Detailed Business Plan for Viking Cruises: Analysis and Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive business plan for Viking Cruises, a travel company specializing in river and ocean cruises. The plan includes a detailed business description, focusing on Viking Cruises' history, operations, and market positioning. It analyzes the company's marketing strategy, detailing the four Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) and how Viking Cruises has achieved significant growth. The financial plan section outlines the company's financial strategies, growth, and revenue, including its investment in marketing and fleet expansion. A thorough competitor analysis, based on a SWOT analysis, is presented, highlighting Viking Cruises' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the cruise industry. The report also touches on operations management and organizational structure, providing a holistic view of the company's business model.

Running head: BUSINESS PLAN
Business plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive summary
This report maintains a business plan for a travel company. The business plan
includes the proper business description and also the other factors. Within the other factors
must include the competitive analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing strategy, financial plan,
operations management and also organizational structure.

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Table of Contents
Business description...................................................................................................................3
Marketing strategy.....................................................................................................................3
Financial plan.............................................................................................................................5
Competitor analysis....................................................................................................................7
Operations management.............................................................................................................9
Organizational structure...........................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11
Appendices...............................................................................................................................14

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Business description
This report executes on the zone of travel organization. For this following report, the
chosen organization is Viking Cruises which is considered as a travel organization. This
organization always wants to provide a wonderful experience to the people in the field of
river cruise and also ocean cruise (Skrede, 2016). The operating headquarters are located in
Basel and also Switzerland. Moreover, the marketing headquarters are located in the
destination of Los angles and also California. Mainly this company provides two different
types of divisions to the travellers for achieving their experiences. Including two divisions
comprises river cruise and also ocean cruise. This organization involves their short
excursions in each of the port and the culture related curriculum program provides the
experiences of some cultural involvement of the destinations through various musical
performance as well as art performance or cooking demonstrations and also informative talks
of guest lecturers etc.
This company was established in the year of 1997 along with the purchasing of four
number of ships in the location of Russia. Later, after three years that means in the year of
2000, the company was bought Europe’s river cruises for increasing the growth of this
organization (Lubbers, 2017). In this year, the expansion of this organization was occurred in
American market and established their marketing headquarters in Los Angles and also
California. In this way, the company was spread in several locations and considered as one of
the leading cruise organization for rivers and later, this organization also became the leader of
the ocean cruise.
Marketing strategy
According to (Lubbers, 2017), the marketing strategy is defined as an approach by
which it can be understood about the fundamental goal of any organization to achieve the

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competitive advantage. This marketing strategy is completed with four number of P including
price, promotion, product and also place. These four factors depends to construct a strong
marketing strategy of any organization.
The Viking Cruises became one of the leading organization in the field of river cruise
after the expanding in Europe (Andrew Jr, 2014). The growth of this organization has
increased at the rate of 31% per year whereas the other cruise field based organizations has
increased their growth rate at 11% per year. Furthermore, if it has been seen in the case of
convincing area, this organization leads its growth in the field of ocean cruise and the average
rate of the growth of this organization is almost 5% per year.
Based on the factors of the marketing strategy, the organization follows the four P
elements including price, promotion, place and product.
Price – The Viking cruises is considered as another leading organization in order to
relate with the river cruise. This organization has estimated their tour packages in such a way
which is affordable for all of the people. This company has set up their price range of river
cruises at the rate of $1800 which is too much affordable as well as great for the persons who
want to travel to the large destination. Moreover, this organization has introduced a new type
of fleet for river cruising which is designed for accommodating for almost 200 people
including the travelling in various locations like Egypt, China as well as Europe, Russia and
also Southeast Asia.
Promotion – The promotion is measured as the important factor for constructing a
strong marketing strategy (Ward, 2015). The organization must construct an attractive
promotion by which the travellers can attract with the special offers or discounts. To become
a leading company, it must implement some discount rates on the packages of the river cruise
and ocean cruise. To promote the organization, it requires to contact so many travel agents so

