Strategic Entrepreneurship: Mobile App for Tour Guides in Singapore

This document presents a business plan for a mobile application designed to connect tourists with local tour guides in Singapore. It begins by outlining the background and rationale for the app, highlighting Singapore's thriving tourism industry and the increasing reliance on smartphones for service discovery. The plan details the market opportunity, noting the gap in the market for a dedicated tour guide application and the potential for streamlining the industry by providing a platform for ratings and reviews. A competitive analysis examines existing players like Showaround, Nuflit, and Triposo, emphasizing the proposed app's unique focus on the Singapore market. The target market is defined, with a TSS (TAM, SAM, SOM) analysis estimating a potential reach of 4.3 million tourists per annum. The plan also touches on revenue generation through advertising and the app's compatibility with major mobile operating systems. The assignment emphasizes the importance of market research and analysis in determining the project's viability and outlines strategies for attracting and retaining users. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students.

4/19/2018
Student Name
Strategic Entrepreneurship – mobile app to hire local tour guides in Singapore

Contents
Background...........................................................................................................................................2
Product information..........................................................................................................................2
Market and product entry Rationale.................................................................................................2
Industry.............................................................................................................................................2
Market Attractiveness............................................................................................................................3
Research and Analysis.......................................................................................................................4
Target Market....................................................................................................................................4
a. Where do you fit in the market?....................................................................................................4
b. How does this compare with your customers?..............................................................................5
Competition.......................................................................................................................................5
Showaround...................................................................................................................................5
Nuflit.............................................................................................................................................5
Triposo..........................................................................................................................................5
c. How big is the target market?........................................................................................................6
Target customers...............................................................................................................................7
a. Who are the customers?................................................................................................................7
b. What are the characteristics of the customers?............................................................................7
Countries contributing to the tourism include:.................................................................................7
MARKET RESEARCH...........................................................................................................................8
a. What research backs assumptions?...............................................................................................8
b. What is the market growth?..........................................................................................................8
c. Market potential............................................................................................................................8
d. What are the projections and share?............................................................................................8
Marketing Plan..................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................11
Appendices..........................................................................................................................................12
Appendix 1.......................................................................................................................................12
Appendix 2.......................................................................................................................................14

Background
Product information
Singapore is classified as a top-rated tourism destination and attracted a whopping 17.4
million tourist 2017. The number of tourist visiting Singapore is also increasing on an annual
basis at an average of 10% per annum due to the stable economic and political environment
offered by the tourist Destination. Each of the tourists visits Singapore with the intention of
experiencing the local attractions which can best be experienced by hiring a local tour guide.
As technology advances, entrepreneurs are being forced to develop newer and more
innovative business ideas so as to remain in business. With smartphones being the gadget of
choice among most people, the application has become a common way of searching for
services for most people (Wickham, 2006). Locating the right tour guide while on vacation in
Singapore is critical if you want to gain the best experience of Singapore but locating a
service provider is quite difficult since most are only out to make money.
Market and product entry Rationale
To solve this problem, we propose the development of a Singapore tour guide app to help
tourist locate the best service provider. Today there are several service search applications
which businesses or individual can access to gain an overview of services being delivered in
the market. Taxi services, handy mane and service providers, and businesses are all posting
their advertisements and selling their services on similar applications but touring guides
assistance is still not available for the public. There are also several travel advisors who offer
stiff competition to the project such as show around, nuflit and Triposo all offer similar
services making it important to deliver a unique service that tourist will be benefit from
directly.
Industry
To resolve this travel and tour dilemma a Singapore tour guide application for Android and
ISO smartphone shall be developed. This application would see the registration of both

