ViVA LASVEGAS.COM!
It’s been called the city that never
sleeps! An ideal vacation spot with
everything from casinos, live entertainment, the finest dining, all
found in one location. It’s none other
than Las Vegas.
www.lasvegas.com offers
everything one needs to plan a vacation to this popular spot. Hotel and airline reservations from anywhere
in the world, entertainment, events tickets, hot attraction spots, restaurants,
map of the strip, weather, shopping guide, car rentals etc. This web site is full of information for a
Las Vegas vacation, available at your fingertips. As long as there’s access to the Internet, one can book and plan
the whole vacation without leaving the comfort of your chair! This travel
service creates convenience and comfort for anyone from a busy executive
planning a business or leisure trip to a housewife having trouble leaving the
kids to go research and book a family trip.
A PIECE OF THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY PIE
Online travel is
growing in popularity as people are becoming more comfortable booking their
vacations over the Web. Fifty million
people are using the Internet and more than 1 in 4 users are making their
vacation plans and reservations online, up from 1 in 10 in 1996. Travel reservations include the whole
package: booking and/or paying for an
airline ticket, hotel room, rental car, tours, etc.
|
Total Number of
Online Travel Buyers |
|
|
1996 |
25.3
million people |
|
1997 |
32.2
million people |
|
1998 |
41.0
million people |
|
1999 |
48.1
million people |
|
2000 |
54.2
million people |
|
2001 |
60.5
million people |
|
2002 |
71.9
million people |
|
Source: Travel and Interactive
Technology: |
|
Online travel
booking is garnering great revenues and is expected to continue to grow over
the next five years. Travel
reservations have tripled in sales from $276 million in 1996 to $827 million in
1997. It is projected that by the year
2002, sales could top nearly $9 billion.
|
Total
Online Travel Market Revenue |
|
|
1996 |
$276
million |
|
1997 |
$827
million |
|
1998 |
$1.9
billion |
|
1999 |
$3.2
billion |
|
2000 |
$4.7
billion |
|
2001 |
$6.5
billion |
|
2002 |
$8.9
billion |
Of
the people who use online services to book trips:
Ø
91%
are employed
Ø
52%
are professionals or managers
Ø
33%
have done postgraduate work
|
Profile of People
who book Travel on the Internet |
|
|
Total |
16.5 million U.S.
adults |
|
Gender |
|
|
Male |
57% |
|
Female |
43% |
|
|
|
|
Household
Income |
|
|
Under
$50,000 |
20% |
|
$50,000-$74,999 |
31% |
|
$75,000-$99,000 |
28% |
|
$100,000
+ |
21% |
|
Average
Income |
$91,000 |
|
|
|
|
Age |
|
|
18-34 |
44% |
|
35-54 |
48% |
|
55+ |
8% |
|
Source: Travel and Technology
1999, |
|
It’s not hard to see why the industry has
grown so much. The World Wide Web is a
powerful tool. As more people are using
the Internet, more people are buying online.
According to Statistics Canada, in
1998 Canadians that have used the Internet in their homes have increased 24.6%
to 4.3 million users, up from 3.4 million the previous year. By the year 2000, the percentage of
Internet users who buy online will reach 21.4% up from 3.2% in 1997.
The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) sees a
trend in people including gambling in their vacations. In 1996, 70.2 million trips have included
gambling. Also, there are more married
households taking vacations. What
better place to do these than in Las Vegas?
During the weekend, there are more visitors to Las Vegas than during the
rest of the week put together. But just
who’s coming to Las Vegas?
LAS
VEGAS VISITOR PROFILE SUMMARY
|
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|
Source: the Las
Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
The highest spike in visitor volume since
1994 was recorded for the month of September, according to the Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). The number of visitors to Las Vegas this past
September jumped 16.3 percent, to 2,928,201, compared to September 1998. The
16.3 percent increase represents 410,799 additional visitors for the month. For the calendar year through September, Las
Vegas visitor volume is up 10.8 percent, or nearly 2.5 million additional
visitors compared to the same time period in 1998. Las Vegas is on track to
bring in a record 34 million visitors for 1999. The total for 1998 was 30.6 million visitors. In 1998, visitors
to Las Vegas had spent over $24 billion.
As the industry grows, so does the
competition. It is dominated by a
collection of Web portals, including Yahoo and Excite; travel sites, such as
Travelocity and Expedia; and airlines, including Southwest Airlines and
American Airlines with all claiming to offer the user the lowest deals. Yahoo is the frontrunner because of its
reach to their customers.
LASVEGAS.COM
With so much competition, lasvegas.com has
to position itself from the others.
Las
Vegas is already a popular vacation spot and lasvegas.com is already a highly
trafficked site for future visitors to Las Vegas. It is setting itself up against the competition and trying to
appeal to the large market by offering distinct and special services to its
customers. The site is affiliated with
travelscape.com. Travelscape.com is the
only major travel site developed by an experienced and leading national
wholesale tour and travel company and has a reputation of being the best place
on the Web to find travel bargains, in addition to being the most-efficient,
full-service travel site online.
Travelscape.com is partnered with hundreds of leading hotels, airlines
and car reservation systems. This
relationship allows lasvegas.com to offer the best discount rates available in
hotel and air-hotel packages.
