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iExperience: A new faceof Adventure Tourism

January 31

2013Adventure sports has started to take off in India. However, adventure

has never been associated with family bonding and this makes it

difficult for any service in this industry to succeed

Management

Accounting

Section A, GROUP 7

Akshaan George - (F-07)

Kantilal B. Rathore - (F-34)

Rohit Mishra - (F-58)

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Subject Area

Driven by young and adventurous Indians with high disposable incomes and increasing concern for

family bonding and maintaining work-life balance, adventure sports has started to take off in India.

However, adventure has never been associated with family bonding and this makes it difficult for

any service in this industry to succeed without effectively understand the requirements of their

consumer and ensuring that they are able to tweak their services accordingly.

In this case we aim to explore the challenges faced in identifying the target audience, appealing to

them and marketing the idea in tourism sector. Some of the major challenges that have been tackled

include understanding the psyche of the interested consumer and designing of brochures to meet the

expectations of the varied audience.

Though the approach in this article has been customized to the adventure sports industry, some of the

techniques can be used across industries to understand the needs of the customer before any new

service is launched. These tools can help increase the probability of success as one aspect - meetingcustomer needs- can be guaranteed.

.

Study Level

The case can be used in the following courses:

1. Postgraduate Programs in Tourism: Students can be introduced to various cost concepts to be

considered in various cost benefits analysis in various managerial decision making.

2. Postgraduate Programs in Entrepreneurship. The students can be introduced to the concept of

incubation in private organizations and what are the general roadblocks that one faces in a

startup.

3. MBA/Post graduate program in in strategic management. It can be used to introduce the

concept of considering social and environmental aspects in strategy planning which are

emerging as global sustainability challenges.

4. Execute training program for Technology Innovators in Public/Private sector organizations tohighlight the concept of speedy innovation while maintaining quality in web based

applications.

Case Overview

iExperience provides an online marketplace of unique and authentic experiences for free time. It

provides a wide range of exciting and fun things to do on weekends, evenings or holidays.

iExperience is based on belief that people deserve better than just malls and movies when it comes to

spending weekends.

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Since its inception, iExperience had been facing regular issues that are general roadblocks in tourism

sector:

Sustainably developing the adventure travel market

Environmental impacts and sustainable development

The economic potential for adventure in remote / rural populations.

The social importance of adventure Urban adventure as a catalyst for economic development in socially deprived areas.

By looking indepth into the contemporary issues in adventure sports/travel sector we can critically

analyze problem solving and decision making tactics which may best benefit the variety of

stakeholders related to and impacted upon. The module utilizes global, regional and local adventure

case studies and provides students with an opportunity to come to informed decisions. Rather than

focus on competitive advantage for single organizations, it proposes that by looking at case studies in

the

adventure sector we can find a suitable, effective and sustainable method of developing adventure

tourism.

Expected Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, we expect to be able to

:

Critically analyze the current management and development issues within adventure tourismand adventure sports globally.

Analyze methods of effectively developing sustainable management solutions in adventuretourism.

Know the concept of target audience and what are the various marketing techniques that canbe employed for attracting the same.

Supplementary Materials:

1. Sustainable Tourism2. Journal of sport tourism3. Swarbrooke, J. et al (2003)Adventure Tourism: The new Frontier. Oxford

Butterworth Heinneman.

4. http://www.world-challenge.co.uk/home.asp5. http://www.responsibletravel.com/wholesaler/Wholesaler101164.htm

Practical Implications:

The in-depth analysis of the existing scenario at iExperienceprovides an opportunity for the firm to

fine tune its business operations with an eye towards the future. The case provides insights about the

strategies employed by existing profitable market leaders generating more revenues and helps in

coming up with a more sustainable model for growth.

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Social Implications:

The case helps students realize difficulties in experiential selling in adventure tourism/ sports in India

and helps to find out the extent to which people are willing to approach such companies before

making a decision on the kind of product they want to experience. The case provides valuable

insights on sustainable business model and works as a great learning for students desiring to develop

a deep understanding of challenges in a startup and tourism industry.