Project Management: A Business Plan for a Wine Tourism Website

This project management report outlines a business idea for a website catering to wine tourism, addressing the market gap for wine enthusiasts seeking information on destinations, wine brands, and travel arrangements. The report details the benefits for both customers and entrepreneurs, including revenue streams from commissions and advertising, and enhanced customer access to information and travel packages. It proposes a business model utilizing personal savings, loans, and investor funding, with revenue generated through commissions, marketing fees, and membership subscriptions. Critical success factors include securing adequate financing, attracting and retaining customers, and sustaining customer relationships. A feasibility analysis, encompassing financial, technical, and operational aspects, indicates the business's potential for success by providing returns on investment, leveraging technical expertise, and addressing market needs effectively. The report concludes that the wine tourism website has strong potential due to the increasing demand for wine-related travel experiences.

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Project management
Name of institution
Name of instructor
Date

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Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................4
Identification of the problem..............................................................................................................4
Benefits generated by the idea............................................................................................................5
Proposed business model.....................................................................................................................6
Critical success factors........................................................................................................................7
Evaluation of feasibility.......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................................9
Appendix............................................................................................................................................12
First Screen....................................................................................................................................12
Screen 2..........................................................................................................................................13
Business canvas..............................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The report focusses on a business idea developed to satisfy a gap in the market. The
idea refers to a website that deals with wine tourism, which has become popular over the
years. Most people have a complicated taste for wine and have the urge to travel to various
parts of the world to explore the wines. Therefore, the wine lovers face trouble finding the
best destinations easily, which calls for a website that accommodates all the wine destinations
(Arend, 2013, p. 392).
Additionally, the report explores the benefits arising from the use of the website both
financial and non-financial. The report also identifies the model of operations and the value
proposition of the business. Furthermore, the report talks about the feasibility of the idea and
the factors that make the idea favourable to explore. Finally, the report explains the critical
success factors for the business to achieve the objectives (Abdelkafi, 2012, p. 300). The first
screen has more information about the business idea, which includes the generation and
determination of the strength of the ideas. Furthermore, the business canvas in the appendix
explains more about a business model.
Identification of the problem
The wine industry has experienced an increase in customers from all over the world.
Therefore, a market gap made of consumers needing to get more information about the wine
destination has developed. The customers require to understand more about the unique wine
brands and the regions that provide the best wines in the world. Therefore, the website avails
information about the destinations and the prices of the wines. Furthermore, the customers
face challenges when travelling to the wine destinations due to the need to book hotels and
aeroplanes. The booking causes trouble due to lack of adequate information about the best

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hotels and flight companies to use. On the other hand, the world has very many wine
destinations, which poses the challenge of coming up with the choice of the best destination
to visit. The website could help in solving the confusion and relieving the travel stress
(Baden-Fuller, 2013, p. 419).
Therefore, the website has videos and images of the best tourist destinations, which
the customers watch and make decisions on the best places to visit. Additionally, the website
has tour packages, which customers pay and experience fully paid trips to the best wine
destinations in the world. The packages pay for such as accommodation and aeroplane tickets
on behalf of the customers. The website looks for the best hotels for the customers to ensure
total satisfaction. Moreover, the website has networked with wine companies that offer
exclusive wine tasting events. Therefore, the customers have a quick access to the exclusive
wine tasting events in the world (Arend, 2013, p. 402). The first screen explains more on
customer satisfaction and identification of business gaps.
Benefits generated by the idea
The wine tasting website results in many benefits to both the customers and the
entrepreneurs. The benefits to the entrepreneurs include revenue earned from the
commissions paid by customers who pay for the travel packages (Christoph Zott, 2011, p.
1027). The website charges a small fee to the customers, which forms part of the income
earned by the business. Additionally, the wine destinations also pay a fee to do marketing on
the website, which adds to the income made. The website also allows Google ads, which also
increase the revenues earned. However, the website only allows a limited amount of
advertisements to avoid causing a nuisance to the customers.
On the other hand, the website also benefits the customers by providing an easy
method of identifying the wine destinations and booking both travel tickets and
accommodations (Cohen, 2014, p. 295). Therefore, the customers do not feel stressed during

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the period of travel and stay in the wine destinations. Furthermore, the customers benefit by
increasing knowledge about the wine destinations from the many videos, pictures and facts
posted on the website.
Moreover, the wine destinations also benefit from having a website that captures
many customers at once (Eckhardt, 2013, p. 416). The site allows the wine destinations to
have the advertisements at a central point, which proves cheap compared to the use of varied
methods of advertisement. The wine destinations also have the ability to interact with the
customers through the question and answer platforms availed by the website. The second
screen explains more about the potential of ideas generated by enterpreneurs.
Proposed business model
The website will utilise various sources of funds to start operations. The sources of
finance include personal savings and loans from banks and investors (Fuller, 2010, p. 96).
The various sources will provide funds to pay for the experts who develop the website and
travel fees for the business visits to the wine destinations. The business visits give the website
operators a chance to convince the owners of wine destinations to market through the site.
The operations of the website involve the customers visiting the website to check out
the best tourist destinations. The customers include wine enthusiasts and wine producers who
require to identify different tastes. The website allows the customers to view pictures, videos
and read descriptions about the wines destinations. The customers also interact with the
support teams for the various wine destinations, which gives a better understanding. The
customers use the information to make decisions about the best destinations from the
information given on the website (Hubert Gatignon, 2017, p. 86). Therefore, the customers go
ahead to select the affordable packages to visit the tour destinations. After the customers
confirm the payments, the website staff contacts the customers to arrange on the picking
point on the day of travel.

