Invest in Bucket List Group Travel

Our website: https://www.bucketlistgrouptravel.com/

1.1 Bucket List Group Travel brings together like-minded travelers from across the globe to experience new cultures, the most breathtaking views, and learn new things about themselves along the way. We offer small group tours exclusively for Solo Travelers. We make travel easier and more social!

Background and Rationale:

• (2022) Google searches for solo travel since April 2020 quadrupled to a new high in April 2022, with demand evident across all age groups. Not only millennial backpackers but solo travellers of all ages joining small tour groups, forcing the travel industry to think differently about this fast growing travel trend. Source
• (2022) Statistics from every corner point to a rise in demand for solo trips. Data from Booking.com shows that pre-pandemic, only 14% of travelers were going solo, but by mid-2021 that number had almost doubled to 23%, while Google trend data showed that solo travel had risen by a massive 761.15%. Source
• Solo travelers and group tours (2021) Solo travelers “are joining guided tours at unprecedented rates, say tour organizers, with some companies reporting single bookings up 300 percent over those from couples, families or clusters of friends.” Source

Our company has shown steady growth of 10% in 2017, 2018 and 2019. As per the surveys and projections by big players in the industry, growth numbers seems much more promising in 2023 which makes this a right time for investment.

2.0 COMPANY VISION AND MISSION

2.1 Bucket List Group Travel’s vision is to become an E-commerce platform for Solo travellers. Provide 100+ trips with complete itinerary, available every week so that they get flexibility to chose time and place of travel. Use algorithms to suggest trips to customers such that we get maximum occupancy in each trip group.

1. Provide intercultural experiences by bringing together people from different nationalities and helping grow their perspective towards life.
2. Provide luxurious and well-planned experiences - so that they won’t have to worry about anything.
3. Provide safe and trustworthy travel.

3.0 MARKET ASSESSMENT AND OPPORTUNITY

3.1 Trends and Growth

• The pandemic almost completely stopped everyone from travelling for two years. Therefore, there is no more time to waste! People are eager to travel and check some boxes of their bucket lists. They don’t want to postpone holidays or wait on friends or family to travel; they are travelling alone and on their own terms.
• According to the Solo Traveler World survey lead in 2021 about solo travelers, 70% of 2,359 respondents are ready to travel internationally in 2022. That same survey shows that 66% of respondents don’t want to wait for others to travel and therefore prefer to travel alone. As for their motivation: 42% of the participants want to meet new people, while 41% want to be on their own for personal growth.

1. PESTLE Analysis – External factors affecting travel industry.

Overall, most of the external factors are in favor of solo travel industry. Environmental factors are also being taken care of in emerging startups as people value such companies more now-a-days.

1. SWOT Analysis – Strengths and opportunities for Bucket List Group Travel

If we are able to raise the initial investment, we would be able to minimize weakness and get less affected by external threats and expand quickly.

1. Market share

Global leisure Travel Market was valued at $4,405 Bn in 2021 and Projected to reach $6,347 Bn by 2027. 

Solo travel dominate global leisure market. (2022) Solo segment is anticipated to dominate the global leisure travel market due to various factors such as social media influence, different preferences and interests, psychographic traits. Source

The online travel agency market is expected to grow at CAGR of 13.1% during 2021-27. Source

Bucket List Group Travel specializes in North America market, which is the top market in wellness tourism. We conducted our maximum number of trips in Alaska and Hawaii in past 4 years.

4.0 BUSINESS VALUE PROPOSITION 

5.0 MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY

5.1 Positioning: We entered as a weekend getaway company in US, focusing mostly on great customer service, reasonable price and gaining loyal customers in the process.

Promotion: It was mostly organic promotion, on Meetup groups, Travel agent listing, Participating in offline meetups.

5.2 Challenges/risks/barriers

1. Many players in this industry are emerging, but no market leader yet with immediate brand recall for this market
2. This industry does not have high entry barrier, as initial investment is not big.
3. Big corporates can create barriers for small startups if they want to expand by providing more discounts due to their bulk bargaining power

5.3 How do you plan to mitigate these risks?

1. Provide many options at every possible time, so that customer think of our brand first for booking at any time and be assured that they will get a group to travel with.
2. We can compete with high discounts by providing more personalized experiences and excellent service.

5.4 Entry barriers for others

1. By maintaining our impeccable customer service even after the expansion, that would be our first priority. By gaining market share of group tour segment and gaining Customer loyalties with our services, we can create entry barriers for new entrants.

6.0 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

7.0 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

8.0 IMPACT SUMMARY

Mintel’s research found 52% of solo travellers were interested in taking an escorted tour. Price and security are the most important factors for solo travellers, but the mainstream industry is not doing enough to cater for this sector. He added: “In the groups market, escorted tours have the largest potential for expansion.” Source

8.1 Benefits for our customers

1. They would be able to meet people from different functionality
2. They wouldn’t have to wait for friends to book a trip.
3. Itinerary, different activities, transportation would be taken care of by tour planner.
4. They would get many options in terms of time and locations on our new platform.
5. They will get a safe and secure trip.

8.2 Top three measurable benefits

1. Save accommodation cost for solo travellers by grouping them with other travellers
2. Save transportation cost for solo travellers by shared cabs and group bookings.
3. Save time for our customers – quick planning possible as itinerary and people are already there.

9.0 REVENUE MODEL AND FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

9.1 Revenue Model 

Key source of earning would be profits from customers and sponsorships from other brands.

Most of our trips cost between $1000 to $3000 for a week, which is the most preferred range overall.

1. 25% profit from each customer.

1. Sponsorship on Trips – Mention Sponsors on Trips, Website trip page, Give T-shirts with sponsor’s logos, Social Media Posts

Total: $912,000 Revenue projection in 2023 ||  $7,920,000 Revenue in 2027

9.2 External funding

We are interested in selling our company for $500,000

Current valuation given below:

9.3 Potential Risks

1. Crisis times – like wars, pandemics directly effects tourism industry
2. Cash flow management – Giving installment payment option to customers and managing timely payments to all the vendors involved could get complicated
3. Handling last minute cancellations

9.4 Sustainable Model

1. Solo travel searches are increasing steadily in 2022, peak point on 3-9 July 2022. 
2. As Oct-Dec is festival time, people generally prefer to travel with family or visit their hometown. 
3. Peak months for Solo travel are from April-October each year.
4. Business is sustainable as Solo travel market is rapidly growing and we already have 5 years of experience in this industry.

1. Post-pandemic travel is going solo. (2022) Statistics from every corner point to a rise in demand for solo trips. Data from Booking.com shows that pre-pandemic, only 14% of travelers were going solo, but by mid-2021 that number had almost doubled to 23%, while Google trend data showed that solo travel had risen by a massive 761.15%. Source

10.0 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We have 4.9 rating from our previous customers, snapshot of some of those reviews below: