STA TRAVEL

STA Travel

Table of Contents

PART 1: BACKGROUND ANALYSIS OF THE INDUSTRY1

The Market1

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis1

Threat of substitute products2

Bargaining power of suppliers3

Bargaining power of customers4

Threat of new entrants4

Competitive rivalry within the industry4

PART 2: EXTERNAL ANALYSIS5

PESTLE analysis6

Political Factors7

Economic Factors7

Social Factors7

Technological Forces8

Legal Forces8

Environmental Forces8

Usefulness of PESTLE Analysis9

Opportunities and threats9

Opportunities9

Threats10

PART 3: INTERNAL CAPABILITIES OF ORGANISATION11

Internal Capabilities11

Strengths11

Weaknesses11

PART 4: STRATEGIC ISSUES OF ORGANISATION13

Specific Issues to Study13

Hospitality (Accommodation and Catering)13

Transport14

PART 5: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS15

Cause of Issue15

Recommendations15

Recommendations Summary17

PART 6: EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION18

Evaluation18

Conclusion18

References21

Appendix23

PART 1: BACKGROUND ANALYSIS OF THE INDUSTRY

The Market

STA Travel is a global travel specialist with 30 years experience advising young people on holidays and adventures abroad. They offer a unique range of flights, accommodation, tours and expeditions in 90 countries and send over 6 million passengers away each year. STA Travel has over 400 branches worldwide. STA Travel Company provides all-inclusive academic tours of the top UK colleges and universities to students along with their parents. These students intend to study abroad in the UK.

STA Travel helps students and parents to make informed decisions and explore an educational investment depending on the degree sought. This company gives prospective international students a personal look at a university before applying, paying, and moving to study abroad. The company provides numerous tours in a year. Tourism is an all-encompassing industry that is defined differently by every country to suit their specific tourism needs. That is the reason why so many definitions for tourism exist. The following definitions have been selected in an attempt to summarise the essence of what tourism means for the purpose of this study. The tourism industry encompasses all travel, with the exception of commuting. Tourism includes any activity concerned with the temporary short term movement of tourists to destinations outside the place where they normally live and work.

Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

In examining the academic tourism industry surrounding the proposed company, Porter's 5 Forces Analysis was used to separate the market forces which will affect the feasibility of the company. Porter's 5 forces analysis required the researcher to examine the threat of substitute products, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of new entrants and competitive rivalry within the industry (Mintzberg, Quinn, Lampel and Ghosal 2003, p. 63).

Figure 1: Illustration of Porter's Five Force Model

Threat of substitute products

Several indirect competitors exist which pose a threat to the feasibility of the proposed concept (Mintzberg, Quinn, Lampel and Ghosal 2003, p. 63). None of these competitors will be able to provide an actual tangible experience of what it would be like to study at a preferred university by experiencing a campus first hand.

World Report's annual university rankings give many international students a trusted basis to make decisions about what university to attend without ever having a tour before enrolment and attendance. Academies in the UK which provide English summer camp programs for students offer the same security of exploring educational opportunities abroad. The company can partner with these academies to provide tours to students decrease the work ...