Part III- SWOT Analysis

Products and services

Strengths Weaknesses

First to offer Luxury cruise locally

Onboard entertainment

Affordable package deals

Accessibility of their products

Limited packages

Seldom offers super sale packages

Opportunities Threats

Innovation of new products and

services offered

Ability to develop new destinations

Increase target market

Other alternative for transportation

Season or weather

Development of low-cost airlines

Table 3.1 SWOT Analysis for Products and Services

Strengths

As 2GO Travel is the first to offer domestic luxury cruise and sea travel experience in the

Philippines, they arrange a variety of products that would become their source of income for the

company. A luxury cruise typically consists of several onboard entertainments and activities,

plus package deals that are not just affordable, but also worth the pay. These products can be

accessed through the internet, in their company website as well as through their thousands of

ticketing offices found all over the country.

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Weaknesses

2GO Travel’s weaknesses mentioned on the table are correlated. It is due the limited

packages they offer since their products’ prices vary depending on the season, duration, type of

accommodation, and other factors affecting the prices and how seldom they offer these

packages.

Opportunities

Since a luxury cruise is quite costly, 2GO Travel has the opportunity to innovate new

products and services to be offered that will surely increase their revenue. Considering that the

Philippines is an island country and is filled with diverse flora and fauna and undiscovered

wonders, they could use these advantages to develop new destinations through the creation of

new packages that would involve those destination. With the use of their advertisements

through magazines, social media, and radio, they could increase their target market, thus more

revenue.

Threats

There are two critical threats that will affect the number of passengers availing their

products and services. Those are their competitors which could be other modes of

transportation like air travel and the weather and season.

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Facilities and Amenities

Strengths Weaknesses

Convenient brand new facilities and

amenities

Availability of entertainment onboard

High maintenance cost for the facilities

Expensive add-on amenities

Opportunities Threats

Possible new facilities and amenities

offered

Ability to increase price due to

exclusiveness

Accidental damage caused by guests

Depreciation of equipment and

facilities

Table 3.2 SWOT Analysis for Facilities and Amenities

Strengths

2GO Travel is one of the largest and premiere land and sea travel provider in the

Philippines. It is expected that their facilities, amenities, and equipment are brand new and

convenient to the passengers. And with this, there are a lot of sources of entertainment

available onboard for their passengers.

Weaknesses

Their facilities may be one of their strengths, but it could also be a weakness for them.

Their facilities and amenities onboard need to be checked and maintained regularly to ensure its

functionality. In order for them to sustain their facilities, they need to spend high maintenance

cost for it. And another weakness is the expensive add-ons the passengers may avail onboard.

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Opportunities

Like with their products, they could turn their facilities and amenities into an

opportunity. They could try and add more to their current amenities to provide a better service

to their passengers. And since 2go Travel is the first provider of cruise line-like travel, they have

the competitive edge against their competitors. With this exclusiveness, they can possible

generate more revenue by raising their rates fairly higher.

Threats

We provided two threats to 2GO Travel’s facilities and amenities: first is the accidental

damage that their passengers may cause while onboard the vessel. And the second is

depreciation of the facilities and equipment. These will result to more expenses to them

because they will be spending money to be able to repair these damages caused by their

passengers. Same with the depreciation of their facilities and equipment because they will also

spend money to change or replace their depreciated facilities and equipment when needed.

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Setting: Physical Attributes

Strengths Weaknesses

Regular maintenance

Permanence

High cost of ship maintenance

Value depreciation of the ship

Limited resources

Opportunities Threats

Acquisition of larger cruise ship

Attracting more passengers

Rising cost of fuel

Security

Table 3.3 SWOT Analysis for Setting

Strengths

For the physical attributes, we focused more on their vessels. Their regular maintenance

for their vessels is one of their strengths since it is a tedious work and process. And the regular

maintenance then leads to another strength which is permanence. Since the vessels are well

maintained, the vessels are likely to have a longer durability.

