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 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.
First Business
15 days 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.