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The website generates money through commissions paid by the customers for the
services offered. Additionally, the website also charges the wine destination owners a
marketing fee for posting advertisements on the website (Huelsbeck, 2011, p. 1634).
Furthermore, the site charges membership fees to customers who get exclusive privileges
such as getting tickets to the most exclusive wine tasting events. The website has two types of
membership for the customers and the wine destination owners. Therefore, the website earns
revenue from the membership fees paid annually or monthly depending on the agreement.
Critical success factors
The business requires the securing of adequate finances from the investors to avail the
starting capital (Hummel, 2010, p. 53). The finances will assist the business to pay the high
costs of developing the website and marketing to the customers. The expenses include the
payment of software and hardware engineers, recruitment of employees and web hosting fees.
Without the funds, the business cannot start due to the inability to develop the website.
On the other hand, the business should retain and constantly attract new customers to
gain a market share in the tourism industry. The website requires to create awareness among
the customers to have a high usage rate and generate revenue. Additionally, the business
should sustain relationships with the customers to achieve high satisfaction rates (Zott, 2013,
p. 405).
Evaluation of feasibility
The business experiences various feasibility models such as the financial feasibility
(Eckhardt, 2013, p. 413). The business financial feasibility indicates that the business will
face success by providing returns on capital invested. The tourism website requires huge
amounts of start-up capital that the investors will raise in addition to the personal savings. On
the other hand, the income generated from the operations will pay the investors within a short

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time. The business will generate income from the commissions paid by the customers who
book the tourist services. The business projects that many customers will use the services,
which gives the promise of generating adequate funds to pay the loans and pay dividends to
the investors.
Moreover, the technical feasibility indicates the success of the business since the
entrepreneurs have the knowledge of developing the system (Christoph Zott, 2011, p. 1030).
Additionally, the required experts have expressed the intention to develop the system from
the start to the end. The business will also acquire the best employees to run the operations.
Therefore, the website will not experience problems during startup arising from the
development of an inefficient system. Moreover, the business will have experts to deal with
the technical hitches that occur during the operations of the system. Therefore, the wine
tourism website will have the best chance of survival in the market and fully satisfy the
customer demands.
The operational feasibility indicates that the business will face success by solving the
problems in the market and exploiting opportunities (Hubert Gatignon, 2017, p. 88). The
website will successfully solve the problems in the market by having many tourist
destinations on the website. Additionally, the website will assist the customers to pay for
travel tickets and accommodation in the wine destination. The website will also allow the
customers to interact with the wine destinations and have a better understanding of the
services offered. Therefore, the website will meet the set objectives through the operations,
which will result in customer satisfaction (Shi, 2009, p. 49 ). The second screen explains
further about identifying the feasibility of an idea to ensure success.
Conclusion
The tourism website has the best opportunity to survive in the market due to the
increase in wine tourists over the years. The customers include the wealthy people who have

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a great taste for wine. Therefore, the website will collect high revenues since the customers
have the ability to pay. However, the business should undertake marketing activities to
increase the awareness and beat competition in the market. Furthermore, the business should
acquire the starting capital to pay for the activities such as developing the website, employing
tourism experts and acquiring the operating license.

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References
Abdelkafi, N. (2012). Open Business Models for the Greater Good – A Case Study from the Higher
Education Context. Die Unternehmung, 66(3), 299-317. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24187854
Arend, R. (2013). The Business Model: Present and Future—Beyond a Skeumorph. Strategic
Organization, 11(4), 390-402. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43581983
Baden-Fuller, C., & Mangematin, V. (2013). Business Models: A Challenging Agenda. Strategic
Organization, 11(4), 418-427. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43581986
Christoph Zott, R. A. (2011). The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research. Sage
Journals, 1019-1042. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311406265
Cohen, B., & Kietzmann, J. (2014). Ride On! Mobility Business Models for the Sharing Economy.
Organization & Environment, 27(3), 279-296. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/26164716
Eckhardt, J. (2013). Opportunities in Business Model Research. Strategic Organization, 11(4), 412-
417. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43581985
Fuller, T., Warren, L., Thelwall, S., Alamdar, F., & Rae, D. (2010). Rethinking Business Models as
Value Creating Systems. Leonardo, 43(1), 96-97. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40540116
Hubert Gatignon, X. L. (2017). A Marketing Perspective on Business Models. Springer, 7(4), 85-89.
Retrieved from https://www.link.springer.com/article/
Huelsbeck, D., Merchant, K., & Sandino, T. (2011). On Testing Business Models. The Accounting
Review, 86(5), 1631-1654. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23045582

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Hummel, E., Slowinski, G., Mathews, S., & Gilmont, E. (2010). Business Models for Collaborative
Research. Research Technology Management, 53(6), 51-54. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43240579
Shi, Y., & Manning, T. (2009). Understanding Business Models and Business Model Risks. The
Journal of Private Equity, 12(2), 49-59. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43503589
Zott, C., & Amit, R. (2013). The Business Model: A Theoretically Anchored Robust Construct for
Strategic Analysis. Strategic Organization, 11(4), 403-411. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43581984

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Appendix
First Screen

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Screen 2

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Business canvas

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