Weaknesses

Their weakness also comes from the aforementioned strength. In order to maintain

their vessels, the outflow of their cash for the ship maintenance is costly. Another is that due to

the constant flow of time, the structure of the ship decreases. Although their ships undergo

regular maintenance, still, its strong foundation depreciates as it is used over and over again as

they follow their weekly travel schedule. It becomes a weakness for them since the raw

materials they use to build new large ships only come from limited resources.

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Opportunities

The acquisition of larger cruise ship is another opportunity for 2GO Travel to increase

their revenue. Larger cruise ship means more space to accommodate passengers. Since it is

more spacious, passengers may have the tendency to be more allured in availing their products

for more comfortable travel.

Threats

The economy might affect the cost of fuel which is the source of energy of a ship to

operate. Increase in cost may cause cutting of ship operations. Also, the security of the ship

might be threatened because it has equipment/materials that are expensive and can be sold

easily such as the air conditioner, steel, boats, etc.

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Managerial Skills

Strengths Weaknesses

Corporate social responsibility

Anti-human trafficking

Well-trained managers and staffs

Inefficiency of some crews

Conformation of staffs to the house

rules

Cleanliness/Maintenance of the ship

Opportunities Threats

Recruitment of new employees

New staffs for ship navigation

Trainings for supervisors/managers

Piracy

Emergency/ Typhoons

Employees᾿ loyalty

Table 3.4 SWOT Analysis for Managerial Skills

Strengths

2GO Travel makes sure that their guests’ welfare is protected. They conduct

precautionary measures especially for minors such as monitoring their departure and arrival

with required papers from parents and DSWD. They also have experienced managers and

qualified staffs for navigating and operating the ship.

Weaknesses

There are some of the crews that are not efficient to the operation of the ship because

they are not all monitored. Also, the maintenance of the cleanliness of the ship is their

weakness because of the number of passengers sharing a common bathroom; it gets dirty after

few hours.

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Opportunities

Because of their expansion, 2GO travel requires additional employees. With this, they

get to hire new staffs, with new ideas that could help them improve their operation. As a part of

this, they also get to have new sea farers for the ferry operations. They also undergo through

trainings and seminars for betterment and widening of strategies.

Threats

Sea travel is considered as one of the safest mode of transportation but accidents are

inevitable especially if it is by people. Piracy/ hostage/ robbery might occur during the trip,

knowingly that there are a lot of tourists on board. Also, fortuitous event such as typhoon might

also bring harm to the ship and to the guests during the trip. Next is the loyalty of employees;

there is always a possibility that their employees might leak the company’s secrets and

strategies.

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Employees

Strengths Weaknesses

Experience

Serviceability

Efficiency

Cultural diversity

Lean season

Opportunities Threats

Team building

Travel privileges

Training for employee promotion

Evolving regulations

Sea travel risks

Leakage of company operations

Table 3.5 SWOT Analysis for Employees

Strengths

Experience is always present in the lists of strengths of any employee and in the travel

industry, it is very much regarded. 2GO travel employees seem to possess such as they interact

with various passengers aboard their ship. Having experience gives them the advantage to solve

any type of situation without disappointing their passengers. This also emphasizes their

serviceability, or in other words, their ability to provide quality service towards any kind of

customer. The fact that some of their employees are bachelor degree holders in the hospitality

and tourism industry just proves that they put into practice all of the things they have learned.

Above all, with experience and serviceability intact, they have become employees with

efficiency that which the company values the most as part of their service strategies and with

that, they are fairly compensated.

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Weaknesses

One thing that is not new in the service industry is cultural diversity. Whenever new

employees begin work, they are not always of the same origin or nationality and religion. Some

grew up in their own provinces, some are used to the environment of Manila, or even some are

migrants from different countries. The probability of differences in opinions or beliefs or even

social practices is bound to happen and, thus, becomes a weakness. However, with the right

amount of control, they could manage to stay as a team to keep the company’s reputation.

