huh?! why? how? when?

once upon a time there was this business magazine writer who wants to interview Travel Factor's owners and gave us sets of question........... i think they changed their mind, but anyway, just to share (i have updated my previous answers).....

Individual questions for each of the Travel Factor partners:

What is your educational background?
i'm a graduate of B.S. Information and Computer Science from St. Paul Manila

How old are you?
oh boy, do i really have to answer this? i'm 21 *grins* fine! 30.

What made you decide/agree to venture in to this type of business?
travelling is my passion and as corny as this may sound i fell inlove with the beauty of the Philippines and i want to share it with my friends or to anyone who shares the same sentiments....also, my friends know how lakwatsera i am that's why it's me they go to first whenever they are planning to go somewhere to ask for tips on where to go, what to do, where to stay, to give them sample iteneraries, budget proposals, etc. and i realized i enjoy doing it and i was like, hmm, i could make money out of this travel consulting thing..... so i took up a short course at TLRC ("how to set up a travel agency", "booking and ticketing", "making tour packages") some years ago and tried to put up my own travelling agency business......... unfortunately, that didn't materialize because makati (the city where i plan to put up my travel agency) doesn't give business license for travel agencies anymore....... yeah, it stinks but, well, everything happens for a reason....... and then one day i met tyx and leia from PLP (pexers libot pinas club), we were planning our coron trip for PLP that time......... and because we share the same passion in travelling we hit it off right away and then one day they proposed this business venture to me and ofcourse i said yes right away and the rest is history....

What is your main responsibility in the company?
actually, we pretty much do a little bit of everything like coming up with iteneraries, making tour packages, do researches, invite people for our trips and oh! i'm in charge of the website (which is still under construction argh!)....

What would you consider as your strength in handling a business that is key to the operations and growth of Travel Factor?
i'm obssesive compulsive, in a good way, haha..... my attention for details is i think my greatest strength... plus i've been to a lot of places in the philippines so i know where to go, what to do, what to expect...

What would you consider to be the biggest challenge the company has faced since you started operations and how did you manage to address it?
we all have day jobs and we are in the IT field (i'm a java programmer, leia and rege are mainframe programmers, tyx and jasper are php programmers) so our schedules get a little crazy sometimes, specially now that i'm in the u.s., so we have to stay up late to chat online to take care of the details of our tours....... and since sometimes it's impossible to get together to brainstorm or to make decisions about something we just make do with communicating thru emails, ym, multiply, sms, igoogle, phone calls and, hmm... mental telepathy? haha...

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more questions....

What inspired you to form the company Travel Factor?
travelling is our passion.... we love meeting new friends.... we love to share the beautiful places that we've been to and! i haven't come across a travelling agency in the philippines that cater for "smart" travellers (a.k.a. backpackers, budget travellers or kuripot travellers like me )

What is the business philosophy of Travel Factor?
you don't have to burn your wallet to travel....

What sets it apart from other travel agencies or tour groups?
we are young and beautiful, that gives us the edge, haha..... nah! kidding aside we customize our trips based on the needs/budget of our clients...... we offer the off the beaten track trips and we mostly cater for budget travellers, backpackers, whatever you call it...

What are the main considerations when you formulate a travel plan for your clients?
we ask them where they want to go and what their budget is and we start from there....

What's your target market?
young professionals and students....

What kinds of activities are you currently offering clients?
we have surfing trips almost every weekend that we call surfvivor and we also offer trips to "hard to get to" places like sagada, cdo, pagudpud, pandan island.... right now we are introducing another tour series we call photoholic which will start on november 3 until december 2...... this is for people who's into photography, newbies or not..... our first photoholic trip is in ilocos.....

What other activities do you plan to offer?
we are thinking of organizing more adventurous trips ala fear factor....

How do you market your business to attract more clients?
right now it's mostly thru word of the mouth, referrals.....

What are the factors you consider when setting the price you charge for your clients?
type of accomodation, type of transpo, what tours/activities they want to avail.....

How do you keep costs affordable while keeping the business profitable?
we just rely on discounts that we get from hotels and resorts...... we are not that big on making profits yet (we have our real jobs), we just want to do what we enjoy doing and make a difference in promoting philippine tourism.... "wag maging dayuhan sa sarili mong bayan!"

What steps are you taking to make sure that Travel Factor becomes the top of mind company when travelers are looking for an agency?
we make sure that we take care of them.... we make sure they're having fun.... we make sure that it would be a trip that we ourselves would enjoy.......

How do you choose partners/potential partners for the activities that you have (for example the LU Surf School)?
we're not really choosy as long as they would cater to our clients' needs..... and....well, discounts are good

Do you see this as a long-term business?
yes! as long as there are people on this planet there would always be travellers......

Where do you see the company in the next three to five years?
hopefully go international...... offer international destinations and invite foreign nationals to tour the philippines......

What strategies do you apply to reach your corporate goals?
there are really no strategies, we just make sure that we meet or exceed our clients' expectations

What is your assessment of domestic tourism in terms of human traffic and preferences (acitivities, mode of travel, food, accommodations, etc.)?
it would really depend on the age bracket...younger people tend to look for activities that would give them adrenalin rush and younger people are usually more adventurous when it comes to mode of transpo (they even prefer "top load"), activities and their focus is what's "out there" rather than worrying if their room has cable or not.....

How is the domestic tourism climate making an impact on your business?
like in the case of our surfvivor series, ofcourse we need waves for that so we have to know the months that are good for surfing... tourism is a whole year round thing... if it's raining and typhoons are just coming in one after the other then it's surfing time! if it's summer, we all know what summer means... and in between those season there are always mountains to climb or caves to explore......