Universal Travel is a family business that has been run out of the south-side of Glasgow since the 1950s. Starting as a booking agency for buses it quickly developed as a full-blown travel agency as the package holiday market expanded in the 1960s.
Now with low price airlines and internet bookings the company has had to find a new role.
Reducing staff members and moving to smaller, more efficient premises, it relies more and more on its website to generate business and to keep in touch with customers.
The website has proved particularly successful in the expansion of the private coach hire side of the firm - the area in which future growth will be concentrated.
The Project
As the nature of the market is changing rapidly, Universal Travel has to continue to modify its marketing in order to meet the varying demand of existing clients and to attract the attention of those placing new business. While space is bought in directories such as Yellow Pages, the costs of a national, let alone an international, advertising campaign preclude press advertising as a major marketing tool. The turnover is small and margins are tight. Universal Travel was looking ofr a cost-effective solution which targeted its main markets.
Netmedia’s Solution
The internet offered an ideal medium through which to promote the coach hire services offered by Universal Travel. Traditional offline media is always expensive and Universal Travel uses it for promotion within its local market of Glasgow and the West of Scotland. However, to expand the company needs to target a much wider market. It is aiming for clients not only from England, but from Europe and North America. With the rapid expansion of tourism to Scotland and the increased sums that the Scottish government is spending on promotion abroad there are increasing opportunities for Universal Travel in these markets
The website developed by Netmedia allows the company’s executives to promote their coaches to potential users anywhere in the world and provides detailed information on coats, size of coach, availability, added value and so forth.
As a TCS website, the content of the site is also completely controlled by the owner.
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