service providers and customers who will be able to secure tour guide contact information
and later be able to rate the services. This will act as a very powerful tool towards guiding a
tour operator and service provider database and network and help also streamline the
industry. With the customer able to access tour operator’s services and also offer his feedback
will help streamline the industry by highlighting the good from poor tour guides in
Singapore.
In addition to streamlining the industry, it would automatically trigger the service providers
to maintaining a good conduct so as to maintain a positive reputation on the market
(Ratajczak-Mrozek, 2017). The internet, social media and review websites have been known
to expose businesses misconduct which has resulted in severally damaging many brands
image. This has made quality and customer satisfaction factors which every business must
address today to prevent damaging their brand's image which can result in serious long-term
losses.
Market Attractiveness
The proposed business idea will help boost tourism in the region as it would help build
traveller confidence towards visiting the region due to the transparent service delivery. With
more businesses and consumers inclined towards checking customer satisfaction and a
business’s reputation on the internet, businesses which have invested towards advanced IT
service delivering at registering huge growth and expansion. This is simply due to consumers
having built a much stronger trust with online visible businesses as they can easily run
background checks to determine the business's performance and conduct.
Besides transparency, an online presence also helps instigate competitiveness between
business rivals which is very important and benefited for the customers (Holtz & Havens,
2008). By launching a tour service application, most tour guides in the Singapore region will
register their services and will begin competing to deliver the best service so as to secure a
higher rating and customer preference. This will also automatically see the service providers
improve and deliver a wider verity of services to the customers at affordable rates so as to
help attract customers. These are major benefits for each tourist since they would be able to
experience Singapore in a better way.
Registration of customers and service providers would remain totally free so as to attract the
maximum number of users and help build the applications popularity among users. Revenue
would be generated from the sale of advertising space on the application which shall also

discreetly be positions to avoid distracting or frustrating the application user. The application
shall be developed to support Android, IOS, and Windows which are the leading operating
systems in the market (Laing & Mazzella, 2016). This would ensure the application covers
90% of all smartphone users thus maximizing the application's exposure to the users.
Developing and using smartphone application has become a necessity for most businesses
today since most people own a smartphone and are turning to use online services as opposed
to traditions services delivery method. This makes smartphone application development a
lucrative idea while considering the establishment of any new project or business as it would
help speed up network connection thus helping businesses develop at a rapid pace.
Research and Analysis
Before launching the products, it is essential to perform in-depth market analysis to determine
the proposed projects viability. Tourism has been identified to be a lucrative business, which
allowed domestics business generates considerable amounts of foreign exchange. But
keeping the tourism happy and satisfied plays a huge toll towards a nation’s tourism stability.
It is essential for the economy or tourism destination to deliver safer and transparent
facilities. Many travel and tour agents have been noted to take advantage of venerable
tourism and over charge them for the services, which deliver a bad image among
international tourism (Erickson, 2017). Many indentation tourist destinations are renowned
for such behaviour resulting in tourist avoiding that destination. With research showing that
tourist are more likely to opt for a stable and transparent tourist destination, offering the IT
support to help tourist access reputed service providers is rising in demand. Among tourist
making is a lucrative and promising idea business idea for a business to start up the Singapore
market.
Target Market
a. Where do you fit in the market?
Some major factors linked to the target market analysis would be determining our products
current market position. This requires the product specification to be categories based on their
features. This is important, as it would map the products current market position thus allow
further improvements to be planned. The product must initial its entry to the market from the
budget category to attract consumer and user attention. Gradually as the brand image
develops, it can move to the competitive than target high-end consumers after the brands has
developed a positive reputation and won consumer trust.

b. How does this compare with your customers?
Competition
The tour guide app assistance market is relatively new and only a limited number of
application available in the Singapore market. This makes the market relatively open to new
entrants as long as the right services have been delivered. With an estimated target market of
just 30% of 17, million tourist visiting Singapore, rivals would not likely be a major obstacle
for the proposed business (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015). On the contrary the project would
benefit from the competitors as it would help deliver important strategies used by them to
expand and tap in to the market.
Showaround
The application has registered 10 downloads on the play store which is a considerably low
number compared to the target market available. While it has a high rating of 4.3/5 star the
application is not being downloaded by a large number of users despite of their being a large
target market in Singapore
Nuflit
Netflit is a major tour guide player in the Singapore market but the business has under
developed mobile application and only reliant on their website. While the business is a major
player and attracts many travellers each year, many are limited to accessing the service via
computer or web browser which is considered inconveniencing by many smartphone users
who prefer using mobile applications. This is a major drawback linked to this competitor
leaving an open position the proposed business can infiltrate the Nuflit market
Triposo
Triposo is another major player in the business but focusing more if its operation on the
international market. This makes it less of a concerning competitor as the proposed
application would only focus on offering Singapore guides thus allowing for specialization
thus helping capitalize the market.
When compared to the competitors Product ABC can be classified as a mid-range product
due to the products specification being more attractive than most competitor application and
it being focused to deliver tour guide support only for Singapore. The closest rivals Show
around and Nuflet have expanded their operation abroad which has reduce their focus on a
single market. This is an advantage for product ABC since it will be able to deliver high

