ANNA’S IDEA: A Travel Agent marketplace for travellers to search and find the best expert for their needs.
Looking to connect with other travel tech platforms for feedback and insights on my project so far
+ What is your name?
Anna
+ Are you submitting as a team or as an individual?
Individual submission
+ Where are you located?
Australia
+ In one sentence, tell us about your idea.
With more travellers than ever searching for a new travel agent, I have designed a marketplace that showcases agent's unique expertise, searchable through filters, with agent reviews, to easily and quickly connect travellers with the best expert for their needs.
+ Describe your ideal collaborative partner or partners.
Those who may have launched a similar tech/search engine platform in the travel industry to provide feedback or insights from their learnings.
Also any grant programs suitable for me to apply, to help me implement the many other ideas I have to improve and develop the platform.
Assistance in promoting the platform as an industry disruptor to the Australian public. I believe the traditional model of walking into your local travel agency and finding the right agent who has the exact expertise that you need is outdated and limits you. By finding the right expert (who could be located anywhere across Australia), everybody wins. It limits shopping around, saves time, minimises unhappy client experiences and everyone wins. Get down to business more quickly, the client has a better planning experience and amplified holiday and the agent gets to book more of what they know and love.
+ What is the most immediate or most pressing challenge you're facing right now?
Resources and time. There is a big demand for Aussies to find an expert advisor right now as Australia emerges from its travel hesitancy, but as the site is only 6 months old, there is limited awareness in the market. Now is the time!
+ What is it about your idea that makes you feel good?
I enjoy helping small businesses with their online presence and digital marketing activities. Being able to do this for an industry I love and the hundreds of travel agents who have joined and had an incredibly tough 2 years, makes me smile. I know that agents undervalue their expertise and what they can offer to travellers and I want to change this. Every morning I wake up feeling good knowing that I have a purpose in rebuilding the industry by connecting the right people.
+ What makes your idea innovative? Why has no one ever done it before?
The demand for travel agents is growing for 2 reasons 1) travelling is trickier these days in a covid world (and we aim to educate travellers on the benefits of using an agent through advocacy campaigns), but also 2) the huge downsizing of our industry means there are nowhere near the amount of agents in Australian as there was pre-covid. 70% of international travel was booked with a travel agent before covid, that is a lot of people who no longer have their trusted agent to turn to.
When people are searching for a new service or product, they head online to search. We are accustomed to being able to search, filter and review/compare products or services before we choose. There is nothing like this for choosing a new trusted advisor for your travel bookings. Other websites with travel agent databases or listings are primarily company or consortia based, an agency listing by address, rather than by the individual agent themselves and their strengths. If there is one thing I learnt in my decade as an agent, you are booking with the person, not necessarily the company. So you should be choosing by the person's expertise, not necessarily who they work for. There is no other independent website that lists travel agents by specialty, with reviews, no matter which agency they work for.
Why has no one ever done it before? No idea to be honest! When I first thought of the idea in Dec 2020 I searched and searched thinking someone must have already done this! But I couldn't find anything similar. There is a need for it, the trade has embraced it and is very encouraging and as I start to promote it to travellers we are getting some great leads for agents through the search engine matching.
+ Who will benefit the most from your idea?
I can't decide which side benefits more, so I'm going to list more than one!
TRAVELLERS benefit by amplifying their trip by using a travel expert. They have a stress-free planning period, don't have to worry about anything if there are changes, and have a much better holiday because they booked with an experienced specialist in their destination or trip style.
AGENTS benefit by using the site to showcase their experience, specialist categories, and personality and attract their ideal clients. This allows them to book more of what they love and know best and concentrate on their niche and do it well. Many agents are too busy to best promote themselves and lack a good online presence. Rather than 500+ agents all working on their social media and SEO to climb the google rankings for their niche, they can concentrate on what they are good at (booking travel in their niche) and I can concentrate on bringing in their ideal clients.
SUPPLIERS also benefit if they get involved with us. There are a few opportunities, but one good example I am working on at the moment if a supplier or destination tourism board has an agent specialist training program, when an agent completes this program they can get a specialist badge added to their agent profile which further adds credibility to travellers searching. Suppliers want travellers to book directly with an expert of their product or destination as they know the traveller will get a better experience, spend more, and have a better trip by booking with an expert.
Everybody wins and the industry rebuilds and is reunited - traveller to agent, and suppliers too.
+ Ideally, when would you launch this idea?
I've already launched my idea
+ Indicate which UN goals your idea relates to?
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
+ At Sigmund, we are interested in ideas at the intersection of People, Planet, and Profit. How does your idea relate to these three categories?
My platform supports people by helping connect the best partnerships or traveller and agent, and even supplier/trade and agent. We are emerging from the pandemic as a fractured industry, people don't know who is still left and how to reach them, we are bridging that gap.
We also assist in reconnecting the planet by encouraging and helping Aussies have the confidence to travel again. Not only are Aussies avid travellers, but we are also big supporters of nearby emerging nations who rely on our tourism and suffered incredibly during the lockdowns and border closures, such as Fiji, Vanuatu, and Indonesia just to name a few.
I might sound crazy but profit is not my main objective. I started this project as a passion project but quickly saw the opportunity to turn this into a bigger platform and make it my full-time job and develop it. Profit is essential for the ideas and development I have in mind and to best help agents and travel businesses in Australia
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