Swot Analysis

Direct Ski SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Ð'* Direct Ski has achieved cost competitiveness by bypassing travel agents to sell directly to customers through its website

Ð'* Direct Ski has experienced rapid growth and turnover was up from Ð'Ђ2.5million in 2002 to Ð'Ђ3.6million in 2003. At the end of the 2003/2004 ski season, Direct Ski had quickly become the 2nd largest provider of package ski holidays in Ireland with just over 15% of the market share. It also had a small but growing share of the UK market, which it had entered 2 years earlier

Ð'* Dire k Ski provides package holidays. This holiday package includes air travel, coach transfers, insurance, accommodation, ski passes, equipment hire, ski lessons and aprÐ"Ёs ski equipment. It offers customers a range of holiday packages for a wide variety of budgets

Ð'* A supports of holiday reps are located in every resort

Ð'* Directski was launch in the Irish market in October 2002: The launch of the campaign combined PR, press and radio advertising which positioned Directski as a specialist and ski holiday providers. The promotional campaign also emphasised the message of lower prices. The launch period was extremely successful and in its first season Directski achieved strong sales. By the end of 2001/2002 ski season, Directski enjoyed a high level of brand recognition amongst Irish skiers.

Ð'* By March 2001, Directski introduced additional resorts to the portfolio and put in place the necessary expanded capacity and on-the-ground infrastructure for the 2001/2002 season

Ð'* While customers can buy a full package holiday, they can also choose to buy individual holiday elements such as flights or accommodation

Ð'* Directski's strategy is to build market share by offering a quality ski package holiday product at a high competitive price through use of the Internet, which proved to be a highly successful sales channel and the % of Directski sales booked online increased steadily. By the end of 2003/2004 ski season, 75% of sales were completed online, requiring little or no interaction with staff. The Directski brand name was chosen to convey to the consumer that intermediaries/travel agents were eliminated

Ð'* By cutting out middlemen, savings were made and these savings were passed on to the customers, typically a 15% saving

Ð'* As a part of its entry into the UK, Directski added functionality to its website which automatically recognised visitors from the UK and direct them to a version of the site featuring UK specific offers and prices in Sterling etc

Ð'* Since its launch in 2001, Directski has experienced a gradual growth in demand. Passenger numbers had increased by 41% to cover 4,500 in the 2002/2003 ski season and exceeded 10,000 in the 2003/2004 season

Ð'* By 2003, Directski was offering UK customer ski holidays to France, Austria, Italy & Andorra, covering a total of 24 different ski resorts

Ð'* Advertisements were placed in selected lifestyle, press and ski/snow board publications. This advertising was concentrated on the peak-booking season running from September through to February with the bulk of advertising appearing from October Ð'- January of each year. Radio and national press were also used

Ð'* The Diectski newsletter "Sloping Off" was launched in 2001. By 2003 it had 20,000 regular recipients and was credited with helping drive repeat bookings which rose from 8% in the first year of operations to 47% in the 2002/2003 season

Ð'* Feedback has indicated that customers find the Directski website user-friendly and were confident to purchase online

Ð'* By 2003, Directski's average holiday price was around Ð'Ђ850 per head with an average party size of 3-4 people. In effect, customers were spending around Ð'Ђ3,500 per transaction. This indicated that they were not only comfortable with the holiday on offer, the brand and price, but that they were also comfortable purchasing through the Directski site

Ð'* To manage group bookings, Directski gives every member of the group a user name and password, with group leader having access to all information

Ð'* By not printing brochures Directski made savings and used its website and newsletter as electronic brochures

Ð'* Most Directski employees are ski enthusiasts and the company invests heavily in sales and service training for front-line employees

Ð'* By