:: AquaOdysseas™ :: 3D Interactive Travel Guides

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Marketing Opportunity

Each year, billions of dollars are spent attracting value minded vacation travelers. Even so, as adventurous professionals sort through their travel options in various brochures, books and web sites, they rarely acquire all the information necessary to fulfill their destination's true potential.
Somewhere along the technology tsunami, the travel industry missed the boat…
AquaOdysseas™ combines the information features of the yellow pages and the compelling interactivity of the Internet in a new DVD-Rom format. It features unprecedented current data and live action video views of the most popular destinations for divers around the world. For the first time, travelers can plan their activities by seeing video of actual locations and all the nearby attractions and accommodations, precisely located by GPS coordinates.
Selecting lodging becomes easy when activities and adventures can be planned in close proximity, and not by pre-packaged generic deals … allowing travelers to spend their precious time seeing the sites instead of shuttling to and from the hotel.
With extreme vacations and action packed getaways becoming the norm, AquaOdysseas™ will pave the way for great experiences … not great bus rides.

Marketing Plan

Each DVD-Rom contains a 30 min overview of each destination with examples of the interactive map to orientate the viewer. This overview will be aired on local, regional and national networks with viewers of nearly 30 million. At the end of each show a short ad informing viewers where to purchase the DVD-Rom at national book retailers such as Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Amazon.com or the AquaOdysseas's website. The DVD-Rom is also available for retail at each destination in venues such as hotels, services and tourism boards.

Competition

There is no existing competition for this product. Currently books and the internet are the only forms of travel knowledge.

Today the primary sources for travel destination knowledge are books. These books can cost anywhere from $20 to $50 dollars each. Most are printed in black and white with little imagery and less then adequate maps. Basically, the traveler has to use a lot of imagination in understanding where they are going. In this day, people do not want fiction when traveling abroad they want to "Know before they go".

The other form and less informative is the Internet. Currently the Internet does not provide information on where you are going nearly as much as getting you there. Over the past decade the Internet has slowly replaced the Travel Agent in booking trips and packages abroad. As online booking proliferates the travel agent diminishes. Along with the decline is the loss insight to each location leading to more disappointed travelers and lost revenue.

Market Entrenchment

AquaOdysseas™ will expand quickly with many more destinations in North America, starting with over 30 major beach resort and dive destinations. With multiple production teams many volumes will be produced simultaneously. By creating an encyclopedia of DVD-Roms as well as a Web-based itinerary builder so vacationers can customize their own trips. We will capture the technology wave and set a standard that competitors will have to surmount before producing a product equal to our quality.
AquaOdysseas™ goal is to set the new standard of travel guides for the 21st century. By creating an encyclopedia of DVD-Roms with a Web-based itinerary builder, vacationers can customize their trips with much greater confidence -- and satisfaction.

World WideTravel Distribution

Market Research & Analysis

According to a recent World Bank paper, and the World Travel and Tourism Council:

New York, NY: U.S. book sales totaled $26,874,100,000 in 2002, a 5.5 percent increase over 2001, according to figures just released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Overall, trade sales rose 8.8 percent, with sales of $6.93 billion. Adult trade hardbound sales rose 11.8 percent ($2.94 billion), while paperbound sales rose 12.1 percent ($2.16 billion).
Travel is a 1.3 Trillion dollar a year industry.
AARP - 35 million members strong and growing
In 1999, South Asia recorded travel and tourism industry growth of 9.1%, Latin America 6.1%, North Africa 6% with the Caribbean at 5.5%. * Travel and tourism accounted for 11.7% of world GDP in 1999.
During 1999, travel and tourism accounted for 43% of regional GDP. The industry's contribution to national economies ranged from a high of 69% in St. Lucia to a low of 13% for Trinidad and Tobago.

(Median) household income category of beach resort travelers before taxes.

$89,000-$120,000 per year

How Many Active Divers Are There in the US?

Variations may be due to sampling methods, survey questions, audiences, etc.
2,901,000 - Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), 2000.
2,985,280 - Mediamark Research, Inc. (MRI), August 1998.
1,600,000 - National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), 2000.
SGMA’s Sports Participation Topline Report 2000 shows a 19.2% increase in divers from 1987 to 2000.

Top 5 US States for Scuba Diving (2000)

• Based on divers' residential address*