The Apprentice Week Six: Top Ten Tour Moments

The Apprentice Week Six: Top Ten Tour Moments

Having survived the previous task, the remaining candidates get a surprise house call from Lord Sugar. Revealing that this week, they will be off to north Wales.  With Wales being one of the UK’s tourist hotspots, the candidates will have the opportunity to get stuck into the tourism market; running their own tour.

Previously:

With Brittney’s ideas melting away, the Arctic sea saw Francesca flounder. Akeem gained bonus points on the other team, and his team took the win. For Francesca, it was Game Over. 

Here are my top ten moments of week six spent in Wales: 

1) Choosing a Chief:

For team Infinity Kathryn took the lead for the Quarry tour and zip line experience. After no other candidate stepped up for the position, her first task as Project manager was to decide on the value of money for her tour. 

“I’m not from this area. I don’t know how much that same tour would sell for. We don’t want to be left with loads of tickets, but then we don’t want to sell them too cheap.” Said, Kathryn. 

Stephany became Project Manager for team Diverse and decided on a highland railway historical tour. 

Prepping her team on prices, Stephany wanted to go for the lower price range, just in case, her group couldn’t pull off the experience. 

“Going at a higher price and backing ourselves to put on the best experience they have ever had is how we are going to win the task. Not lowering it because we might potentially mess up the tour.” Said Nick.

2) Selling tickets:

With tour experiences chosen and a price to go by. It was now time for each team to sell tickets in hopes of a sell-out experience. 

With Amy taking the lead of sales for Deep Mine Quarry tours, Aaron struggled to get a word in edgeways… or a word over the microphone. 

“Everything about what they are doing here is not working. They are not pushing the zip wire, which is the big main event. I can’t understand where they are coming from.” Said Brady. 

Toward the end of the day, both teams headed to local tour companies to get a bulk buy of tickets.

“Kathryn said don’t go lower than £80, but I had to get bums on seats; otherwise, there wouldn’t be no tour.” Said Aaron. 

3) Fact-finding:

To sell a tour, each group needed to get a first-hand experience. For Kathryn, Akeem and Harpreet, they began to learn the facts about Quarry mining and also that EastEnders star Shane Richie has previously experienced the zip line (Let’s hope there will be EastEnders fans present).

In Snowdonia, Stephany, Nick, and Brittney get a watercolour painting lesson from a local artist. An essential task for this team is to remember the historical facts to fill their train journey. 

4) Heading down a deep mine:

Both halves of the teams came back together for a debrief of the events of the day before.

For team Infinity, Amy announced that they have secured a sold-out tour, however, at a much lower price. Instead of Kathryn’s ask of £85. The Quarry tour was sold at £75 and £70.

“I told them £85, so the tickets that were sold at 70 means they were sold £15 less. It is a profit task. They said they did all they could. I just hope they did.” Said, Kathryn.

On the other team, with all the Diverse’s tickets sold, the team started to focus on pinning extras for more profit. Offering whisky tasting, bar manager Sophie took the lead.  

5) Running the tour:

Half of each team went off to secure commission on their tasting experience, while the rest started to run the tour. 

Kicking off her tour- PM Kathryn – wanted to bring the excitement to sell her zip line experience… However, her Shane Richie fact failed to impress. 

“It’s going really well. We are trying to keep energy levels high, lots of smiles, and we are trying to engage with the guests. I think they are having a good time.” Said, Kathryn. 

Finance manager Nick was full steam ahead on the railway tour but had very little knowledge. 

“After introducing the sheep and the scenic views, there was this moment where everyone was just like, ok, what’s next. Nick didn’t know what to do or what to say. Being a tour guide is not Nicks foray.” Said Campbell.

6) Negotiating:

Sophie and Akshay took over the lead to seeking a sale for Welsh whiskey.

“Akshay and Sophie went into the negotiation asking the owner what they are willing to give. He is going to give them nothing, and he gave them 1%. The faces on them were priceless.” Said Campbell. 

Churning out a deal for the other team was Amy and Aaron. 

“If you sell all 20 hampers, then I will go up to 17%.” Said the cheese retailer.

“I think they will be really pleased with their negotiation because they will only be focusing on the 17%. But they haven’t really thought through what they have agreed on. They need to sell 20 £40 hampers to 16 people. Well, that’s just not going to happen.” Said Brady. 

7) Akeem’s mining tour:

Saying he would bring the fun to the mining part of the experience. The tour soon went downhill, with Akeem boring the guests. 

“They went from a fun zip wire to Akeem, making mining quite morbid. It wasn’t the most uplifting experience,” said Brady.

On the other team, Amy went for a sensory cheese tasting approach. 

“By the end of this masterclass. You are going to appreciate cheese in a whole new way.” Said Amy. 

8) The boardroom:

With the task of setting up and running a tour around Wales coming to an end. Lord Sugar learnt that Amy had been avoiding the spotlight to take on the role of PM… once again. 

“You are avoiding the spotlight like Dracula avoids the sunlight.” Said Lord Sugar. 

9)The total spend:

“Infinity spent £992. And took £1195.85. With no refunds. Meaning a profit of £203.85.” Said Brady. 

“Diverse total spend was £760. And took £1116.83. No refunds. Meaning they had an overall profit of £356.83.” Said Campbell.

With a higher profit, team Diverse took the win. 

“Akshay, what is it like being on the winning team.” Said Lord Sugar.

10) Your fired!

PM Kathryn and Aaron, and Amy, who led the sales team, remained to await their fate in the boardroom.

Kathryn: “The negotiation was poor- very, very poor- and you may have caused the failure of this task.”

Aaron: “You keep saying you’re a great salesman. I can’t believe out of the 16 tickets you couldn’t even sell one for £85. I think you might have made up your mind that 70 quid is where it is. And that was it, and that was a fatal error.” 

Amy: “I think you have got to share that responsibility also. You have dodged the project management side. You have been here six weeks to show what you can do. And you haven’t shown me that you can do something. You fired.” 

Nine candidates remain…

 Next week: Design a driverless vehicle.