DESIGN 3 PAGES FOR A NEW TRAVEL AGENCY IN A NICHE MARKET

Madina Madina

Travel & Tours

We are entering a very niche market in the worldwide travel industry, yet it is an extremely popular and fiercely competitive market in the muslim world. We will ultimately be providing the muslim pilgrimage service, known as UMRAH to the muslims. Below we have a detailed explanation for those who are unaware of the muslim pilgrimage.

Muslims around the world have an obligation to perform a religious pilgrimage to the Sacred House in Mecca (Saudi Arabia). Muslims have 2 types of pilgrimages. One is known as HAJJ (which we will not provide, as of yet and will state “TBC” on our website) and the other is known as UMRAH (which we will provide).

HAJJ is the major pilgrimage which muslims are under obligation to perform at least once in their lifetime which is at a set time every year. UMRAH on the other hand is the minor pilgrimage which muslims can perform as many times as they wish without any obligation any time of the year.

The UMRAH service can be provided to an individual as a tailor made package or it can be provided as a group package. We will provide both. The tailor made UMRAH service will be provided at any time of the year, but the group packages will only be provided during the peak holiday season for eg, During Easter, Summer, Christmas and also during the islamic religious month of Ramadan.

Whilst visiting the Sacred House in Mecca, Muslims also make time to visit Prophet Mohammed’s mosque in a town called Madina. Pictures of both the Sacred House in Mecca & the Prophet’s mosque have been uploaded for you to include in your designs. (Feel free to edit the images to suit your designs)

Alongside our pilgrimage service, we will also be providing tour packages of Historical Islamic sites in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Palestine. (Please add high quality images which relate to these places - See note below of popular sites in these destinations).
Turkey - Blue Mosque
Egypt - Pyramids
Palestine - Dome of the Rock

In Conclusion, We are providing:

• UMRAH group packages during the UK term holidays
• Tailor made Umrah packages (for individuals, couples, families, friends) throughout the year
• Tour group packages of Historical Islamic sites during the UK term holidays
• Hajj Package (Service not available just yet, just include a tab for now stating “Hajj” and we will display "TBC" when someone clicks on this page)

If you would like more information on HAJJ or UMRAH, then feel free to search the net where you will find information on this topic in abundance.

We have no preference over style or colour as we are very open to designs and new ideas. Ideally we would like the colours of the logo (MADINA MADINA) to complement the colours/style/theme used in designing the whole site. Bear in mind we are ultimately a travel agency and require the site to have a professional look. We prefer to have some symmetry arranged into the designs if possible.

The site must look very different to our competitors and have a unique style. We certainly don’t want the website to look too busy with information and pictures all over the place like some of our competitors’ websites (I have provided a few of the websites below). It must be easy on the eye. We like designers who think outside the box and not those who simply stick to tried and tested methods. Be creative in your designs and please don’t just imitate the templates/designs of our competitors. This will result in your designs being overlooked. Below are the links to a few of our competitors’ sites to give you an idea of what kind of things are usually on the website of a Muslim Travel Agent:

1. http://hajj.al-hidaayah.travel/
2. http://dometours.com/
3. http://www.radiantdrops.com/
4. http://www.shariffenterprises.com/
5. http://www.islamfreedom.com/
6. http://hasanhajj.com/
7. http://www.alsafatravels.co.uk/

There are plenty more Hajj/Umrah companies online, for research, please type in google: “Umrah UK” and you will find plenty websites online to get a rough idea of what is needed on an Umrah company web site. There are a lot of companies in this trade but have not come up with a decent enough website design which has a professional look and we want you to help us tackle that.

Home page

1. Pictures of Mecca, Madina and Dome of the Rock
2. Company Logo
3. Tabs (Packages, Hajj, Who we are & How to contact us)
4. Social media icons – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Youtube

Please note: We want to be able to add and remove packages that we are doing throughout the year on the “PACKAGES” page.

Packages

We will offer approximately 4 Umrah group packages throughout the year, so we would require 4 sections laid out on screen. The packages will be offered in the following months; February, April, Ramadan & December. Ramadhan is one of the Islamic months and the dates change every year. So for example 19/12/2015 to 03/01/2015 would be our December Umrah package. The dates for the package in February would be from 16/02/2016 to 25/02/2016. The information / layout must be easy on the eye and not look too busy.

