Like many other industries, the travel industry

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Like many other industries, the travel industry is under increasing pressure to expand globally in order to keep pace with its corporate customers, who have globalized their operations in response to market pressure, competitor actions, and changing supplier relations. But it is difficult for service organizations to globalize. Global expansion through acquisition is usually expensive, and expansion through internal growth is time-consuming and sometimes impossible in markets that are not actively growing. Some service
industry companies, in fact, regard these traditional routes to global expansion as inappropriate for service industries because of their special need to preserve local responsiveness through local presence and expertise. One travel agency has eschewed the traditional route altogether. A survivor of the changes that swept the travel industry as a result of the deregulation of the airlines in 1978-changes that included dramatic growth in the corporate demand for travel services, as well as extensive restructuring and consolidation within the travel industry-this agency adopted a unique structure for globalization. Rather than expand by attempting to develop its own offices abroad, which would require the development of local travel management expertise sufficient to capture foreign markets, the company solved its globalization dilemma effectively by forging alliances with the best foreign partners it could find. The resulting cooperative alliance of independent agencies now comprises 32 partners spanning 37 countries.

Q1)The author discusses a particular travel agency in the passage most likely in order to
(A) provide evidence of the pressures on the travel industry to globalize
(B) provide evidence of the pressures on the travel industry to globalize
(C) illustrate an unusual approach to globalizing a service organization
(D) highlight the difficulties confronting travel agencies that attempt to globalize
(E) underscore the differences between the service industry and other industries

OA:C

[spoiler]Here the author explains difficulties confronting travel agencies that attempt to globalize but they overcome these difficulties. How C would be correct? Why not D[/spoiler]

Q2)The passage suggests that one of the effects of the deregulation of the airlines was
A. a decline in the services available to noncommercial travelers
B. a decrease in the size of the corporate travel market
C. a sharp increase in the number of cooperative alliances among travel agencies
D. increased competition in a number of different service industries
E. the merging of some companies within the travel industry

OA:E

Why not C

Q3)According to the passage, which of the following is true of the traditional routes to global expansion?
(A) They have been supplanted in most service industries by alternative routes.
(B) They are less attractive to travel agencies since deregulation of the airlines.
(C) They may represent the most cost-effective means for a travel agency to globalize.
(D) They may be unsuitable for service agencies that are attempting to globalize.
(E) They are most likely to succeed in markets that are not actively growing.

OA:D

Source:GMATPrep EP1

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:26 am
Q1)The author discusses a particular travel agency in the passage most likely in order to
(A) provide evidence of the pressures on the travel industry to globalize
(B) provide evidence of the pressures on the travel industry to globalize
(C) illustrate an unusual approach to globalizing a service organization
(D) highlight the difficulties confronting travel agencies that attempt to globalize
(E) underscore the differences between the service industry and other industries
The key line: One travel agency has eschewed the traditional route altogether. So we're given an example of a company that has taken an untraditional, or unusual, approach to globalizing its business. C is a paraphrase of this idea.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:32 am
Q2)The passage suggests that one of the effects of the deregulation of the airlines was
A. a decline in the services available to noncommercial travelers
B. a decrease in the size of the corporate travel market
C. a sharp increase in the number of cooperative alliances among travel agencies
D. increased competition in a number of different service industries
E. the merging of some companies within the travel industry
The key line: changes that included dramatic growth in the corporate demand for travel services, as well as extensive restructuring and consolidation within the travel industry

Consolidation suggests mergers. Answer: E
(C is wrong because we have no idea if the number of alliances has increased. "Consolidation" does not mean "alliance," as the latter terms suggests that the businesses remain autonomous entities. We do get one example of a company that has formed alliances, but that's hardly evidence that the number of alliances has increased overall.)
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:35 am
Q3)According to the passage, which of the following is true of the traditional routes to global expansion?
(A) They have been supplanted in most service industries by alternative routes.
(B) They are less attractive to travel agencies since deregulation of the airlines.
(C) They may represent the most cost-effective means for a travel agency to globalize.
(D) They may be unsuitable for service agencies that are attempting to globalize.
(E) They are most likely to succeed in markets that are not actively growing.
The key line: Some service industry companies, in fact, regard these traditional routes to global expansion as inappropriate for service industries

D gives us a restatement of this notion.
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