisfaction and
then sales increase and potential business growth. Many companies use a customer loyalty program as a strategy, but the competitor’s strategy of Enterprise X is probably quality product and word-of-mouth -marketing that works well. One competitor organizes annual customer events. The
representative of Enterprise X presumes that if there is a competitive situation their competitors won’t be startled, and they are confident in what they are doing. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The primary goal of Enterprise X is moderate economic growth. This means that their business is profitable and there are enough customers. It is
important that the personnel of Enterprise X enjoy and know their work and they wishes to be a humane tour operator for their customers. Enterprise X co-operates with the local French companies, which are for example small restaurants, family-owned hotels or bicycle rental shops. It is a bonus if these companies have an eco-certificate or if they use local and organic food
ingredients, but it is not a primary selection criterion at the current moment.
Enterprise X encourages its customers to use environmentally friendly transport in France, such as train, hiking, biking and group trips.
(representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
Enterprise X aims to be the customer’s first choice when it comes to purchasing a personalized trip to France. The long term objective of
Enterprise X as part of their strategy is to increase sales for company and association customers, as these customer segments are the most profitable.
In addition, the trip’s cost structure has been drawn up in a sustainable manner. Short- term objectives are set to support long-term objectives. The company aims to stay innovative with trip content planning, but the product range will be observed and reduced every six months. For example, if the partner’s service quality in France does not meet the requirements, the co-operation will not continue or if the product is not profitable, it will no longer be sold. Seasonality is also an important factor. Certain theme trips are most popular at certain times of the year, for example Champagne tours are very popular in the fall. All this is measured through sales figures and customer feedback. Enterprise X aims to grow networks in Finland by participating in various industry forums. This helps the company stay up to date and they can influence the industry themselves. It also helps to reduce the risks associated
with awareness and company’s decision making. Through forums, the company also seeks to find new niche segments to which it can offer their products and services. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
According to representative of Enterprise X (2019) the stars of Enterprise X at the moment are round trips attended by group of friends or couples. These trips often have a theme and trips can include a couple of accommodations, good food and wine, activities that are specific to that area and personalized service. Cash cows are group trips that are attended by partner companies.
These take time but are easy to produce and implement. Enterprise X is continuously modifying their travel packages and searching new partner companies. Question marks are company and association trips, because there seems to be demand and growth potential in this group. Dogs are educational trips (especially language courses) and city breaks. Educational trips are difficult to personalize, and city breaks are easy for customer to book without the help of a tour operator. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The representative of Enterprise X (2019) says that Enterprise X has
considered selling trips to Finland for Finnish and French customers. Products are reviewed every six months for a profitability perspective and Enterprise X constantly seeks new partners in France. Enterprise X has private and
business customers. Private customers’ segment includes alone travelers, families, couples and group of friends. Business customers’ segment include companies and associations as well as other tour operators. Enterprise X brings value for the customers by personalizing memorable trips to France.
Their trips bring genuine and unique experiences. Enterprise X desires to offer high quality without being ostentatious. Their service is reliable and easy to get, and customer has ability to influence to the travel package itself.
(Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
Enterprise X reaches and communicates with its customers to bring them value via telephone, home pages, Facebook and Instagram. Usually the first contact from the customer comes via email but sometimes also via telephone.
Enterprise X always calls back to the customer in order to get more
information. When there is a bigger group or a business customer in question,
Enterprise X organizes a personal meeting. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
The revenue streams of Enterprise X are one-time payments, which comes from profit margins, commission payments and service charges. Enterprise X does not own any real estate. Their physical resources consist mostly IT-devices, telephones and information folders (physical and electronical).
Intellectual resources include customer database and long-time
partnerships. Human resources are extremely important for the company.
The representative of Enterprise X says: the company would not be the same without these personnel. Financial resources are in order because
Enterprise X is profitable, debt-free and financially independent company. The key activities of Enterprise X are planning, making and delivering
personalized trips to France. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)
Enterprise X has strategic alliances between non-competitors. They co-operate related to marketing and trips for example with company h, company I and company j. The strategic partnerships between competitors are for example with company a to whom they subcontract ancillary services in France. The company considers important to network and be involved in events of tourism industry. This is important because Finland is a small country and co-operation is always worthwhile, says representative of
Enterprise X (2019). Buyer-supplier relationships include straight contacts to local French partners which assure reliable supplies. They are not having Joint Ventures currently. The cost structure of Enterprise X is mainly cost-driven but value-cost-driven cost structure is taken into account as well. The company observes customer’s ability to buy and for which price as well as company’s own selling aspirations and prices. (Representative of Enterprise X 2019.)