TARGET MARKETS
Wedding Planners
Wedding
Guides offers soon-to-be bride and groom easy access to all kinds of
information needed to plan a wedding in Las Vegas.
IMAGE: A romantic, exciting and simple wedding
package
PROMOTION: provides couples with the convenience of not
having to scramble around to 10 different places for research on prices,
availability, and wedding consultations.
Information available is very helpful to couples that don’t have very
much time to spend on checking all the details of the wedding. Target group is likely to be couples that
want a quick and small wedding, a get-away wedding with no traditional planning
involved. On this section, there are
guides on wedding wear, jewelers, restaurants for receptions, listing of
chapels, and even marriage license/certificate information.
Strengths: handy and quick online service for couples
that want to plan a quick wedding without all the hassles
Weakness: not a very large target market group since
not many couples would want to book their wedding on the net. Wedding planning is a too important event to
arrange on the net without careful research and time invested into the planning
process.
Honeymooners/Couples
A romantic get-away in an
exciting city that's full of entertainment.
IMAGE: Fun, exciting, entertainment-packed vacation
PROMOTION: This is the largest target market the web
site gears towards for their hot deals and entertainment attractions. Entertainment event tickets, hotel
reservations, fine dining and shopping guides, casinos info are available for
online bookings separately or as a package.
Among them, hotel and air travel bookings combination is the popular
ones. Hot deals and economic packages
are also available which include hotel stays, air travel and tickets to certain
hotel entertainment events. Millennium
deals are among the highest priced packages offered online at the moment. Attraction emphasis for these packages is
on prices (with many competitors), location of the hotels (close to all the
night life spots and casinos) and hotel reputations.
Strengths: Great emphasis put
into attracting this target market, young couples and baby boomers, on the web. The focus is on this group, who are
statistically the largest group of travelers to Las Vegas that are willing to
use new technology to make their vacation planning an easier process.
Weakness: This group is also the hardest group to
attract since many competitors exist to attract this group to use their
services as well. More options and
updates must be needed to cater this market.
Families
For
family vacations, the web site offers convenience and easy-to-access
reservations, as well as economical package deals to attract target group to
book a vacation for the whole family.
IMAGE: A vacation
that the whole family can enjoy with entertainment for both adults and kids.
PROMOTION: Though
Las Vegas is famous for its casinos, nightlife entertainment and fine dining,
it can also be a city ideal for families to visit. The web site offers guides and map sites on where to go with
kids. Listings of museums, motor speedways,
children shows and children services within hotels are some of the helpful tips
for parents to consider when booking their vacation in Las Vegas. Tickets to theme parks, museums and outdoor
activities are also available to book online along with hotel and air
reservations.
Strengths: some
sections, such as FAQs, museum guides are available for families and kids to
research on.
Weakness: Family trips are not a very big market, especially for web travel
services. Families tend to book through
their travel agencies for vacations. Plus the city as a vacation spot is not
very popular among families.
CONSUMER COMES FIRST
Lasvegas.com realizes that when making a big
purchase, like vacation packages, consumers like to take time to gather as much
information as possible when making their decisions. The site gives the consumer everything they need to make their
plans but in a user-friendly way that is more convenient to the shopper.
This web site offers its customers
convenience in many ways:
ª
The site is
information rich
ª
Allows the user to
select their own travel options
ª
Since there is no need
for a travel agent, rates are cheaper as overhead is reduced.
ª
Lasvegas.com offers a
to reimburse customers if they find a cheaper hotel rate
ª
The ‘click-less’
booking system at lasvegas.com makes the site easier to use and is a cost-efficient
way of satisfying the customers needs
ª Because there is no registration required to receive
rates, people can research prices without having to give up any personal
information before buying
ª
Although there is a no
risk guarantee, there
is also a reservation center that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, where
customers can call and talk to a specialist if they are not comfortable using
their credit cards online
Lasvegas.com offers more than one service. It lets the user choose whether they need an
airplane ticket, hotel reservations, car rentals or all three as a package deal
all at the lowest prices unlike airline sites that are only able to provide
cheaper air rates. This puts
lasvegas.com in a more favourable
position.
Another way in which they set itself apart from the competition
is by using the technology and creating an interactive tour guide that users
can go to for questions about traveling to Las Vegas. This is another way of offering customers convenience.
They also offer the benefit of security. Lasvegas.com provides a number that
customers can call if they do not feel secure about giving up their credit card
numbers over the computer. Customers
would make plans online and pay over the phone.
THE SURVEY
SAYS…
Lasvegas.com realizes that the number one
market to appeal to is the honeymooners/couples. The Travel Industry of America states that couples make up the
largest group of travelers at 61% of all travelers. Not only do they make up the most travelers but also the biggest
reason is for a romantic vacation. By
combining all the information on hot spots and romantic sites they are able to
cater to the needs of this group.
Prices are
a big part of what consumers are looking for.
Even though the profiles of Internet users that book online have a
high-end salary average, lasvegas.com does not ignore that some consumers are
price sensitive. When making plans, the
visitor is given a choice of prices for standard up to deluxe packages but
lasvegas.com guarantees quality no matter what the price. This is a benefit for the consumer.
Las Vegas is a city that brings to mind fun,
excitement, unique and no worries. By
putting the customers needs first and providing services that are different
from the competition, lasvegas.com is positioning itself as the site to go to
that is fun, exciting and unique to plan a hassle-free vacation.