THE PARTY CREW STORY

The Party Crew (TPC) is a licensed tourism agency in Ghana which exquisitely p a c ka g e s H e r i t a g e , A d v e n t u r e , Sightseeing, Recreaonal and Educaonal tourism acvies for corporate instuons, groups, and individuals living in Ghana and abroad.

The Party Crew registered with the Registrar General in the year 2013. Our mission is 'to make tourismexcing'andourvisionisto'aractmore tourists to Ghana and increase the interest in tourism for Ghanaians. The Party Crew provides aspartofitsservices: i. ToursinGhanaandotherpartsofAfrica ii. Organising naming ceremonies for our BrothersandSistersindiaspora iii. Planning and organising customary marriage iv Signaturetourpackages v. Virtualtourism(comingsoon)

During the first few months of operaon, The Party Crew experienced challenges which brought the firm to a standsll. Some challenges were: a. The business suffered from low patronage because of targeng the wrong market. I assumed I could tap into my network from my previous industry to market the services of The Party Crew. I completely ignored the power of social media and the worldwide web asmarkengtools. b. I had an ineffecve working relaonship with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) so the GTA did not know how to support The Party Crew b u s i n e s s m o d e l t h a t only required us to operate from our computers since we intended to send

Cynthia Classpeters

business proposals to corporate instuons. We only wanted the targeted instuonal clients to find that The Party Crew was registered if they performed a background check with the GTA Simple. That was the onlytoreasonwedecidedattheonsettogeta tourism licence - in order to be legimate and credible. Wrong! Registering with the GTA turned out to be a challenging process. The requirement to have a rented office space in order to receive a licence was discouraging for a young company with no funds for this expenditure. The young company experienced several other hurdles, including the cost of purchasing office equipment, accreditaon fees, and acquiring a tourism educaoncerficate. c. I launched the business with zero cash and support from family and friends. The main issue of low patronage made it impossible to break-evenonplannedtrips.

Between 201 and 2017, TPC went on a hiatus because of the many issues faced but mainly because of the low patronage. During the years of hiatus, the passion for the industry made me restless. The more I suppressed my passion for the business, the more restless I became. I thought through the issues and aer seng out opons of the pathways available; I decided to do thefollowingandexaminetheoutcomes: a. I would get a job with a tourism firm in order to gain some experience in the tourism industry. I had previously worked with the Associaon of Business Execuves, a professional educaon body, and The Ghana Employers Associaon, which is in the training and negoaon industry I had no experience in the tourism industry and was only driven by my passion and inspiraon. I took a job at Jubilee Tours, but learned lile about the tours industry there because they focused more on selling airline ckets and my interest was in tours and not ckeng. I le Jubilee Tours aer two months, but at least I had learned the basics such as preparing a tourplan. b. Ivisitedasmanytoursitesaspossibleinorder to know first-hand what they offered and the state of the road networks to the sites. This helped me to idenfy that relying on pictures posted on the internet to create my tour packages was dangerous for my business. The reality of the experience was usually different from what is shown on the internet. As a tour business, we can now pride ourselves in knowing about 80% of the tour sites in the country well enough to curate experiencesthatfitourmission. c. I finally opted to get a licensed partner in order to have shared responsibility and also be a support for each other The Party Crew partnered with Mereki Tours in 2016, but unfortunately, the partnership did not last. But I learned some valuable lessons from the partnership, including not being emoonal in business and to ulise my network effecvely forbusinessgains.

HowWeGotBacktoWork

a. Giving it a try again – A friend living abroad who believed in the vision of TPC encouraged me and also convinced some colleagues to visitGhana. In2018,throughmyfriend'shelp in running a 14-day tour, three people visited Ghana. The feedback aer the tour was highly posive, so he helped with another group tour the following year. In 2019, five people visited Ghana and had a fantasc me, so returned the following year. Unfortunately, Covid-19 global pandemic dashed the 2020 plans. The feedback from these two groups encouraged me to think about the viability of the business more crically Finally, I concluded that the experience gained and posive feedback was enough to help me push forward with the TPC mission and vision, and thus the business was restartedinfullswing.

b. TheUseofSocialMediaformarkeng–From the incepon of the business ll 2020, TPC did not use social media as a business tool. During the lockdown of 2020, I realised everyone was promong their business on social media. At that moment, I decided TPC would use the power of social media to create brand awareness. TPC's presence on social media generated expressions of interest, which turned into new business opportunies aer the COVID-19 restricons on movement were lied. Since then, the company has been organising tours successfully for Ghanaians.

c. Introducon to the Tour Operators Union of Ghana

Due to the level of service provided during my first post on Covid-19 tours, a friend of mine and her colleagues helped promote The Party Crewprogramstotheircircleofinfluence. During a work interacon, my friend found out thatoneofhercustomerswasthepresidentof the Tour Operators Union of Ghana (TOUGHA). Sheimmediatelyconnectedmeto the Tougha president to assist me with my issuesintheindustry

