Background
World Travel Services Limited, established in 1947, is Thailand’s oldest and largest travel agency. We have more than 500 employees and a fleet of more than 100 modern road vehicles. 80 qualified bilingual and multilingual guides speak fluent English, French, Spanish, German and Chinese. Company provides many daily coach tours and 2-6 days tours throughout the country such as River Kwai tours, Phuket, Krabi, Samui, Pattaya, Trang, Hua Hin/Cha-Am, and Chiang Mai and also including many special package tours to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam.
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The company has its own tour desks in leading hotels at all of Thailand’s main resorts: 23 hotels in Bangkok, 3 in Chiang Mai, 1 in Chiang Rai, 8 in Pattaya, 4 in Hua Hin/Cha-Am, 3 on Koh Samui and 4 in Phuket. In additional, the company also arranges booking for steamship companies, airlines and rail travel. Through its affiliate Air Transport Service Ltd, it acts as General Sales Agent for United Airlines. It is also a BSP/IATA agent.
Vision
“To be the top of Travel Agent in Thailand”
Mission
Improve the quality of transportations
Having more connection with travel agent around the world.
Expanding our tour desk to all leading hotel in Bangkok and some other in tourist destinations.
Organization Chart
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Challenging of managing tourism business successfully
Rapert and Wren, (1998) discussed about the challenges of managing tourism businesses successful, the company must provide satisfying experiences for tourists and guests while profiting their owners. During the past 60 years, World Travel Service is exists in tourism business which has proved itself about the successful in making business strategy and policy. One of those strategy is serving the guests with most standard service tour throughout the country, our tours are standard because the guests will have the program mentioned by our staff from the tour desks about what are they going to see on that particular tour and how many stop that the tour are going to make and they will know about the time that the tours will finish and what time they should be back at the hotels. The tour guides are not allowed to sell any other programs that doesn’t mentioned on the tours. All above about standard service is related to Laws (2004) which mention as Standard Service Quality in tourism is very important, The level of service which management team sets might be higher (or lowers) than the client’s anticipation of service standards and the Quality Systems might not control services standards in ways which matter to clients .
Quality of Staff
GÓmez-Mejía et al (2004) discuss on choosing the right person for a job can make a tremendous positive difference in productivity and customer satisfaction. Sharpley (2005) described selection is very important recruitment and selection procedures that identify potential employees who will not only have a natural disposition towards service provisions, but who will also fit in with and respond to the organization’s service culture. So, these above 2 ideas are related to the way how World Travel Service selects and recruits their employees. Currently, most of tour guides graduated from Fine Art Department, Silapakorn University, who know information about Thailand very well. Some other graduated from abroad can speak English fluently which make our tour guides become one of the most standard tourist guides of the country.
Focus on premium and luxury tour
Eleri Jones and Claire Haven – Tang (2005) explained that trend of the luxury market have been raising and it will become the most important part of tourism industry. Now, World Travel Service does their marketing strategy on high-end market which focused on premium and luxury tour by providing extravaganza trips around Thailand. And it is more valuable than mass tourism which having only quantity but no quality of customers.
Weaknesses
Centralized Management
Pieniazek (2007) explained that power being consolidated at the top of the organization, risk is high if the top of the organization becomes incapable of leading the organization (death, illness, or massive organizational size causing a weak span of control) Employees also will feel less motivated to perform for the organization as they will not have an avenue for sharing their ideas on how to improve the organization. World Travel Service use Centralized Management style since their first operated in 1947 which continuously making decision by only one Thai owner of the company, Mr.Kusa Phunyarachun, 92 years old. In some urgent situation, owner cannot response immediately that why sometimes it can cause of failure and dissatisfaction.
Old Building and Old Facility
In hospitality industry such as hotel, travel agent, the geographical appearance is important. ICRA rating, (2009) discussed that the quality of company’s property is directly effect to the image of business. It’s not only to attract the customers, but also create the brand loyalty. The head office of World Travel Service has never been renovated since its first operation in 1947. Customer first impression can be impacted by the company’s surrounding such as reception area, furniture style, decoration, parking area, Vehicle.
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Technology (E-Tourism)
Galloway, Mochrie & Deakins, (2004) discussed that online technologies within the tourism industry have significantly impacted on communications, transactions and relationships between the various industry operators and with the customers, as well as between regulators and operations. World Travel Service also doing the e-tourism such as web based technology, online reservation, etc. All of this are play the important role for e-business if the company can keep doing well, it will bring a lot of benefit to company. In the other hands, the company cannot handle to have the excellent operation system and updated website, the company will lost more gain.
Opportunity
Affordable Winter Travel Ideas to escape the Cold
Christakos (2009) explained that many of tourists can’t afford the luxury Hawaii or Bahamas vacation but if they want to relax and enjoy themselves while escaping the blustery winds of the north, there are plenty of things they can do. Thailand stays warm all year round, and it is most comfortable during the winter months. It’s an increasingly popular destination for Australian and East Asian travelers who want both beautiful beaches and exciting modern cities like Bangkok, but there are often some very good deals for flights from the U.S. They don’t come around every day, though, so you have to snatch them up when you find them. World Travel Service can gain profits from tourists who want to relax in Thailand.
