Ace Travel, Nepal

CHAPTER-I
Profile of Ace Travels Pvt. Ltd
1.1 Introduction
The uniqueness of Nepal with its panoramic natural beauty and its rich cultural heritage has attracted many people to this country. It is a multicultural, multilingual and naturally gifted country. Nepal’s diversity attracts tourists. Its physical uniqueness offers a wide scope of activities that range from visiting jungle resort camps to trekking in snow-capped mountains. Tourism is important to Nepal as a source of foreign exchange and a major employment generator. At the time of writing the sector accounted for approximately 22 per cent of total foreign earnings (or 4 per cent of GDP).
Ace Travels.Com is a privately owned Travel Management Company. Ace Travels Pvt Ltd emerged as one of the leading Corporate Travel Company in Nepal. Ace travels made a modest beginning 2 years ago and is ranked as top four travel agencies in the Nepal. The hallmark of success is their founding principles of providing customer service excellence and understanding customer needs.
AceTravels.com, a travel company, intends to provide individual and group travel to leisure clients and is dedicated to making travel simple. With travel associates and corporate on-site personnel, Ace Travels.Com, serves the corporate and leisure traveler with both domestic and international travel service, all months of the year, 24/7. Ace specializes in a complete range of travel-related services and adventure activities, from five-star to budget class; which is called travel without borders. Services and products provided by Ace includes pre-arranged tours, custom packages according to clients specifications, travel consultation, and as time progresses making reservations for lodging amongst other related services. Ace seeks to differentiate itself as the premier adventure travel company in Nepal. In providing this full range of travel- and adventure-related activities, AceTravels.com continues to promote responsible tourism, sustainable development of the country and preservation of local cultures and traditions. As always, itcontinues to place a significant priority on the continual improvement of their services in order to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Company Location
At present the company office is located at Durbarmarg, the heart of the capital city of Kathmandu. The location is more convenient and easily accessible to all.It has its branch office at Thamel, Kathmandu. However, as time progresses the intention is to open up more branches in a prime area.
Vision
To be the 1st Choice of Company for Customers, Job Seekers & Shareholders.
Mission
To be Nepal’s number one Travel Brand.
Motto
Travel without borders.
Core Business Values * Fair Price * Integrity * Quality Service * Customer Satisfaction * Responsible Travel
The core value of the company is a significant priority on the continual improvement of services in order to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction. Ace travels mainly focus on travel-related services and adventure activities, from five-star to budget class. Ace Travels also focus on the promotion of responsible tourism, sustainable development of the country and preservation of local cultures and traditions.
Awards:
ISO 9001:2001 Certified Company
IATA Accredited Travel Agent
ICT Best Official Partner 2011

1.2 Product and Services
Ace Travels is a travel company that intends to deliver leisure travel excursions to customers.
The products and services of ace travel are generally concerned on two categories. They are- I. Customized services
An ace travel is mainly concerned over the customer satisfaction. It provides the services according to the customer needs and their individual interests. II. Fixed holidays package
Ace travel has its own seasonal packages. The packages may be domestic as well as international. Some of the packages are Beach Holiday in Goa 3N/4D, Luxurious London 4N/5D, Chitwan Safari 2N/3D, Gale Gaun Hiking 3N/4D.
The following are the products and services that Ace Travels is providing to its customers in both customize as well as fixed package basis.
Hotel Booking
Ace travels provide to their customers a wide range of hotel from budget class resorts and lodges to deluxe five star hotels as the customer like it. Ace travels further complimentit with competitive prices and reservations as per their customer’s needs, with best-in-class services to suit all their wishes and match all their economic consideration.
MICE (Meeting Incentives Conference Exhibition)
Ace travels also provide the facility of the MICE. When any mass functions like business conference, corporate meeting, educational seminars or anything else, ace travels provide not only the room but also the entire equipments and the necessary things.
Car Rental
Whatever it is for business or pleasure, ace travels has got a car to match their customers' needs. They offer the largest fleet of vehicles of all types from economy to luxury, any corner of the world. And our professionally trained staff and strategic partnerships add that extra excellence.
Other Travels Services
Ace travels also give the platform to their customers about the travels services. It provides the facilities booking of train tickets, bus tickets, and cruise. Similarly it also provides thetravel card, travel insurance and visa processing.
Air ticketing * Domestic Ticketing:
Ace travels provide the air ticketing facilities throughout the country. It has the collaboration with the some airlines companies like Agni Air, Buddha Air, Guna Air,Yeti Airlines etc. It has the network through which they are managing the ticketing program. * International Ticketing:
Ace travels provide the facilities of international ticketing also. It is providing the ticketing services to more than 200 countries to travel. It gives its customers the choices of more than 1000 airlines and more than 5000 airports to fly. Similarly it has more than 25000 flight combinations.
Flights, Hotels, Trekking, Holidays, & More.
Ace Travels offers tickets for mountain flights such as the Everest Experience Flight, Kanchanjunga Kissing Mountain Flight besides providing international and domestic air ticketing services. We also make arrangements for chartered flights.
Besides, Ace Travels provides services like in-bound and out-bound tours, trekking, mountaineering, whitewater rafting, jungle safari, hotel reservation, econ-tour and treks, special business tours, pilgrimage tours, honeymoon tours, and many other services as per the needs and choices of our respected guests. Moreover, we handle tours to Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling.

