Did you know that the average user wastes around 30 hours planning a holiday?

So what’s the problem?

What is supposed to be a relaxing break from work and daily life can become a huge generator of stress, as the user has several days worth of work to catch up, and so many aspects to consider, from guides, transport to accommodation. Areas in which the user may not have any experience in, and therefore even result in an unsatisfying holiday experience. My product, TripMate, aims to fix that.

A few months ago I had a fantastic experience in Thailand thanks to my tour guide, who knew all there was to know about the city I was staying in, I was fortunate to have been recommended this guide by a friend who had been there before, but otherwise, I would have been lost. TripMate will put users in contact with freelance guides in order to enrich their holiday planning experiences, skipping the process of contacting through agencies, as well as offering a new freelance working platform for these guides who have suffered job insecurity and redundancies as a result of covid-19.

Building on previously successful apps like booking.com or get your guide, which also assist with travel planning, the user will have the option to specify their budget, interests, goals and priority activities, creating a more comprehensive experience which will allow them to be paired up with a guide who best suits their needs. This not only allows the user a degree of autonomy in planning their trip, but also balances this with saving time and allowing them a stress free planning experience by allowing the more knowledgeable guide to create the itinerary in detail based on the customer’s desires.

The app will also make innovative use of AI on the end of the guide and user to save time in finding transport and accommodation which fits the user’s needs, assisting the guide with the planning of the itinerary, and calculating prices in order to suit the users budget.

The tourism industry was one which was severely affected by covid 19. According to the guide I met who I mentioned before, the agency he worked in before closed due to the pandemic, and he was one of the few people working there who was fortunate enough that it was feasible to continue working as a guide, and most of the workers were forced to take up other jobs. Worldwide, as we can see in the graph here, over 60 million jobs were lost in the tourism industry between 2019 and 2020. TripMate will serve to replace the job vortex made by the closure of these agencies, while fulfilling the demand which has now grown to a scale even larger than pre pandemic levels, which the industry currently struggles to keep up with.

Last year, jobs in the tourism industry increased by over 9%, and is expected to rise by 29% within 10 years, with tourism also contributing 9% of the world’s profit. Our product fills a unique niche in this lucrative industry by streamlining the process of planning trips for all parties involved, and increasing customer satisfaction by not only reducing stress, but ensuring that guides better fit the needs of the user and are knowledgeable about the culture and destinations the user wishes to immerse themselves in, while also opening up even more new jobs due to our new and innovative approach to planning.

The growth of taxi apps like Uber highlights the desires of users to have a streamlined and easy booking experience which can be done in just a few clicks, as well as the success of the business model which allows users to very simply commission uncontracted freelance workers for their needs. Our product is a symbiosis between this business model and the experience of travel planning and tour guiding, which will increase satisfaction for the user and profit and financial viability for freelance guides.

You will not regret investing in this groundbreaking product and helping to transform this booming industry.

Thank you for listening, I’m happy to take any questions.