Student Explorer

Krystine Mercado

Professor Bentum

HOTFS-431

30 April 2014

studentexplore.

There are over 17 million students enrolled in various colleges and universities in the United States, and many of those students travel during breaks from school. Students travel for many reasons, whether it be cultural, educational or for adventure. There is also no denying that many of those students are on tight budgets, busy with their school schedules and some even have jobs. For those college students with busy and hectic schedules, how convenient would it be for those students to go on a vacation with all the planning done for them?

I recently went on vacation for spring break, and I traveled to London, Paris and Cardiff. Although I immensely enjoyed my trip, it was not as easy as just getting on an airplane. For me, it took many months of planning, researching and budgeting. So when this project was assigned, I looked at what I wanted in a company. I wanted a company that would offer me competitive pricing on traveling, while keeping in mind that I was a college student and had very little time to plan. That is why I came up with the idea of creating a travel agency, whose target market are college students. While there are many travel agencies and student travel discount sites, there are very few full service travel agencies geared towards college students. My travel agency is called, studentexplore. I chose the name studentexplore. because “student” is a reference to my target market and “explore”  implies adventure and travel. For my logo, I went with the design of having the earth shaped into a heart. I felt that the earth was a great representation of my travel theme, and I chose a heart because I personally love to travel.

studentexplore. is a full service travel agency, geared toward college students. We offer students vacation packages tailored to their wants and needs at competitive pricing. To retain our competitive pricing, we have various partnerships with hotel properties in many cities around the world. This will create strong relationships for all properties and companies involved, while putting our guests up in exceptional hotels in their chosen city. Roundtrip airfare, tickets to a top attraction or experience, maps, a complimentary guidebook also come standard with the package. In various cities, our patrons will also receive exclusive discounts to top restaurants and stores. Students can also choose from a variety of add-ons to add to their package, depending on their budget.

To keep studentexplore.’s image fresh and innovative, we will have special deals and promotions to entice potential clients. Every quarter we will showcase a different destination, and our advertising campaign will focus on said destination. To figure out what destination is desired most by college students, we will use social media sites, like facebook and twitter, to gain their input by conducting polls every few months. We will also use those sites to highlight our featured destination, and use our website to showcase our advertising campaign. Another mode of advertising would be advertising in local college newspapers. Hundreds and hundreds of students view school newspapers on a weekly and bi-weekly basis. For example, I inquired with Chaffey College’s newspaper called Chaffey Breeze. Advertising in their newspaper ranges from $50-$450 depending on size, and they also have a discount for multiple runs of the advertisement. Although it may not be cheap, I believe it would be a great alternative for advertising to our target market. To further attract potential clients, we will also run promotions. The promotion we are currently offering, if booked within a certain timeframe, is free roundtrip airport transfers, which would otherwise cost extra.