1.3 Capital Structure
An ace travel is a Private Limited companyincorporated at the Registrar of Companies.It has Rs.3crore of authorized capital. It has Rs.2crore of issued and Rs.1.5 crore of paid up capital.
Table no.1 Capital structure of Ace Travel Authorized capital | Rs.3 crore | Issued capital | Rs.2 crore | Paid up capital | Rs.crore |

Mr.K.P
CHAIRMAN
1.4 Company Structure
Ace Travels is basically operating on team based organizational structure.

ArjunDharal
CEO

Travel Manager
Ticketing Manager
Business Development Manager

Fig : company structure of Ace Travels
1.5 Recent News and Events:
Following are the recent news and events that held by the Ace Travels. 1. ICT Sponsorship
Ace Travel sponsored the recently held ICT exhibition. 2. Kriti award Sponsorship
Ace Travel sponsored the recently conducted Kriti award program. 3. Ace Travels Facebook followers crossed 100000 plus.

4. Ace Travel gave concern on constitution writing.

CHAPTER-II Analysis of Environment
2.1 Assessment of Internal Environment
Ace Travels is a new organization. So there are limited sources available. It is managing its manpower, mechanism and technology.
Human Resources
Ace Travels has more than 50 highly trained dedicated and professional employees within its two branches. Employees of the companies range from highly qualified and experienced senior managers to junior but dedicated professional staff.They understand that people are the heart of business and service. Ace Travel endeavors to hire personnel possessing the best qualificationssuitable for specific job requirements and attract them with high salaries and remuneration.They believe the need for the continuous learning process through their regulartraining programs to enhance employee’s efficiency and competence.
Management
The management team comprises of people who have spent their life times in the aviation industry. Ace Travels team consists of highly qualified tour organizers, who are in the tourism industry for the last two decades having an excellent connection in Tourism Industry.
Partnership
Ace Travels has the essential link between its Airline partners and the localtravel agents. The company has also highly competent tour, trekking and expedition guides with high motivation to work and good command over various languages.The success, reliability and consistency and ability to deliver are reflected by strong association with their sales agents and variety of links.They cooperate & coordinate with other related agency in order to maintain their service more competitive &qualitative. In this way, they have a good coordination with other agency & correlate with their respective agent like Trekking Agent Association of Nepal,Nepal Travel &Tour Agent Association,Pacific Travel Agent Association etc. It also looks for additional leverage by establishing relationships and representations with appropriate strategic allies.

Affiliation
Ace Travels is a member of various national and international travel and tour-related associations and organizations such as Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA), Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter.
Assets- Customer Service
AceTravels.com is available, at customer service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We can always contact by phone, by chat or by email, no matter which time of the day, no matter which corner of the world we are.They are very much committed in meeting their customer needs for enhanced customer satisfaction. Quality customer service is their greatest competitive strength. By consistently exceeding customer expectations, they retain existing business and gain more new business.
Security
Security is a top priority. AceTravels.com ensures that every transaction you conduct online is in a safe and secure environment. To achieve this, AceTravels.com is protected by Secured Socket Layer (SSL) technology by VeriSign, the leaders in encryption technology.
In addition, Ace Travels is committed to ensuring full security of all information provided through and transactions conducted at its portal. Information storage is on secure computers and information is encrypted wherever possible. When someone transact on our Site, they are assigned a User Name and Customer Security Codes and then use these codes to access their account. They monitor and review transactions on an on-going basis, to identify potentially fraudulent situations and take immediate corrective steps to mitigate/limit any damage caused/likely to be caused from the same.