Below these 4 sections, we would like to have a statement saying the following:

“Tailor made packages upon request. Please use the enquiry form by clicking the contact us tab”

Hajj

For this page it will be blank. You're not actually designing this page. Only a tab on the homepage that says "Hajj". As we are not providing this service yet, we will state "TBC" (To be confirmed) when someone clicks on that page.

Who we are & How to contact us

Fow now you can insert the following statement but later we will amend this statement:

'Madina Madina' is a UK based Hajj and Umrah services provider whose aim is to provide exceptional quality and service. We know that you’re going to the Sacred Lands for a purpose. Your aim is to make that dream a reality. Let us take care of everything else.
We carefully select the highest standard of services, from accommodation to transport, to ensure that your journey is enlightening, with the least possible stress and hassle.
Your spiritual journey is as important as, if not more important than, your physical one. That’s why we want to make sure that this journey is a life-changing experience.

Contact us section to have a really smart looking Enquiry form please. We will also require our Postal Address, Contact no. & Email Address.

Nothing comes to mind at the present moment however, once designs have been submitted, if there is anything that we absolutely dislike, we will most definitely make the designers aware of this

To be perfectly honest, we don’t want you to be looking at other sites. As we mentioned earlier, just be creative and do what you think looks good to YOU. If we feel that you’re going off track, we will definitely inform you of this and we’ll put you in the right direction. (Bear in mind, with the use of mobile technology these days, our main consumers will have smartphones & tablets; hence the website/design must be mobile & tablet compatible).

Not sure if this is relevant but we would like to see how our site would look with PARALLAX SCROLLING and also RESPONSIVE DESIGN – how the site would look not only on a PC but also on a phone / tablet. Could try Parallax scrolling in the back ground, must look simple yet elegant and modern at the same time.

We will be available round the clock, so if designers have any questions to ask, we will answer immediately, as soon as we’re available.

We have attached an image of our Company Logo. Please note that if you wish, you can also play around with our logo to adapt to your designs if you like (in the sense that you can add a fresh twist to our Logo to probably complement your designs – Blurred effect / sketchy effect). Try and use the colours of our company logo throughout the web site design if possible.

We have attached pictures of the Sacred House in Mecca & The prophets Mosque. Muslims visit both places whilst on UMRAH. Please feel free to have a look on the internet where you can find thousands of different shots / angles of the two places which you can use whilst designing the site. You can also use images of "Dome of the Rock" (another sacred place we will make visits to in Jerusalem)

You can even illustrate your own designs/sketches of the mosques if you wish, so long as they don’t look too childish, if you know what we mean, must look modern at the same time.

You can try designing a site with a very minimal amount of pictures if you wish, a lot of white can also look fresh, clear, modern. Please don’t over use the pictures.

This is an announcement to ALL designers. We need to see the following designs before we start proceeding to the next round.

1. Present our Company logo on your designs as two separate items. What we mean by this is that the name of the company "MADINA MADINA travel & tours" needs to be separated from the actual badge/logo.They can be next to one another, or be separated and placed in different areas of the page. For example, The name of the company in the middle of the page and the badge somewhere else. Or the name of the company in a corner somewhere and the badge in the middle. It's up to you. We've now given you more room to play with.

2. We want a stand out picture at the home page. Something that grabs the attention of the customer. The picture needs to be sharp, crisp. Brighten up the pictures, don't make them look dark.

3. Show us your designs without all the tabs. We want a menu button, so when you click on it, the tabs appear in a smart way. We have an example to show you from the following website.. "http://www.altsplash.com". Look how the menu button is on the right top hand corner and when clicked, all tabs appear. By doing this, we have now given you more room to play with.

4. Parallax Scrolling. Look at how "http://www.altsplash.com" have incorporated a picture in the background and scrolling down creates an overlay effect. We like this. See if you can come up with something.

5. The main ribbon (where the tabs appear) needs to be at the top. Not on the left hand side.

6. Your Social Media icons need to look good, crisp and placed nicely somewhere, have a look at the bottom of the "altsplash" website and you'll see what we mean.

7. Picture of Mecca or Madina in home page, NOT Dome of the rock. Or all three together but not Dome of the rock on it's own as our main product is UMRAH and you cannot perform umrah in Dome of the rock.