CHAPTER FOUR
OPERATION
For the company to be able to operate freely, it needs to be backed by a legal document and appropriate measures will be taken to obtain this legal instrument. It also needs to comply with the existing regulations.
Law No. 98/006 of 17 April 1998 to regulate the tourism activity and its implementation decree No. 99/445/PM of 25 March 1999. (See copy of law on tourism activity in Appendix VI)
The agency’s front will be facing the main street and will have a visible entrance. We will be renting 12 square meters of fully serviced space at a cost of 1,800,000 CFAF per year. We will need to spend about 500,000 CFAF for internal refurbishing and an additional 2,000,000 CFAF will be needed for desks, chairs and other office furnishings.
We intend to locate in the Marshal Home building at the Half Mile area at Limbe, since this is close to the city centre with a high density of residential and business premises. The pavement is wide and people can stand and look into the window without being in the way of other pedestrians.
Work will commence at 9 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. The telephone lines will be staffed 24 hours a day by live operators. During the period from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., this will be done mostly by our staff. However overloaded calls during the day and after-hour calls will go directly to our life telemarketing bureau. People consider vacation decisions at home in the evenings after discussions with friends and partners so we want to be available as their first point of contact with an informed friendly voice.
We believe that, since our clients will be mostly busy professional people, off peak hour’s access to our services is also a key way in which we can differentiate ourselves from other agencies.
We will provide an integrated telephone database system after the fifth year. This will allow up to 5 sales staff to answer calls and have full on-screen data on clients and products.
As quality service is one of our key elements, it is essential that we have full access to all relevant data speedily and efficiently. We are going to make use of the following equipment: 3 complete set of office desks, 3 complete set of computers and telephones.
All staff will have job descriptions, a career and training profile, and a record of employee reviews. All staff will undergo full product training and will spend at least two weeks on sites at key destinations.
We intent to institute a dress code that will be unique to our agency, and plan to start with four full-time employees including the founder and two part-time staff (a guide and an accountant). We also plan to be operating with a staff of seven after the fifth year of business but from the onset, the staff will be made up of a director, two collaborators, and a secretary, and each person will assume several functions. By the 4th year of operations there would be some reorganization whereby each staff member will be given a well established job description.
The products will vary from the design of tourist packages, excursions, organization of seminars and congresses and the key product, the creation of live events with main objective, entertainments because of its impact on vacation choices and also because more and more of the traveling public want to have fun and be entertained.
For the purpose of this work, emphasis will be laid only on the creation of events, because of their importance. Festivals and events have the ability to spread tourism geographically and seasonally. Special events allow a region or a community to celebrate its uniqueness, promote itself, develop local pride and enhance its economic well-being. As such, it is necessary to plan, organize and market the event during low seasons.
Unfortunately, this is an aspect in Cameroon tourism that has been neglected by tourism agencies, especially those based in Limbe, given that Limbe has a lot of potentials and excellent sites that can adequately host live events. These sites include:
- Man O’ War
Bay
- Bomana falls (Debunsha)
- Jungle
Village
Botanic Garden
- Mile
Six
Beach
The company plans to organize an average of two mega events annually during the first four years of the Company, and by the fifth year, up to four mega events annually. For instance, the product (event) is a surfing competition with its various components as outlined in Table 5 of Appendix I.
Presently, the entrance fee to Mile
Six
Beach is 500 CFAF, and an average of five people visit Mile
Six
Beach each day during the week and not up to twenty people during weekend. This is not only because the place is poorly managed but also because it has been abandoned by the government. We hope to use the following arguments to convince the manager:
Propose to the manager that we want to make more than 200 people visit the area a day during 7 days and instead of collecting 500 CFAF, they should collect 1500, the extra amount being the agency’s commission, making a sum of 700 000 CFAF in a week. In addition, hosting the event in Mile
Six
Beach will provide a lot of publicity to the beach as more people will be aware of its location and advantages.
A temporary enclosure will be built, covering a good portion of the Mile
Six
Beach premises. The available space will be divided into six zones (A to F). It shall have two main entry gates where tickets will be sold.
Zone A: Bougarou for fresh roasted fish
B: Restaurants (Bella, Lady L, Hotels)
C: Brewery companies: Guinness Cameroon S.A, “Les Brasseries du Cameroun”, Isenberg
D: Sponsors: MTN, Orange, Camtel, Guinness, Les Brasseries du Cameroun, Mintour, Egyptian and Iraqi embassies, CDC, SONARA, AES SONEL.
E: Music podium
F: Zone for arts exhibition
There will be a total of 150 stands, 50 of which will be reserved for sponsors and the remaining 100 stands, sold at an average of 150.000, giving a total of 15.000.000. A summary of expenditure for organizing the event is provided in Table 2 of the Appendix.
Sponsors will help provide the following: publicity, musicians, organization of competitions and security while we take care of the following: enclosure, brochures and lobby.
It is important to note that this mega event will be organized once a year by the first year, and twice a year by the 2nd and 3rd years, and up to three times a year from the 4th year. Also, other mini events will be organized in the other three mentioned tourist sites and with time it will expand and extend to other localities in and out of the South West Region.
Besides the organization of these events as main activity, we will also design tourist packages, 30% of packages with Limbe as point of departure and 70% with Limbe as point of destination.
For the purpose of this project, the example of a package used is a weekend stay package in Limbe and it will be focused on Limbe as point of destination and Douala as point of departure. (See appendix II) We would eventually be prospecting the following potential Companies: SNH: (National Hydrocarbons Company), SNI (National Investment Company), CAMSHIP Douala, PECTON, CAMLAIT, PAD (Port Authority of Douala) and the various diplomatic representations in the country, for potential consumers of this product.
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