Another weakness source is during their lean season because when they have less number of

passengers, then they will incur less profit for the company, hence, less income for all

employees. It all depends on the season of each destination but it’s manageable since 2GO

Travel features several destinations throughout the island country.

Opportunities

Conducting a series of team building activities for all employees could help resolve their

trust issues in one another as well as to keep them intact and well organized while in the field of

work. As for their travel privileges, every employee of 2GO Travel is always granted their

benefits in line with work and not solely for them, but also for their own families. In addition to

that, there is always an opportunity for employees who wish to aim a higher position and with

the right attitude and skills, they undergo training to asses which of them are suitable for

promotion.

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Threats

The employees are always affected by any company and departmental regulations set

for them to follow. With the ever changing course of time, there are rules that are bound to

change every now and then that each of them should conform with. Some of these rules may be

against their will that they would rather quit than to endure following it. However, that is not

the only reason, as there are many factors that can affect an employee’s decision, such as the

risks in sea travel operations. One is sure to act selfishly when one values his or her life and not

risk it for the satisfaction of passengers. Nevertheless, customer service is always accompanied

by risks and that is one of the many reasons why it is difficult to become an employee in the

service industry. Lastly, a threat to any 2GO Travel employee is the occurrence of leakage of the

company’s operations. The probability of this happening is when a former employee leaks

information regarding the confidential operations of the company out in public. It does not only

remove an employee from his or her position in the company, but also disrupts his or her

credibility and reputation in the face of the companies or organizations that would hire him or

her to follow.

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Infrastructure

Strengths Weaknesses

Innovative design of ports

Cleanliness and orderliness of ports

Security

Lack of management strategy in ports

Opportunities Threats

Additional facilities

Eco friendly infrastructure

Natural Calamities

Fortuitous events

Price increase of raw material

Table 3.6 SWOT Analysis for Infrastructure

Strengths

2GO Travel is popularly known for its innovative design of ports and ships with its color

combination of green and magenta which connotes feminism. With the feminist approach of

2GO, it has successfully launched a more enhanced water transport and attracted more tourist

to travel by sea. 2GO travel provides cleanliness and orderliness in their ports to ensure the

comfort of their passengers. Sufficient chairs are provided and they offer variety of activities

such as massage, pedicure, etc., to keep them entertained while waiting for boarding. 2GO

travel ensures the safety of the passengers with a strong security starting at their ports. The

passengers go through security checks such as X-ray machine upon entering the ports.

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Weaknesses

During peak seasons and holidays, there is a long line of passengers which makes them

most likely to be irritated. With the increase number of people travelling by sea, the lack of

management strategy of ports must be developed.

Opportunities

2GO travel has been successfully known by travelers and has gained big amount of

tourist to travel by sea. With its growing revenue, they have the opportunity to expand and add

more facilities for the guests to fully enjoy their travel. 2GO travel has the opportunity to

reduce environmental impacts of its ships by using eco-friendly infrastructures. They should

exercise energy saving activities such as new lighting systems, waste management and gas

cleaning systems.

Threats

2GO travel and their ports can be affected by inclement weather conditions, natural

calamities and fortuitous events. If these instances would happen, passengers will most likely

cancel their trips causing struggle to the company. Expanding their infrastructure may acquire

higher expense for the company with the threat of price increase in raw materials.

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Availability of Technology

Strengths Weaknesses

Easy access via 2GO travel website

Scan and shoot

Easy to contact

No Wi-Fi ashore

Weak mobile phone signal

Opportunities Threats

Software updates

Technology innovation

Operation Improvement

Hacking of 2GO travel website

Price increase of technology

Fast evolution of technology

Table 3.7 SWOT Analysis for Availability of Technology

Strengths

Providing easy access to customers, 2GO travel has a website providing the contact

information, online booking and payment. They also have accounts in Instagram, Twitter and

Facebook. One of the security procedures of 2GO travel is the scan and shoot. Photos of

passengers are being taken before they enter the pre-departure area. 2GO travel can be easily

contacted through their website providing their email and contact numbers and they respond

quickly to their customer’s inquiries.

