Strengths
The introduction of the luxurious and comfortable Gomez Executive Bus Service offered customers a room and a bar while traveling. Apart from the bar at the rear, the buses had a pair of uniformed and attractive young hostesses who accompanied passengers. The company’s move to serve passengers with different beverages and sandwiches at no cost was also its great strength.
In minimizing the ticketing queues, the bus company decentralized their booking points to hotel lobbies in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. As other companies were exposing passengers to long lines when purchasing tickets, Gomez Executive Bus Service had sought for a worthwhile alternative.
By using the two best hotels in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the company made a brilliant move to tap on foreign tourists, business travelers, and convention traders.
Weaknesses
However, the buses took more time between the two cities than San Juan and El Sol, which took two hours while making stopovers. In failing to make stopovers, the company was not able to pick other passengers in between the two cities. Moreover, the company has not successfully attracted many passengers into the thirty-six passenger-room.
The bus could frequently carry an average of only eight passengers; this was far much below the estimated twelve passengers required to break even. This is attributed to the manner of advertisement of using a hand-drawn sign on a small material to advertise its services at the Maya Hotel.
This could not give the company a competitive edge over the competitors. The company failed to schedule its newspaper and television advertisements to a particular programme in order to attract a specific target market.
Opportunities
The opportunities that Gomez Executive Bus Service can exploit include persuading commercial airline travellers who in reality take 2 hours for a trip between the two cities in Honduras. This takes into details the trips to and from the airports as well as the time taken at the waiting-bay.
The overbooking and cancellation of flights due to weather and mechanical problems are also opportunities that Gomez Executive Bus Service can exploit given its luxurious and comfortable nature. Since Hotel Sula and Hotel Maya catered for foreign tourists from Japan, Europe, and the US, the bus company can come up with advertisement strategies that persuade tourists to use their services, instead of airline travels.
This is not only possible due to time comparison, but also due to different travel prices. Media adverts remain unexploited; the company should design a marketing strategy that targets specific groups, such as business people and foreign tourists. Again, the competing companies have buses that are not air-conditioned.
As a way of gaining competitive advantage, Gomez Executive Bus Service can make its buses air-conditioned. Apart from well-developed road-networks, the two cities also have large populations that the company can target with its services.
Threats
On the other hand, Gomez Executive Bus Service faces stiff competition from El Sol, Colombo, and San Juan, which offer transport services between the two towns. On transportation charges, the company is disadvantaged, as it charges twice the regular fare as compared to the other three companies. The company’s failure to have its own terminal and opting to use busy hotels in the two cities is also a threat to business continuity.
If Gomez Executive Bus Service can have its own terminals and ticket offices, it will reduce expenditures. Apart from the government’s requirement to the company to charge twice the regular price, tourists’ option of traveling on SAHSA airlines is also a threat to Gomez Executive Bus Service. The moves can put the company out of business.