Technology
Using streamlined processes, automated tools, advanced workflow management and advanced technology, Ace Travels is gaining competitive advantage and expanding its business as a result.Ace Travels is online with global reservations systems and invest continuously in technology.As it grows it will take on people and expand into related markets and services.It has online booking portal. The company has deployed information technology such as encryption method to convert the credit card information into bits of code so that it could enable to transmit securely over the internet.
Infrastructure
The company has most comfortable deluxe coaches and vans for large groups, and cars, land cruisers and small vans and limousines for small groups and VIPs. Most of the vehicles of the company are air-conditioned and well equipped.
Brand Image
Ace travels made a modest beginning just 2 years ago and now it has been emerged as one of the leading Corporate Travel Company in Nepal. Ace Travels has been successful in creating brand image as first choice of company for customers and shareholders as it provide quality service at a lowest guaranteed price.AceTravels.com is very committed to meet all their customer needs.For this, they are using social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter, flicker and YouTube to promote and build customer relationship and to gain popularity as well.
Goodwill
Ace Travels is ranked as top four travel agencies in the Nepal, just in two years of its operation. It has been awarded as ISO 9001:2001 Certified Company and IATA Accredited Travel Agent and appreciated as ICT Best Official Partner 2011.The hallmark of success is their founding principles of providing customer service excellence and understanding customer needs.

2.2 Assessment of External Environment
The external environment comprises of all the entities that exist outside the boundary of an organization, but have a significance influence on its growth and survival.An organization has little or no control over its environment but needs to constantly monitor and adapt to these changes, a proactive or reactive response leads to significantly different outcomes.
PESTLE Analysis
Political Environment
Political environment is an influencing environment especially in the tourism industry. Political instability of the country influences a lot on growing environment for tourism. However there are signs of recovery due to the stabilizing of political situation which was not in the case in the last decade, which influences on growing environment for tourism and growing number of tourists.Consequently, Nepal Tourism Year, 2011 was successfully held and Ace Travels effectively made an effort to promote this campaign and extend support and cooperation.
On the other hand, changing government rules and regulations, tax and tariffs policies had create unfavorable environment for Ace travels as well as other Travel and Tours.
Economic Environment
The economic environment is largely determined by economic system of the country.These include economic growths, interest rates, competition, inflation and exchange rates etc. In the Nepalese context, currently almost all economic indicators are in the favorable position. BOP is in historic high position, government is liberal in the tourism area, and remittance is in increasing trend. Hence economically tourism sector including Ace Travels has a golden opportunity.On the other hand, levels of disposable incomes and cost of living have a direct impact on the growth of company. The inflation rate and recession also affect the company.

Socio-Cultural Environment
Nepal is socially and culturally well-diversified country. There are more festivals than the days in a year. The different casts have their own language, customs, festivals, and varieties of food. Hence this differentiates Nepalese socio-cultural environments from rest of the world. This difference in the socio- cultural environments provides the greater opportunities to the tourism industry and of course for Ace travels.
Technological Environment
Technology is the crucial factor in the tourism sector because without the technology and internet access it is quite difficult to communicate and collaborate with the employees as well as customers throughout the world. Ace Travels invest lot of amount on the R&D activities to find out the customer’s needs and preferences by using latest and possible technology. Ace has been launching new packagesand has worked out the best price and option for travel related concerns in regular interval of time to satisfy the different customer's requirement.Through online business, Ace has been making new innovations providing quality service to all.Technology has been a boon to mankind and the technological upgrades would also help to show the advances and the progress of the country.
Legal Environment
It is the legal environments which have to incorporate by the industry. In the present situation the Nepalese legal environment is in the liquid situation. New constitution is drafting and the bylaws are also changing. In this situation Ace travels may get the opportunities as well as the threats. Currently the Ace Travels is running under the act of Tourism Board of Nepal, Company Act of Nepal. Similarly Ace Travel has to follow the terms and conditions prescribed by IATA, NATTA and other bylaws of the business partners like airlines companies.
Ecological Environment
Now the world is moving towards the eco-friendly operation. Thus the Ace Travels is operating within the boundary of the eco-friendly environments. AceTravels.com is highly committed to being a green travel company and is very serious with all our actions regarding how they can contribute to Preserve Planet Earth and hand this planet over to the next generation safely. Rising temperatures, drought and water shortages, melting glaciers and icecaps and extreme weather conditions bring the problem of global warming into our collective consciousness. The need to address this global concern, both on an individual, business and government level, has never been more immediate. Ace emphasizes to build a future that is less reliant on fossil fuels for energy and instead harness the efficiencies of renewable resources to fuel our homes, businesses and modern lifestyles. In many places,trekkers have left their wastage/belongings in the trekking trials & degrade environment in their wake to sleep.To minimize degrading environment,sharing ideas with the trekkers for the practice of eco- tourismhas been getting benefit since the establishment of Travels and Tours Companies. Their concept is not only to conserve the environment & culture of trekking sites but also increase the advantage to the society.
2.3 Competitive Analysis
Porter’s five force model of competitive analysis * Barriers to new entry.
There is no any hard and fast rule to entry in this industry. If anyone wants to start the travels and tours business then suggested company should deposit Rs.3 lakhs to tourism board and Rs.15 thousands to company registered office. So there is the high level chance of new entry. Simply there is no barrier to new entry. * Bargaining power of supplier. Available of huge number of competitors strengthen the bargaining power of the suppliers. Specially in ticketing, airlines companies have the strong bargaining power, * Bargaining power of customer.
There are almost more than 1000 travel and tour agencies which buttress the bargaining power of the customers. * Rivalry among firms.
There are almost more than 1000 travel and tour agencies. So there is a high level rivalry among firms. Recently NATTA published the following rank. I. Presidential travel and tours II. Jaya travel and tours III. Osho travel and tours IV. Ace travel and tours V. Titanic travel and tours etc.
Thus on the one hand Ace Travel has the challenges of huge number of competitors on the other hand it is quite difficult to become the best travel and tour company. * Threats of substitute products.
Obviously, as the number of travel and tours agencies is more than 1000, there are widely available substitute products and services.
Rivalry among existing firms
(High)

