Appendix D: Travel and Tourism Case Study
Situation
ABC Travel and Tourism, is one of the oldest leading providers of travel and tourism (e.g., corporate, leisure travel) and related services including foreign exchange, insurance, and other services. It has been a regular recipient of multiple travel- and tourism-related awards from renowned and reputed global agencies. It operated primarily out of a brick-and-mortar model with branches and kiosks as its primary channels. It also had counters at multiple airports. It had only recently ventured into the online travel business. Its clients included leading corporations, banks, full-fledged and restricted currency exchangers, and individual travelers. ABC had expanded fast and wide, primarily through acquisitions. Recently, it had horizontally integrated by acquiring a hospitality chain and another large, leading regional travel and tour operator. It is currently identifying additional acquisition targets to become a one-stop shot for global travel and tourism.
Despite having a large presence and a large share of the market, this travel and tourism operator was facing several issues, including slow growth in revenues, primarily due to competition from low-cost online travel portals. It was struggling with increasing costs and shrinking margins, primarily through losses sustained by its brick-and-mortar outlets, along with competition from banks for low-cost foreign exchange (forex) and insurance, and several integration issues ...
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