quality services to its customers by offering focused information related to the region which
is essential towards the products development.
It would also be distributed for Free which would eliminate the buying cost further attracting
users to opt for the application. While all the factors have been designed in favour of the
customer, the application is likely to be accessed and used by 30% of tourist visiting
Singapore each year. As per the 2017, tourist census reported 17 million tourist visited
Singapore thus the proposed project must be prepared to cater to 5 to 6 million users per year
which translates to catering for approximately 16,500 users per day on average.
c. How big is the target market?
TSS Model and Survey
To determine the projects viability, it is necessary to perform a TSS analysis to determine
important statistics related to the proposed business. TSS stands for TAM, SAM and SOM
TAM – Total Available Market
The total Available Market consistent of approximately 19 million tourists per annum, this is
based on the average calculated using the statistics from 2016 and 2017
SAM - Service Available Market
Based on previous visitor habit statistics it has been estimated that 25% of the tourism which
plan independent trips to visit the region. This accounts for 4.75 Million tourists that are
unlikely to consider using the application as a tour guide or advisor. Thus leaving
approximately 14 million tourists that will consider seeking advisory guides to locate the best
and most reliable service providers.
SOM – Share of the Market
Targeting only 30% of the SAM market the application is likely to reach out to 4.3 million
tourists per annum only for Singapore. As the application improves, are features and wins
user confidence the application will gradually increase its target market share by an estimated
10% per annum.
Each of these factors has a direct effect on the proposed businesses viability thus making it
important to perform an in-depth research analysis, which takes statics related to each of
these factors in to consideration and reports the results taking in to consideration the entire
projects viability. It is essential to ensure a TSS analysis of all market and customer

components are established, as this will ensure accurate data related to the product and
potential customers is attained which will help towards determining the projects viability,
success and growth rate.
Target customers
a. Who are the customers?
While the TSS helps determine and map the consumer market, it does not deliver accurate
results related to the target consumer. While a market may offer several million customers, it
is essential to filter the data to determine a target customer or user and factors, which would
influence users to opt for the service. The customers targeted by the application are people
that travel often. Singapore is an established as an attractive place for tourists. Therefore,
people tend to visit the place more often to relax and enjoy the scenic beauty of the country.
The target market of the application can be the people that have visited the country for the
first time so that the loyalty of the customers can be maintained. For this the development of
the service of the application is essential.
At the same time, the service provided by the application opens up opportunities for the
participation of the local Singapore people. For example, the application can target people
that are fluent in more than one language. People with the knowledge of Mandarin, Tamil or
Malay can assist people that visit from China, India or Malaysia (Kemmer & Ehnert,
2012).This provides an opportunity for the local people to earn money and be employed.
With this initiative, the application can expand its horizons in the Singaporean market.
b. What are the characteristics of the customers?
The demographic characteristics of the customers are from different regions. The local people
of Singapore are also targeted as customers as both tourists as well as service providers.
People willing to travel great distance to enjoy the beauty of the country are provided with an
opportunity to enjoy the application (Refer to appendix 2 for empathy map).
Countries contributing to the tourism include:
Country Number Percentage
SOUTHEAST ASIA 5788120 34.23953%
GREATER CHINA 4897440 28.97072%
NORTH ASIA 1136430 6.722532%
SOUTH ASIA 1105550 6.539862%