More than 1000 existing companies

Potential entry of new competitors
(Extremely High)
No Barriers.
Easy processing for operation.

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Bargaining power of suppliers
-------------------------------------------------
(Medium)
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Especially by the airlines
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Companies to provide tickets

Bargaining power of buyers
(Extremely High)
Online ticketing

Threat of substitute products
(Medium)
Low price
More 0Incentives to partners

STRATEGIC POSITION

Fig: Porter’s five forces model of competitive analysis
2.4 Conclusive remark (SWOT Analysis)
A scan of the internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). Such an analysis of the strategic environment is referred to as a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.
Strengths
Ace Travels proud in customer satisfaction as its main strength. Ace Travel is equipped with the capability to provide excellent customer service the reason the company has a loyal customer base. Among the services that customers have repeat purchase is the total holiday packages which are suitable for seasonal family getaways.
Further, Ace Travel provides personalized service as it caters to individual customer through customized marketing. Besides, Ace Travel is emphasizing in aggressive promotion and heavy marketing due to which it has become renowned and successful in creating its brand in just 2 years of its operation. Strong marketing communication activities especially online, this in relation enhance the market share. Ace travels provide 365 day’s service and 24*7 basis of operation to its customers.
There is also the presence of experienced staff within the company that is why familiarity with and spontaneity of the business could be ensured. Ace Travel is moving from being ticket issuer to travel consultant taking complete responsibility for the customers in need. Moreover, it not only provides the picture of the country to be interested customers but also lure them to visit country by attractive packages.
Weakness
The poor infrastructure and accessibility by air and by land represents a bottleneck for a considerably higher touristic inflow in Nepal. Drinking water and hygienic food also represent a big problem for the image of local tourism since they are not yet accessible on sufficient places.
Beside the above described weaknesses, the unmotivated and divided industry as well as the inadequate software and missing knowledge on different fields of tourism can also be mentioned.
As a new entrant to the industry, Ace Travel has limited resources and accessibility which are one of its weaknesses. On the other hand, Ace neglects the competitive environment and blindly believes on its own core competency which is its greatest weakness. It relies heavily on third party companies such as travel and reservation agents, administrative assistants and independent contractors. Another weakness is the fact that this Travel only thrives during peak seasons, leaving potential profitability during off-peak seasons.

