The agency that I reached out to for this project is a travel agency in Gainesville, Florida known as World Class Travel. The agency was established on November 1983 by its founder and president Robert Todd who was also the interviewee that I got in touch with for this research project (About WCT, 2009). The market segment that this agency targets is group tours and academic based excursions. This agency specializes in international travel, more specifically international airline booking. World class travel also handles many pleasure travel package programs primarily in Europe, Asia, and South America. They considered the lead travel agency for travel bookings to Peru. It peaked in 2008 generating half a million in Peru trips and travel accommodations alone. The company has valuable connections within the country with businesses and locals. The company began operating at 1.5 million gross revenue in its first year of operations back in 1983 …show more content…
What is becoming more relevant is going to travel agencies not for the average package tours those are being done directly through the internet sites of airline/hotel intermediaries, but instead the travel agency is supply to customers an experience that they are unable to book themselves. By forming connections to unfamiliar local experts travel agencies can make programs that are more tailored, specific, and unique that the current market is truly demanding (Todd, 2018). Robert described previous experiences that back his claim of this market shift. For example, one of the strategies that turned out to be quite profitable for his agency was capitalizing in the Peruvian market and leasing the properties there that allowed for an exclusive product that consumers were very interested in as it provided a unique and sustainable competitive advantage (Todd,