Elite Travel
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Elite Travel is an international ice highway construction company started on 16 December 2019 by BetaPlain. The company opened operations for Terra Aurora on 9 May 2020 and is currently pursuing a merger with the Bristol Bay Company.
Early History
Elite Travel was founded as the solution to the gold issue which prevented BetaPlain from reaching his various nation founding endeavors. BetaPlain had been searching for a new industry to begin a business in and found that there was little competition in the ice highway construction business. BetaPlain had little money and had recently moved to the town of Portland (later Bend), and was in need of a large sum of gold to found the nation of Oregon. It was under these conditions that Elite Travel was founded on 16 December 2019.
Elite Travel underwent extensive planning by BetaPlain to ensure every detail of Elite Travel's business model was optimized. BetaPlain envisioned a premium transportation system, which was to be accessible only by subscribers to Elite Travel. Subscriptions initially were to cost 16 gold, and were to serve as Elite Travel's primary income. New subscribers were to be given keycards with a specific name, which could be dropped into a keycard reader at an Elite Travel Ice Highway Station to gain access to the ice highway.
BetaPlain contacted close friend EstiQT to assist in the start of the company. EstiQT was immediately hired as an employee of Elite Travel, forgoing the entire application and vetting process. EstiQT assisted BetaPlain in the development of the discord server and brought much needed criticism for Elite Travel's experimental business model.
BetaPlain began developing an appropriate logo for Elite Travel sometime before 23 December 2019. BetaPlain initially selected a gray, three-dimensional block as the first potential logo for the company. BetaPlain, very dissatisfied with the design, hired an unknown professional logo maker (most likely imabritishcow) to create an original logo for the company. It was shortly after this time that BetaPlain decided to use an image of an ice block as a potential logo for Elite Travel.
BetaPlain, indecisive about which logo to use, and desiring to give the original logo a chance, decided to post a poll on the Elite Travel discord server on 23 December 2019. BetaPlain cut the poll short after it had reached only a few votes, due to the lack of voters, on the same day the poll was posted. The ice block logo won a unanimous vote.
Elite Travel officially commenced operations on 24 December 2019, after the discord server had finished development and planning had finished.
First Business
One week following Elite Travel's commencement of operations, player alsjad created a ticket and ordered a subscription, making them the first subscribed member of Elite Travel. Later in the ticket, alsjad began discussions on behalf of NewYorker9 and Lucas2011 for a new ice highway stretching directly from New York to NewYorker9Estate. Although the order was never followed through on behalf of alsjad's part, the order would have netted Elite Travel it's first 85 gold profit on top of the 16 gold from alsjad's subscription.
BetaPlain created Elite Travel's first advertisement on 29 December 2019. BetaPlain promptly copied this advertisement into major EarthMC discord servers, bringing many new customers to Elite Travel.
On 10 January 2020, BetaPlain hired player Heyloki as Elite Travel's 2nd staff member. Heyloki was hired despite not filling an application, while their citizenship in Cascadia and friendship with EstiQT satisfied the vetting process.
During the State of the Market survey of 11 January 2020, Elite Travel ranked extremely low, with 0.9% on in-game shops, and 1.5% on the discord shops section. This was most likely influenced by Elite Travel's appeal for votes on 8 January in the Elite Travel discord server.
After few subscriptions were bought and limited criticism on EstiQT's part, BetaPlain lowered the subscription cost to 6 gold on 12 January. Refunds were offered to pre-existing subscribers, however no customers requested any refunds.
note: move these two paragraphs below, below the section abt the first ice highway
Elite Travel began an official partnership with Formidable Concrete Co. on 2 February 2020. Advertisements for both companies were posted in their respective discord servers, drawing many new potential customers to Elite Travel. Members of the Elite Travel discord server were offered a limited 10% discount on all items at Formidable Concrete Co.
After intense criticism and low sales resulting from Elite Travel's subscription system, BetaPlain officially removed the subscription system on 5 February. BetaPlain took advantage of the situation by advertising the removal of the subscription system, which did not seriously affect Elite Travel's discord server membership count.
Construction of Elite Travel's First Ice Highway
On 13 January 2020, an unknown player ordered an ice highway stretching from Superior, Ontario to Astoria, Cascadia. In the ticket, BetaPlain calculated the distance between the two points to be approximately 6,800 blocks. BetaPlain gave the unknown player a quote of 90 gold for the ice highway, at a cost of 64 blocks per gold.
BetaPlain probably began construction on 25 January. After BetaPlain secured a suitable location for the ice highway station, BetaPlain constructed an elevator and an underground station as well. BteaP