Opportunities
As a permanent opportunity the Nepal’s tourism attractions and their unique and nature based activities are determining the diversity of the local tourism. Products like “Life time experiences embracing nature” as well as culture and adventure are joining into the frame of the country image.
Growing awareness towards Nepal among global audience and emerging markets are based on attracted natural and rural experience. The substantial growth in outbound tourism in neighboring countries like India and China represents a huge potential for the coming years.
Development of democracy and political stabilization of the country means a very encouraging factor for the further development of tourism which was not the case in the last decade.
The political parties in parliament have given their commitment to tourism as the most important sector of Nepalese economy. Consequently the “New Nepal” was awarded also a new tourist brand name and marketing promotion by The Nepal Tourist Board. State budget for touristic sector is growing although the experts in touristic sector still claim to expect more funding by the government.
The demand on Nepal as a touristic destination is still lasting on the global touristic market and a strong market appeal with huge interest is to feel worldwide. The Nepal’s nature by its beauty, diversity and uniqueness at the same time is representing a permanent strong point of touristic sector in the country.
Talking about Ace travels, it has only two branches so it has opportunity to serve more customers by establishing more branches throughout the country which helps in niche marketing.By acquiring small travel agencies, it can enhance its business.
Threats
Despite the improved situation of tourism due to the stable political situation the country is still the victim of the past image which is visible as travel reluctance for Nepal and through negative and strong travel advisories.
Due to international situation there are some declining figures already from 2002 and due to the very recent energy crisis it is a question if the growth of Nepalese tourism will be as high as expected on basis of favorable domestic factors.
If the need to strengthen the National air carrier will be neglected further, an additional trouble on the existing bottleneck of the air accessibility. Unfortunately there are many further threats such as low market resources which are insufficient to carry out sustained promotion activities, less scope for product diversification due to low investments, still relatively poor market confidence and respectively long haul traffic declination, other accessibility and cost problems due to poor infrastructure.
Additionally, threats from the competition on the global market and especially from close competitors like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Srilanka, Maldives where the resource constraints like low budget comparing to competitors, slow development of infrastructure also have an important negative role.
Nepal known as “Low cost destination" is earning less foreign currency as it could by better organized touristic offer and improved infrastructure of the country. Despite the official support of the politics to the development of tourism the priority of this economic sector is still not widely shown which gives lower results than expected by the local and international experts as well as wider public in the country.
In addition to the internal obstacles on the way of reaching higher image of tourism in Nepal unfortunately, there are external negative factors as well where a strong bargaining trend of international operators is identified. This trend is hard to stop again due to existing profile of a low cost destination.
Ace Travel totally ignores the fact of new entrance of competitors which can pose a threat in future of Ace, as a result. The presence of larger companies that are able to offer services at lower prices impose critical threat to Ace Travel’s operation. These companies could provide consumers with the ability to plan and arrange travels for themselves through their respective websites as well, eliminating the needs for travel agents. While there are existing competitors there could be also potential rivals on the rise that could follow the lead of big players. The penetration of International Travels and Tours Company may be a major threat to Ace Travels.

Fig: SWOT analysis of Ace Travel

CHAPTER-III
3.1 Summary
Ace travels.com is although 4th in the recent ranking by NATTA, it is trying to be the 1st travel company. Ace travel is willing to attract the valuable customers. The core competency of the Ace Travel is the marketing. It is investing a huge amount to make the brand. Similarly it is providing the fix as well as customizes products and services. It has the wide range of products and services. It is providing the luxury to budgeted class services. Thus it is making all range customers satisfied. Ace Travels has the different type of product and services. It is providing not only the travel service, which is the most common product of travel agencies, but also the tour facilities. It is providing the domestic as well as the international tours packages.
While conducting this study we found that Ace Travel has the renowned brand image not only in the customers but also in the eyes of its competitors. From this fact, we can infer two things. Firstly Ace Travel has the room to penetrate the market and cover the uncover market areas. Secondly competitors are being preparing to tackle with Ace Travel. Thus Ace Travel has to give more concern in these two areas.
3.2 Suppositionand Suggestions
Ace travel has found as the sunrise company. Positive perception in the mind of the customers and its partners have found while conducting this study. The following suggestions are inferred via conducting this entire project. * Ace Travel has the unique brand image. Customers are interested to take the services from Ace Travel but it has only two branches within the valley. Thus it is more profitable to cover the market throughout the country by launching more branches in potential tourism area like Lumbini, Pokhara, Chitwan, etc. * Ace travel is found that it is not given more concern to the competition, in this globalized era there are the potential competitors not within the country but also throughout the world, and thus omitting the competition is like fishing in the dilute water. Thus it is better to give more concern to competition and applying the competitive strategies. * Although it is known that Ace Travel is the eco-friendly organization but it has not done any activity related to the environment protection, thus it is advice Ace Travel to conduct some corporate social responsible tasks. * While observing the entire function of the Ace Travel we found that Ace has given more concern to the traveling rather than to the tours thus it is advice to Ace that it will be win-win situation to the Ace as well as to the country to gain more profit and disclose the tourism areas of Nepal.