Strengths

Your Strengths are those aspects of your business profile that give you a distinct market
advantage and upon which you can capitalize in your marketing plan. The category of Strengths
goes to those qualities internal to your travel practice, not to external factors like the economy.

Pull together into a list those qualities which are unique to your travel practice as well as those
which you might share with your competitors. Strengths build upon one another and a set of
qualities in combination may contribute more than a similar set with a key element missing or in
differing proportions. Begin with your unique selling point: why would clients turn to you as
opposed to your competition? What is unique about your agency? What qualities set you apart?
Perhaps it is your niche in the market place. Perhaps it is the personality of your agents. Your
strength may be in your legacy – the reputation you have built over the years. Treat your SWOT
analysis as a brainstorming session. Participants should feel free to name any quality that
resonates as a strength.

Picture

Be candid and honest in your assessment. Only list those qualities that are true strengths. For
example, listing your “website” as a strength is only valid if indeed it is a real asset to your
business. A poorly constructed or conceived website could in reality be a weakness, projecting a
poor image and costing you business.

Here is a sample listing of possible strengths for a travel agency:

Niche destination knowledge of Africa

Over 100 countries visited by combined agents

Excellent supplier relationships

Strong consortia membership

Reputation in marketplace is strong

Well placed in community civic organizations

Good press contacts

Adequate financial resources

Good location

Excellent customer list

Destination Specialist designations

Note that this is a list of features of the agency. A good additional exercise with this list is to
translate each feature in a list of benefits – what does each strength mean to clients? In fact,
that will be a key exercise when we look at the company’s opportunities. But first, we must do
an good job at assessing the less pleasant aspect of the travel agency’s weaknesses.

Weaknesses

An analysis of the weaknesses of any travel consulting business by its owner requires an
extraordinary degree of both honesty and humility. It is not easy to admit where your program
has weaknesses. Further, from the perspective of an insider, it is often difficult to even detect
some weaknesses. For that reason, the input and constructive criticism of outsiders is an
invaluable asset. It is likewise important to allow your insiders, employees and associates to
openly point out deficiencies during the SWOT analysis. The customer or associate who
provides constructive criticism is doing you a real favor, so be prepared to accept critical input in
the spirit in which it is given!

Every travel agency has inherent weaknesses. Being too small is a weakness – there are some
opportunities that cannot be taken on by a one or two person office. Being too large can be a
weakness if the size of your travel agency results in slow decision making or too-rigid policies.
Too few personnel, a poor location, outdated collateral can all be considered weaknesses. A lack
of experience is a weakness, as is a lack of capital. Remember that in the context of a SWOT
analysis, weaknesses refer to internal issues, not to externals such as a local competitor (we will
address the competition under “Threats”).

With reference to the other components of your SWOT analysis, weaknesses make it harder to
capitalize on Opportunities and makes the travel agency more vulnerable to Threats.
Weaknesses drain the inherent power of Strengths. It is easy to see the need to correctly
identify weaknesses and to find a remedy in as speedy a manner as possible.

Here is a sample listing of weaknesses in our hypothetical travel agency:

No experience with niche cruises.Picture

Only four agents – two of whom are new to the industry

Aging cookie cutter website with little traffic and no real interest

Irregular company newsletter publication

No understanding of social media

Small historical emphasis and budget for marketing

No substantial group leader program

Low year-on-year growth patterns

The identification of the travel agency’s weaknesses naturally will be followed on by a program
to shore up and remedy the issues as identified. Immediately, it is apparent that growth will be
a key target area and that assets need to be put toward marketing and product knowledge,
perhaps with some fam trips with niche cruise companies. Next, we will turn our attention to
the opportunities in the marketplace, and identify how the travel agency’s strengths will allow
the company to exploit them while shoring up some of the agency’s weaknesses.

Opportunities

We know our hypothetical travel agency’s strengths and weaknesses. Now, it is time to think
about the opportunities that the market is presenting. Opportunities are external to the
company and present the possibility for profit and growth IF the company can position itself to
take advantage of the opportunity – which is precisely what the SWOT analysis is designed to
do. It is almost certain that the company will not be able to take advantage of every possible
opportunity, so identifying the ones with the most potential is critical.

Analyzing opportunities requires a good working knowledge of local, regional and national
trends. Changes in the public perception of particular destinations, pop culture, improving
economic conditions, pent up demand or changes in local demographics can have real impact
on a travel agency’s opportunities. For example, the upcoming release of a movie can increase
demand for a particular set location as did Lord of the Rings for New Zealand. Getting ahead of
that demand curve might suggest a marketing campaign or a set of destination specialist
courses. Positioning a travel agency to take advantage of the building of a new local senior
citizen community is the type of advance planning that could be important to growth.

New company in town? Opportunity! Competition close down over the past year releasing both
clients and new personnel? Opportunity!

A good exercise is to look at your list of Strengths and determine whether they reveal any
possible unexploited Opportunities. For example, do any of your associates have destination
specialties that could be turned into opportunities? Do your press contacts suggest a particular
strategy with regard to public relations opportunities? Alternatively, examine your travel
agency’s weaknesses. What if you eliminated one of them – would that present a new
opportunity?

Here is a list of possible opportunities for our hypothetical agency:

Pent up demand for travel after recessionPicture

Concerns over terrorism create domestic travel demand

ABC Travel, a competitor, looks weak – no marketing during recession – laid off employees

Series of articles in local paper on River Cruising got a lot of attention

New Senior center has inquired about group travel

It is easy to see that opportunities may be fleeting. For that reason, a SWOT analysis cannot be
treated as a static plan but should be considered alive and organic. Not all opportunities can be
anticipated by the travel agent and therefore some room must be left for contingency and
unexpected opportunities.

Threats

I am almost hesitant to discuss threats to your agency or travel practice. Most of us too easily
imagine all the possible perils that await at every turn. It keeps us up at night. Worse yet,
threats can cause even the most stalwart travel agent to do the worst possible thing – nothing.
Threats have a way of making business people pull in their resources and withdraw from the
marketplace. The value of a SWOT analysis, however, is to recognize threats ahead of time and
to counter weaknesses and marshal our strengths so that we can not only exploit opportunities
but can counter, prepare for and diminish threats early on.

Threats are external to your agency. They might come in the form of a new competitor, a bad
national economy or conditions that are completely local to your community. A terrorist attack
anywhere in the world would be a threat as it might keep people from traveling. A resurgence of
swine-flu is a threat we all face this fall. Any of these events or circumstances would threaten an
agency’s ability to exploit opportunities, to grow and prosper.

Here is a list of possible threats to our hypothetical agency:

More terrorism might dampen demand for European travelPicture

The possible shut-down of a furniture manufacturer in town may cause economic distress
locally

An outbreak of a particularly virulent strain of flu may cause travelers to defer winter and spring
travel

Political chaos is causing market uncertainty

The competitor across town just affiliated with a large industry franchise with lots of marketing
dollars

However, each of these threats also suggests a course of action. New competitor? Let’s look at
how we can better bootstrap market. Bad economy? Adjust our marketing strategy to fit the
mood. Threat of terrorism or swine flu – sounds like a public relations issue to me – let’s better
educate our community. Taking action is the key to confronting and dealing with threats. We
have identified our strengths – let’s use them in defense of our travel practices!