Industry/market research (Wedding/online tourism) and market research database creation:

We would like our interns to conduct market research on the wedding and online tourism industries (with priority order of 1) wedding industry and 2) online tourism).

Wedding:

1) Identify relevant players including online aggregators such as “Knots” and create a database accordingly.

2) Based on online/literature search as well as interviews with relevant people, create (a) flowchart(s)*

a. How each of the players in the industry, including their customers, engage with each other [for any given wedding].

i. Before the wedding, during the wedding, after the wedding

b. Who are the players? e.g., customers (bride, groom and/or their parents), venue, planner, venders (we are particularly interested in photographers and videographers), wedding aggregators, online websites creators etc.

c. How does money flow among players? Who pays what to who? How much (range)?

d. How do the online platforms work? is it automated and if so how much? what percentage of the work in this industry is being processed manually? are there any standard practices?

3) Extra: How do destination weddings work? How is it different? Who are the major players?

4) There has been a surge in virtual weddings since the pandemic, what are the components of that? Players? How do people attend?

*Note: Wedding industry is extremely fragmented; therefore, you may need to create several flowcharts. Please indicate which one is more common right now and which one will potentially be growing in the future. Based on your analysis we will decide our marketing and sales strategy and focus.

Online Tourism Market research and data collection

1) Create a database for major players who offer online tourism including museums, Amazon, Aribnb, Veltra etc.

2) Based on online/literature search as well as interviews with relevant people, create a flow chart **

a. How each player in the industry including their customers engaging among each other for a particular tour.

i. Before the tour, during the tour, after the tour

b. Who are the players? e.g. customer, tour operating company, individual tour guide, online (offline?) tour aggregator

c. How does money flow among players? Who pays what to who? How much? How much each make money

d. How does online system work? How much is it automated? How much is it manual? Is there any standard practice?

*Note: online tourism industry is simpler and more nascent than the wedding industry.

If time allows, we would like research data on current equipment (VR headsets and 360-degree cameras) available on the market, as well as the lenders/renters:

1) Conduct research on equipment lenders/renters (national, international, or local?) for both camera and VR headsets.

2) Conduct research on manufacturers of VR headsets and 360-degree cameras that may be or are willing to participate in the lending program.

3) In order for the above VR headset manufacturers to lend equipment to customers, are there any conditions? If there are, what are they? (E.g., credit checks, insurance, credit card info)

4) How much do they charge? For what? e.g. how many days/weeks? Locations?

5) Do they offer any volume discount?

6) Do they offer online lending/renting programs? Or Lending/renting via phone, in-person or others?

7) How much stock do they have in each lending/renting company- would be a plus to create some kind of relational database on the above.

We will provide the following mentorship and guidance to the students before, during and after the project:

1) Initial overview and detailed instructions

2) A weekly status update meetings for feedback; students can ask questions or guidance anytime via text (or other method).

3) An opportunity for students to present their findings to our team and obtain feedback from us.