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that the travellers can connect the organization through the travel agents. During the session
timings, the organization requires to provide more discounts on their tour packages which
helps to attract to more numbers of travellers.
Product – Like promotion, the product is another important factor which makes the
strong marketing strategy for any kind of organizations. Though it has been known that the
Viking Cruises is the organization related with the river cruise and also ocean cruise,
therefore the travels must be safe as well as great for the travellers. However, the safe and
great travels help to increase the review rating of the organization. The Viking Cruises offers
some exclusive packages to the travellers including some cultural activities through musical
performance or dance performance as well as art performance and also some informative
talks of guest lecturers. The quality of the tour packages should have more attractive and also
various advantages so that the travellers cannot face any problems regarding their travelling.
Place – The Company needs to choose some specific place by which they can connect
with the travellers. In that case, they can utilize their official websites or other websites or
social media where they can provide proper advertisements on their tour packages which
attract the travellers. On the other hand, to attract the travellers, this organization must choose
some important and attractive destinations which are visited by a huge number of travellers
per year (Gibson & Parkman, 2018). Thus, the marketing strategy depends on all of these
factors and the organization must follow these factors for achieving the leading place.
Financial plan
The financial planning is measured as a task for any kind of businesses in order to
determine the process by which the organization can achieve the strategic goals. After
establishing their vision and also objectives, the organization needs to create the financial
plan for reaching at their strategic goals. Within the financial planning, it includes the

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activities of the organization as well as resources or equipment and also materials that are
actually needed for creating the perfect financial plan for the organization.
According to the analysis of Viking Cruises, this organization relates with the
products of river cruise and also ocean cruise. The organization was founded by Torstein
Hagen in the year of 1997. Later, in 2000, the company was accepted Europe’s river cruises
for rising the growth of this organization. During this period, the company has introduced a
fleet which contains 26 people in order to make the largest fleet for river cruising across the
world. In the year of 2004, the company has expanded its business up to China along with the
river cruising through Yangtze river. After few years, in 2007, they have introduced almost
23 ships in the locations of Europe as well as Russia and also China (Sthapit, 2018). In the
year of 2009, the organization began to utilize the ships through the hybrid diesel electric
base engines for decreasing the less fuel at the rate of 20% compared to other kind of
conventional engines. In this way, the company has grown their financial plan in order to
achieve the target market.
On the other hand, the company has followed another way to make their financial
plan strong for the competitive market. In the year of 2011, the company has planned a
different kind of phrase for their growth which relates with the sponsorship. However, the
organization has sponsored to the Masterpiece Theatre for creating plans in order to integrate
the 40 number of ships to design a long fleet for the five years. This longer designed ship
allows a huge number of persons through the squaring of the bow as well as rearranging the
hallways. Later, the company has consumed almost $400 million in the area of marketing
which is considered as the part of the financial planning (Berger, 2019). In the case of
marketing, the company has utilize various channels like mailing as well as television and
also web or trade marketing.

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Depending on all of the informative analysis, the company has spent approximately
$500 million in their whole funding. The valuation of this organization is almost $3.4 billion
and also annual revenue of this organization was almost $1.60 billion in accordance with the
reports of the year of 2018. According to the income statement of Viking Cruises, the
revenue of this company was 1.0 billion in the year of 2017 which reflects that the revenue
increased at the rate of 60% through several activities of this organization.
Competitor analysis
Fundamentally, the competitor analysis depends on the SWOT analysis of any
organization (Chen, 2014). Moreover, the SWOT analysis is one kind of strategic model by
which it can be understood how much the organization improve their performance in their
own particular field in the case of both internal as well as external perspective (Pallis, 2015).
Generally, the SWOT analysis is the pathway of the strategic planning of any organization
and it includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and also threats.
In order to conduct the competitor analysis, it has to done the SWOT analysis of this
company. The SWOT analysis includes:
Strengths – It is considered as the biggest advantage for Vikings Cruises that this company
offers more affordable packages than the other cruising company. It is mentioned as a vital
strength for this organization. If the organization cannot provide the packages at the
affordable range, therefore the customers cannot travel with this company. Moreover, to
attract a wide range of customers, this organization provide modern technology based
accommodations including different styles based rooms, suites, deluxe rooms etc. In the case
of dining purpose, this company offers such exclusive dining options like fresco or Chinese
cuisine.

