Tours Gone Wild, the first U.S. tour operator to offer customized spring break and young adult packages to Brazil, was awarded $25,000 seed money in the Thunderbird 2003 Global Business Plan Competition. Thunderbird entrepreneurs Arturo Perchemlian and Santiago Mejia present their award-winning business plan.

INDUSTRY SUMMARY
The market for offering travel to college “spring breakers” and young professionals surpassed $6 billion last year, and is continually growing despite the general downturn in the travel industry. This valuable market segment represents a lucrative opportunity for “niche” tour operators, such as Tours Gone Wild (TGW). Extensive market research has demonstrated that students are clearly demanding “new” spring break destinations, other than those of the more current popular options–Cancun, Jamaica, and Panama City, Florida.

Further research has shown that there is no specific spring break destination or company that caters exclusively to the young African American market segment. African Americans surveyed by Tours Gone Wild have sought similar benefits as non African Americans (exotic appeal, the ocean, warm weather), but have placed a great premium on discovering African culture. According to EMBRATUR, the Brazilian Board of Tourism, African Americans constitute the largest growing segment of North American visitors to Brazil. The top destinations for African Americans have been Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador, Bahia, which is a mecca of African culture in South America. Additional research shows that African Americans are three times more likely than other groups to take package tours.

PRODUCT
TGW will initially offer two distinct packages to Brazil – one to Rio de Janeiro, and one to Salvador, Bahia. Each package will consist of round trip airfare from the U.S., 6 nights accommodations at a 4 star hotel, airport transfers, a local city tour, 7 breakfasts, and all applicable taxes. All packages, which will be priced between $1,200 to $1700 depending on the package chosen, season, and departure city, will also include 24-hour on site assistance from TGW staff, as well as visa processing assistance, to make the trips as smooth and enjoyable as possible. TGW’s major strengths will be its first mover advantage, as well as its solid brand image as the original and “premier” tour operator for affluent spring breakers, African Americans, and young professionals.

PLACEMENT
TGW will target three key segments:
• College “Spring Breakers.”
• Young professionals (College grads with income over $50,000 ages 22-34 years old).
• African American “Spring Breakers” and African American young professionals (for Bahia cultural packages).

MARKETING
TGW's vehicles for marketing will be “campus representatives” who are independent agents, and a strategic mix of direct marketing (flyers, posters), public relations (promotional events at nightclubs), advertising (radio, college newspapers) and guerilla marketing techniques. In addition, the company is developing a highly interactive website with booking capacities (www.toursgonewild.com)

FINANCE
TGW’s expenses in its first year will primarily be those of marketing and advertising its packages. The company expects to sell approximately 600 packages the first year, 800 packages in year two and 1800 packages in year three. Sales are expected to grow from $750K in its first year to that of over $2.3MM in three years. Net income is expected to be a positive $40K in year one with revenues topping $800K by FY2006. TGW will enjoy a 101% average growth rate in its first three years of operations.

Tours Gone Wild is a Florida chartered S-Corporation with offices in Miami. Founders Arturo Perchemlian and Santiago Mejia are recent graduates from Thunderbird and hold degrees in international economics and finance from the University of Central Florida and UCLA, respectively. Arturo has over five years of experience in customer relationship development and financial services, and Santiago has over three years of experience in sales and marketing. They can be contacted at aperch@toursgonewild.com and smejia@toursgonewild.com.