Ihadcreatedaworkingofficeathomeandhad a good social media presence. The President of TOUGHA offered to assist me get a Ghana Tourism Authority licence and also become a member of TOUGHA. Aer six months of interacon with the TOUGHA president, The Party Crew became a member of TOUGHA and also got its licence from the Ghana Tourism Authority

d. TheUseofmyNetwork

Between 2021 and 2022, TPC planned and executed many tours. About 90% of our clients are Ghanaians and about 70% of these Ghanaian clients are families, friends and acquaintances from social media plaorms. Our network has been a significant source of support and we will keep harnessing that for greater gains. Because of this, we have created The Party Crew membership club which comprises about 70% of past clients. Clients who are members enjoy some benefits such as discounts, special birthday celebraons and free tourism ps and educaon.

These years of existence and experiences have given us clarity of purpose and passion to promote Ghana and Africa to the rest of the world. Even though as a country we have not invested enough in the tours sector by improving our road networks and adding value to our natural aracons, The Party Crew is doing its best to make what we have more aracve and beneficial to people in Ghana and beyond hoping things will keep improving in the tourism sector soon.

BrandingandBrandMarkeng

Our name, The Party Crew, and our mission 'to make tourism excing' has been our brand identy and has received accolades from clients as offering outstanding excing tours. Even though our name does not scream out “tourism”, it creates curiosity and allows TPC to stand out in the tourism industry. We have consistently showed to our target market and other major stakeholders that touring Ghana is excing, especially with The Party Crew, and the feedback showsourserviceexcellence.

The Party Crew brand is marketed by its logo. The excing logo is on every picture and video we share on social media. This is to put the brand consistently in the minds of our target market. Insufficient funding has hindered TCP from ulising outdoor adversement However, we have recently paid Homebase TV to run a daily adversement for six months with the aim of making TPC the first choice when it comes to tourism in Ghana. Also, by way of markeng our brand, staff and members wear The Party Crew Tshirtstoshowcasethebrand.

IncorporaonofICT

The Party Crew started from a laptop and now does50%ofitworkfromthemobilephone. From clients' interacons, promoon of upcoming events, daily social media posng and communicang with the team. This helps to make work truly mobile. We don't have to be staoned at the office to perform certain tasks. As a firm, we market, sell and communicate via ICT with the use of email, WhatsApp messages and text messages. Due to this, we mostly meet the client at the me of service delivery of the tour or ceremony ICT is a key resource in our industry and has been essenal during the Covid19 period in relaon to sending our message across to our target market to create the necessary awareness about our services. We are also developing a website to make us more visible and accessible. Soon, we hope to make about 80% of our work digital. TPC wants to be connected to different digital payment plaorms worldwide and also be able to issue digital receipts. One service we intend to promote and sell soon is Virtual Tourism This requires investment in ICT in order to acquire the right gadgets and connecvity for the smooth delivery of this service. As a firm, we will do our best to incorporate the use of ICT at every stage of our business.

YouthEmployment

When I was working with the Associaon of Business Execuves (ABE-UK) we conducted research in 2008 and published the findings in 2010. The research was on Arficial Intelligence and Robocs. The lesson I learned from this research was that technology is good but it will also destroy a lot of jobs. The research finding made us (ABE-UK) develop the Entrepreneurship course to train and equip the youth with requisite skills to start their business. This made me think about entrepreneurship for the following reasons;

1. Start and build a business in order for my children to get a place to work from age 15tobuildexperienceandhaveexposure intheworkenvironment

2. Createemploymentfortheyouth.

The above reasons drove me to start The Party Crew aer my resignaon from ABE-UK in 2013. TPCcurrentlyemploys4peoplebetweentheages of 25 to 35 years. One administrave assistant, one graphic designer, one photo and videographer,andonetourguide. Wealsohave6 non-permanent staff between the ages of 30 and 40, regional tour guides and drivers, who we call on when needed. That our small firm has offered these people an opportunity to work, learn and earnincomeisfulfilling.

LeveragingR&DandTechnology

As a firm, we are passionate about growth and thismeansweneedtoinvestintheaboveinorder to achieve our goal My experience in the Ghanaian corporate environment revealed that professionals living in Ghana do not appreciate tourism. At the inial stages of TPC,professionals living in Ghana and people vising from abroad were our main target group. When we started operang as a business, we realised that geng

Ghanaian professionals to take part in our tours was very challenging. Even when they were interested in tours, their preference was to do so overseas. In 2021 we developed a quesonnaire and sent it to some medical doctors, lawyers, bankers, teachers, police officers, nurses and administrave professionals in Ghana in order to find out why they do not patronise tourism in Ghana. . Belowaresomefindings; a. TourisminGhanaisexpensive b. Tourism is for students and not for professionals c. Ghana does not have beauful aracons

These findings helped us with our markeng strategies and pricing. One strategy that is also helping is making PowerPoint presentaons to corporate groups. This means maximising R&D and technology will help us reach our vision, so wehopetoinvestmoreinthisarea.