Explore Adventures Website Plan
Introduction and Business Background
Competition in the market for businesses and companies has heightened owing to the technological advancements that have changed the way people communicate and conduct their day to day activities. Businesses are, therefore, adopting technical models to give them a cutting-edge advantage against their competitors in the market. One of the technical models that companies are assuming is the establishment of an online presence through having a business website. Most of the businesses that lack websites are being edged out of the competition by rival businesses (Konidaris & Koustoumpardi, 2018). Websites have become a basic need for businesses focused on growth and development, as about ninety percent of purchase decisions are made from search engines. This data means that businesses that lack websites only account for ten percent of their market shares (Shaltoni, 2017). Business websites further indicate how professional business is giving potential clients trust to transact with the business. Through business websites, people can easily do background checks about companies to verify location, management, and official telephone lines without having to physically visit the business (Konidaris & Koustoumpardi, 2018). This report shall focus on Explore Adventures, a tour and travel company that specializes in handling inbound and outbound holidays for both local and international tourists. Explore Adventures has exclusive holiday packages to ultimate tourist destinations in China and outside China. The company handles transportation, accommodation, and meals for its clients while on holiday, making it unique from its competitors. The physical location of the company’s main offices is in Shanghai, China, with other offices in all major towns across China.
Business Goals and Website Goals
The main goal of Explore Adventures is to emerge as the best tourism agency in the Republic of China by offering exclusive holiday packages and deals to its clients at the best prices in the market. The company further intends to revolutionize the tourism sector by providing to its clients’ wedding packages, honeymoon packages, anniversary packages, and glamorous honeymoon packages, among others, to heart-warming destinations in various parts of the globe. Through the satisfaction of their clientele, the company intends to expand its market share by penetrating new markets that will enable its transformation into a global tour and travel agency. The transformation and growth of the company are highly dependent on the company’s website that will give it an online presence and expedite the expansion of its market share (Albayrak et al., 2010). Through the website, the company will exhibit professionalism and reach a larger audience interested in its services (Konidaris & Koustoumpardi, 2018). The website will also be a critical marketing tool for the company as it will have real-time customer reviews that will enhance the development of trust between the company and its clients. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Competitor Website Analysis
One of the major competitors of Explore Adventures is the Intrepid Travels, popular tours and travel company in China that specializes in International destinations. Intrepid Travels website has an awesome navigation pane that enables clients to easily browse the content of the website. The pages of the website are further linked up together in an orderly manner from the home page. The home page has an excellent and simple Graphical User Interface that is appealing to the eyes of most customers, making the website attractive. The website is further integrated with a live chatbot that enables customers to directly chat with the support without having to call. The site is also linked to all the social media platforms of the company to enable clients to keep in touch with the live updates of the company. However, the website lacks a live review sidebar that enables clients to rate and give their reviews on the company. As I will be developing Explore Adventure’s website, I will include components like an easy-to-use navigation pane, a simple and perfect Graphical User Interface, and a link to all the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Target Audience
The main target audience of Explore Adventures is those between the ages of twenty and sixty years living in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. Explore Adventures targets the middle class and the rich population that are the major occupants of the mentioned cities. Going on vacations and holidays is a luxury undertaking that is majorly prioritized by those that have a good income bracket. Those with low living standards would not spend their money on luxuries but rather on basic needs. Among the target age bracket, eighty percent are those with families or those engaged since the holiday packages that the company offers suits them well.
Forecasted Use Environment
With the prevalence of mobile phones, the target population of Explore Adventures uses their smartphones to access online information. Therefore, it is prudent to have a mobile customized website version of Explore Adventure’s official website to enable seamless navigation of the website by the target client. In the Republic of China, the center of Explore Adventure’s market, the most used browsers are UC browser, QQ browser, and Baidu browser. To increase the customer experience, the website would be customized as per the requirements of these browsers for easy navigation across all the pages of the site.
User Tasks
Sone of the user tasks enabled from the Explore Adventures Website are as follows:
- Users can book one of the available holiday and weekend packages.
- Users can pay in advance for the packages they have booked.
- Users can chat with support through the available live chat system.
- Users can give reviews and rate the services of the company.
- Users can initiate calls to customer care via the website.
- Users can explore the services offered by the company on the website.
Website Content and Development tools
The content for the website shall be divided into five sections that are domestic tourists, international tourists, destinations, holiday types, and about us. Each section shall open up to a new page that shall be linked to the home page. Under the domestic tourist section, packages suitable for domestic tourists shall be listed while the International tourist section shall have suitable destinations for international tourists. The holiday types sections shall have packages to specific holidays in the country like the Dragon Boat festival and Labour festival. The about us section shall have all the mission, vision, history, and the contact details of the company.
The most basic tool that I shall use for developing this website is the sublime text that I shall use for writing codes for the front end and back end. To enable clients to pay for the listed services, I shall integrate PayPal and western union plugins into the website. For the clients to chose their holiday destinations, a google maps plugin shall come in handy. A YouTube plugin shall also be necessary for linking videos covering some of the ultimate destinations of Explore Adventures.
Website Content Storyboard
Website Template Designs
Below is a snippet of the home page of Explore Adventures. The pages linked from the homepage are Domestic Tourists, International Tourists, Destinations, Holiday Types, and About Us, as displayed in the snippet.
Process Analysis
After fully designing and developing the website, I shall hand over the website to the management of Explore Adventures. The website shall, therefore, be owned by Explore Adventures and shall be managed by the Information Technology Department of the company. The head of the IT department shall be a website administrator and shall update information on the website on a day to day basis. Those in charge of the marketing department shall come up with relevant content and blogs that shall be posted on the website when need be. The customer care department shall be in charge of communication done via the website, that is, replying to emails and chatting with customers via the live chat system. As the developer, I will be in charge of any modifications that will require my expertise.
Marketing Techniques
Website marketing is critical in gaining traction for a website and reaching the target audience (Kaur, 2017). To reach Explore Adventure’s target audience, I will adopt digital marketing schemes whose chances of reaching the target audience is high. I will promote the website on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where direct links to the website shall be attached to the promoted posts. I shall also utilize short videos to promote the website on YouTube. Search engine optimization shall also be done to the website to ensure that it emerges top when someone searches for information relevant to tours, holidays, and travels. Email marketing shall also come in handy to keep reminding our potential clients of the available holiday and weekend packages.
Conclusion
The website aids businesses and organizations in gaining online presence hence boosting the sale of a company or organization. Close to ninety percent of purchase decisions are made from search engines, and hence businesses with websites have competing advantages over their competitors. However, after having a website, businesses have to invest in efficient marketing of their websites to facilitate a connection to potential clients.
References
Konidaris, A., & Koustoumpardi, E. (2018). The Importance of Search Engine Optimization for Tourism Websites. Innovative Approaches to Tourism and Leisure (pp. 205-218). Springer, Cham.
Shaltoni, A. M. (2017). From websites to social media: exploring the adoption of internet marketing in emerging industrial markets. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(7), 1009-1019.
Kaur, G. (2017). The importance of digital marketing in the tourism industry. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 5(6), 72.
Albayrak, T., Karasakal, S., Kocabulut, Ö., & Dursun, A. (2020). Customer loyalty towards travel agency websites: the role of trust and hedonic value. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 21(1), 50-77.