Weaknesses

2GO travel provides no internet ashore making this a weakness to the company especially

because internet has now become a necessity to people. Weak mobile phone signal is another

weakness for 2GO travel. Passengers have a hard time contacting their loved ones aboard.

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Opportunities

They can develop and update their websites as well as their social networking sites to

communicate with their future customers. They may also add special features and promote

using their website. Opportunity for technology innovation such as movie theater, gaming

stations, Ipads as menu in restaurants, and many more. This may entice the customers and

make their trip more enjoyable. 2GO travel may improve their operations in terms of their

engine systems. They can change their engines into advanced ones for better and more safety

operations.

Threats

One of the threats for technology is the possible hacking of 2GO’s website. The company

will be greatly affected when this happens because their website is where the passengers can

book their trip and also promote their packages. It one of the best means to communicate with

their customers. The increase of price in technology will affect the company’s revenue. If the

demand of the technology is increased, the price will follow. With the fast evolution of

technology, the demand for newest technology is high. Passengers are more interested with

new technology therefore it is good to have the latest to satisfy more the passengers.

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Prices/Rates

Strengths Weaknesses

Low Cost

High profitability and revenue

No fixed rate

Seasonality

Opportunities Threats

Improvement on promos Price increase of commodities

Tax changes

Table 3.8 SWOT Analysis for Prices/Rates

Strengths

2GO travel is well-known for its low cost & money wise promos making customers opt

for their services since it is affordable and not heavy on the budget creating their company

renowned and famous. Since 2GO travel offers affordable services many travelers choose their

transport services creating high profitability & revenue on their company

Weaknesses

2GO travel offers a wide array of promos where tourists can choose from however they

don’t have a fixed rate, almost every single month they change their package rates, so

customers should regularly check their offered promos before they book. Because of different

seasons in various provinces 2GO arrange packages that would depend on the season of a

certain province.

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Opportunities

Although 2GO is well-known for its affordable promos there’s always room for

improvement, they can add more services for the convenience of their customers.

Threats

One threat for 2GO travel is the oil price hike. The never ending oil price hike is a big

threat for their company since they make use of fuel in operating the engines of their ships. If oil

price hike would continue they would have to adjust their fees and may cause a big loss of

customers that cannot afford highly priced fees for sea travel. Another threat for 2GO is the

growing competition that is very apparent in their industry. There are growing companies that

also offers low-cost and affordable prices for sea travel and sometimes it’s cheaper than what

they offer which other 2GO patrons may consider.

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Management of the Company

Strengths Weaknesses

Empowered employees

Excellent Organizational Structure

Miscommunication of employees

Diversity of employees

Opportunities Threats

Empowerment of managers

Leadership Training

Law suits

Table 3.9 SWOT Analysis for Management of the Company

Strengths

Employee empowerment is very evident in 2GO’s Company, they treat their employees

well and they make them feel that within their company everyone is a family.

2GO is a well-organized company, distribution of work is always organized and they also have a

very good reporting-relation within their organization, everybody knows where to report and it

makes their company organized, avoiding miscommunication and misunderstanding within their

organization.

Weaknesses

In every management, not all employees will always conform to the regulations due to

diversity. In line with the first weakness given, miscommunication within the employees may

arise due to the same reason. It is inevitable but can be prevented.

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Opportunities

2GO Travel assures empowerment to their employees however managers are not given

that much attention. So they have the opportunity to empower their managers. To be an

effective leader, one must undergo training in order to develop their skills and abilities to be

able to contribute to the company.

Threats

Law suits are considered as threat because it would affect the image of the

management and it would reflect in the company as a whole.

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