INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TRAVEL PROJECT

• Students will use the internet for research purposes
• Students will demonstrate the ability to prepare a structured itinerary
• Students will practice making wise consumer decisions
• Students will demonstrate effective presentation skills

Project Components:

• Students will use the internet to research information on one foreign country
• Students will use the internet to find travel information, including airfare, hotel prices, etc.
• Students will prepare an itinerary with travel plans
• Students will prepare an oral presentation of their findings

Project Guidelines:

This project requires your group, acting as employees of a business, to research the country your business is hoping to expand to. You will need to include in this presentation what information you can locate on the country your group chooses. You will also collectively make travel plans for your business manager to attend a meeting while in the country. You should plan your research as if the meeting would be held in that country’s capital city.

You should research the following:

• Facts about the country (i.e., population, geographic area, demographics, government structure, economic system)
• Economic facts (i.e., exports, imports, chief agricultural products, foreign exchange, currency, transportation modes available)
• Travel information (i.e., methods/costs of travel to the country, methods of travel while in the country, hotel accommodations, communication modes available in the country)
• Culture and customers (i.e. customs which affect business relations, holidays, major religions, etiquette)
• Eating habits (i.e., general cost of meals/restaurants, whether American food is served in that country, when people tend to eat, etc.)

After the research is complete, an itinerary should be prepared detailing the business manager’s visit to the country. This itinerary should cover the moment the executive walks out the door en route to the airport to the moment the executive lands safely back in the U.S. and arrives back in your city. Be sure to allow adequate travel time.

The trip should last no longer than three business days. The budget should be somewhere between $1000-$1500, though the less the cost, the more impressed your boss will be. The oral presentation should include a pie chart itemizing the trip expenses. Be sure to allot for meals during the visit, both in your itinerary and in your estimated expense list.

For a list of internet starting points for this project, Click here.