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Moreover, the strength recognises the strong brand name which helps to attract lots of
customers (Winnubst, 2017). However, according to human psychology, the customers
always want to attract with the brand name of the organization and they think the branded
organization offers them huge exclusive offers and also quality of packages. These all factors
include in the brand recognition. On the other hand, due to spread over so many locations of
the world, the organization has increased their revenues and according to business report
analysis, in the year of 201, the company has increased their revenue with the rating of 60%.
Weaknesses – There also exists few weaknesses including their choice of destinations. That
means, the Viking Cruise has selected some of the specific destinations including America,
Russia as well as China etc. But sometimes, some of the customers want to travel in the
location of Italy because there are sever rivers present in Italy including Rhine, Danube,
Rhone, Main, Seine, Elbe and also Douro. For that, this is considered as one of the important
weaknesses for this company. Another weakness relates with the increment of the expenses.
Opportunities – There are lots of opportunities presenting in this organization including
demographic trends as well as marketing alliances and also improvement of the cruising
traffic (Jin, Ji & Gu, 2016). In the case of demographic trends, this organization provides lots
of cruising destinations including Europe, America, Russia, China and other places. Not only
the destinations but also they provide the proper accommodations for the travellers so that
during the travelling time, they do not face any travel related issues (Ashkenas et al., 2015).
On the other hand, on the case of marketing alliances, the company uses digital marketing
through mailing as well as television and also web or trade marketing. As continuing many
years, the company has increased their number of ships for growing the number of fleet so
that it helps to expand their business. For that, it helps to gather a huge number of travellers at
a same time for the cruising purpose.

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Threats – Like some weaknesses, there also some of the threats that are presenting in this
Viking Cruises. The threats include the weather conditions, market competition and also huge
range of fuel prices. Though the organization relates with the river cruising and also ocean
cruising, therefore in that case, weather is an important factor for the cruising. However, in
the bad weather, the higher authority of this organization does not provide the permission to
continue the cruising because it may cause the life risks of the passengers as well as workers
working in ships (Goetz & Gale, 2014). Moreover, the introduction of several competitors in
the market creates a tough competition which considers a threat for the organization (Van der
Voet, 2014). There are lots of competitors existing in market include MSC cruise, the River
Cruise line, AmaWaterways, Icelandair etc. In addition to this, the high fuel prices is also
measured as a threat because for conducting the ships, a huge amount of fuel is required. But
this organization uses a hybrid diesel electric base engines for avoiding the high price range
of fuel.
Operations management
The operation management is considered as an administrations of the business
practices for making the highest level of the efficiency within the organization. In this
operation management, it includes a number if staffs as well as resources and also equipment
or technology (Bahmani-Firouzi & Azizipanah-Abarghooee, 2014). This management offers
the development of the excursions and also delivers the goods to the customers based on their
requirements. Moreover, this management can able to handle all of the strategic issues
involving the determination of the size of the manufacturing plants or project management
related techniques and also various information technology related networks.
Though this organization relates with the river cruising and also ocean cruising
therefore, this organization maintains proper project management related knowledge for their

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operations related activities. The organization needs to inspect the quality of the vessel during
the construction of the vessel at shipyard. Each steps within the progress needs to be reported
involving the sea trials (Parisio, Rikos & Glielmo, 2016). Moreover, this organization
consists of several numbers of qualified officers who are involving with these river cruising
and also ocean cruising and in order to support the operational activities, the crews are
presenting as operational executives.
However, this travelling organization provides the hotelier services to the passengers
including catering of foods or beverages and also Chinese cuisine (Radosavljević, Jevtić &
Klimenta, 2016). To maintain the cleanliness, this organization has some of the crews who
attaches with daily maintenance.
Organizational structure
According to the organization structure of Viking Cruise, the organization has the
captain post as the top position of the cruise ship (Pietrzyk & Rokita, 2016). Later, after the
top position, it divided into four categories including engine division as well as deck division,
medical division and also hotel division. Within the section of the Engine division, it contains
of chief engineer and also staff chief engineer (Cooper & Worsham, 2015). The deck division
contains staff captain and the medical division contains chief doctor and the last factor is the
hotel division which contains of hotel director and also deputy hotel director. Mainly the
captain are accountable for availing the safe transportation of all of the passengers. He
determines about the speed of the ships and also locations. Furthermore, the deck division is
responsible for managing the marine operations and supports the safety aspects for the overall
passengers, officers and also cabin crews (Clark, Lusardi & Mitchell, 2017). IN addition to
this, the medical department is accountable for providing the proper medical treatments and
also hotelier division supports the hotelier services.

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