WEST ASIA 125810 0.744227%
AMERICAS 723760 4.28139%
EUROPE 1770030 10.47058%
OCEANIA 1287190 7.614351%
AFRICA 70460 0.416805%
TOTAL 16,904,790 100%
As observed from the above evolution South East Asia, Greater China, Europe and Oceania
constitute to the majority of tourism visiting the region accumulating to 13,742,780 of the
tourism which is approximately 81.3% of all tourism visiting Singapore in 2017.
MARKET RESEARCH
a. What research backs assumptions?
Evidences that are mostly related to the tourism market of Singapore back the research.
Assumptions are made based on the responses provided by the customers while touring the
country and the manner in which the other countries contribute to the growth of tourism.
b. What is the market growth?
The products growth would be directly influenced by customer satisfaction, feedback and
recommendations. To avoid over burdening the project managers and operation team a
realistic growth and expansion target of 10% per annum would be set. This would ensure
staff are putting their full effort towards catering to operation and at the same time are not
overburdened to register over whelming growth rates (Pacek, 2012).
c. Market potential
Based on the analysis of the TAM and SAM, it can be said that the market potential of the
application is good as only 4.75 million tourists may reject the use of the application. This
may be due to reasons such as inability to use technology.
d. What are the projections and share?
Currently the application is shared to over 14 million people and the projection of the
application can be attributed to the steady growth of the Singapore tourism sector. The share
of the application is spread across different countries so that every people can enjoy the
application.

Marketing Plan
Marketing plays a critical role towards informing the public regarding the new product or
service thus its essential to develop effective marketing plants which would communicate the
information to the target consumer. Being a product that targets the international tourist
vising Singer pore, marketing and advertisement plans must be designed and published at the
tourism home country.
To encourage people to buy the application it is essential to first offer the product for free and
depend on advertisements to generate revenue during the first 30 day trial period. The
customers should only be charged for accessing the services which would encourage them to
use the application more. Monthly subscription must be avoided to prevent determine
customers from needing to be linked in to a long term relationship. Applications which offer
use of the go charges have been registered to be more successful than the ones which offer
monthly subscriptions.
This is would help inform and educate the tourist regarding the tour guide advisory
application and its features thus allowing them to download, register and begin using it before
even arriving in Singapore (Luther, 2011). While the product will also target domestic tourist,
it would also be advertised on the local television and radio station to help inform the
domestic tourist regarding reputed tour guides thus helping ease their travel and improve their
experience. Initially the application would be designed for the Singapore tour guide services
but gradually the target markets would be expanded thus helping the project net in more user.
This would be implemented gradually as it would require for the business to also invest on
the required infrastructure that would be required to support and coordinate the tourist
seeking information and connecting them to well repute service providers in Singer power
and other tourism destinations.
With tourism classified as being a viable income source for businesses and economies across
the globe, it’s essential to invest on the initial stages to build the project after which the
project can gradually expand its operations, which would automatically increase income
generation and profitability.
Product Price Promotion Place
The product can be
considered for
guiding the people
The price of the
application can be
kept as free. People
The promotion can
be made by goggle
play store and social
The application can
be manufactured
within the

interested in touring.
The plan for the
development of the
product need to be
such that it addresses
the key objectives of
the application
can download the
application from the
smart phones so that
they can enjoy the
benefits of the
application
media websites such
as Facebook or
Twitter
organisations and can
be provided as a
default app for the
mobile phones
Customer lifetime value for 3 years
Refer to excel calculation

Bibliography
Erickson, G. S. (2017). New Methods of Market Research and Analysis. Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2015). Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of
New and Classic Methods. FT Press.
Holtz, S., & Havens, J. C. (2008). Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to
Maximize Value and Build their Brand. John Wiley & Sons.
Kemmer, M., & Ehnert, T. (2012). Procedure and methods of target market selection and risk
assessment on the example of SMA AG: International Strategy and Sales Management. GRIN
Verlag.
Laing, J. M., & Mazzella, D. P. (2016). Recalculating, 97+ Experts on Driving Small Business Growth.
Brick Tower Press.
Luther, W. (2011). The Marketing Plan: How to Prepare and Implement It. AMACOM.
Pacek, N. (2012). The Future of Business in Emerging Markets: The success factors for market growth
in the 21st century. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd.
Ratajczak-Mrozek, M. (2017). Network Embeddedness: Examining the Effect on Business
Performance and Internationalization. Cham: Springer.
Wickham, P. A. (2006). Strategic Entrepreneurship. Financial Times Prentice Hall,.

Appendices
Appendix 1

Appendix 2