Thailand Rank Best “VALUE FOR MONEY”
Thailand has again emerged as the world’s best “brand” in terms of value for money, according to the 2008 Country Brand Index (CBI), the third consecutive year it has won this accolade. Thailand’s ranking as the “Best Country Brand for Value for Money” was announced on 11 November, 2008, at the World Travel Market, the premier annual exhibition of the global travel trade. The same Brand Index also ranked Thailand third in the category of “Friendly Locals and Authenticity”. (International Public Relation Division Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2008). Thailand is the one of tourist attraction which is valuable for the money. This thing will make us become the favorite choice for the tourist who has limit money for their holiday. So that is show about how much Thailand tourism industry could lure on the customer come to visit and some of them might use the service from World Travel Service.
Threat
Global Warming is threatening Thailand’s climate
The average of the world’s temperature increases and the serious natural disaster happens causing negatively effects on people’s health. The tourists are cancelled tours of World Travel Service because Thailand faces problems about natural disasters and disease problems such as depression, flood, H1N1 influenza and etc. Climate also influences environmental conditions that can deter tourists, including infectious diseases, wildfires, algal blooms, insect or waterâ€borne pests (e.g. jellyfish), and extreme events such as hurricanes, floods or heat waves. It is also a crucial determinant of tourist decisionâ€making. Seasonal climate fluctuations at tourism destinations and at major outbound markets are key drivers of tourism demand at global and regional scales. Weather is an intrinsic component of the travel experience and also influences tourist spending and holiday satisfaction (UNWTO, UNEP and WMO 2008).
Thailand’s political crisis
Ten Kate (2010) emphasized the economic costs from a long-running crisis have so far been largely confined to the tourism industry, consumer sentiment is declining and businesses are hurting. The crisis was hitting confidence, tourism, private consumption and investment. The United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and other countries have warned citizens to reconsider travel plans to Bangkok. World Travel Service is mostly focusing on the foreigner tourist so the company also hitting by this situation. The customer’s booking for this year is very different to last year. Many tourists cancelled flights, hotels, car rental bookings and other tourism activities. This resulted in another two quarters of a quiet period for Thai tourism. Ryu, S. JR. (2005) explained that political instability can increase the perception of risk at a destination and generates negative publicity, which results in an inevitable decrease in tourist arrivals. Risk perception can influence tourist decision-making and destinations can be severely affected.
High Fuel Prices Affect Tourism
The fuel price is increasing, so it’s effect to all industries. World Travel Service is directly affected by fuel price because all activities of company use the vehicle for transportation. The raising of fuel price increases the cost of the company but they could only slightly put on the price of their product. So they have to prepare themselves for handle this thing. Hupp (2008) explained that hotels, cruises, airlines, travel agent and others in the travel industry are affected negatively by high oil prices because transportation costs are higher, and consumers are spending less because of stress on their budgets.
Recommendations
Update company website.
The web site of WTS is far more out of date, The Company have been operate as the largest and oldest travel agency of Thailand but somehow about the company profiles is only four paragraph long which some time make to company not gain more trusts from the customer. There’re many things that we can put on the website such as pictures from the past until present, which transportations they were used from the past to now and also the number of tourist who using the company service. As now E-tourism is very popular, people would like to search from the internet about the company and price and the tour programs before they make a decision to buying it. So it’s very necessary to develop the company website immediately. Mason (2008) explained that information about tourism product is vital to assist the consumer in making choice. Electronic forms of messages about tourism products have certain advantages over printed source. Electronic forms can be more up-to-date and hence topical, they can be more visual and in relation to computerized systems. Increasingly, consumers are using internet sites for planning, searching, reserving and purchasing tourism products.
Improve more facilities in Guest Lobby Area.
The facilities around the reception area are very poor, for example the chairs are not nice and uncomfortable and there is only one sofa for guests to sit. Those who come early grab a good seat and for those who came late sometime have to sit outside or seat on a small chairs which is not suitable for our guests who actually have a large body. Also for our guests who spend over 2,000 baht for a full day tour and around 1,000 baht for a half day tour, this is expensive and I think the guests are looking forward to have a best of their time in Thailand by taking the tours with us started from a first minute when they arrived until the end of the tour. ICRA rating, (2009) discussed that the quality of company’s property is directly effect to the image of business. It’s not only to attract the customers, but also create the brand loyalty.
The improvement of transportation
The company should improve their fleets to catch up with trend in order to stay as a leading travel agency of Thailand from example the number of the company fleets is about 100, and half of that includes the previous series of Toyota Camry and Mercedes Benz bus are very old. Especially for the bus that have been using for over 20years old, many times it has break down while using on the tours. This is a big problem for us to solve this problems such as finding a local taxi in order to bring the guests to the closest destination to wait for other transportation that come from Bangkok to pick the guests. This process takes long time for everyone and of cause causing dissatisfy to the guests that they have to be waiting for so long which after all affect our company brand. Lamp and Davidson (1996) emphasized that the purchaser of tourism product must experience the trip to access the product, the quality of the transportation experience becomes an important aspect of the tourist experience and, therefore a key criterion that enters into destination choice.
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