Would you be interested/pay for this holiday service?

[Fbcip2023]

Heyyy ☺️

I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a small side business creating adventure-style family travel itineraries - moving away from the typical package holidays and towards more memorable, experience-led trips.

Think: Jungle treks in Borneo, street food in Singapore, and hidden beaches in Thailand - all tailored for kids and based on my own experience traveling with a young family.

Would you pay for an expert to take the 'fear' out of planning a big adventure like this? Or are you happy sticking to the usual travel agents?

I wouldn't book the holiday, but would give hotel recommendations, links and contact numbers for companies/people we know in each area. A holiday pack of what's required for the country you're visiting. An add of of contact while away if you need help or are unsure of anything.

Honest feedback (good or bad!) is very much appreciated! ❤️

I don’t think many people would pay for this. They either use a travel agent to plan and book or they are happy to research and book themselves. There’s so much good information and recommendations online which is all easily accessible and free- why would people pay for your recommendations?

Isn't that what Travel Consultants do? I think that they are self employed. Might be worth you looking into it?

I would say no unfortunately. We travel to Asia with our son and do all the planning. I think if you are confidence enough to travel to unusual places with children then you are proficient enough to source these trips/companies yourself.

The examples you e given are holidays that millions of tourists do with kids a year. It would need to be something really unique for me to consider it.

I may have my wires crossed on this but when booking through and agent I know they have to make money but whatever money they make from my viewpoint is mixed in

When I use a comparison or hotel booking site I am sure there are hidden charges mixed in but when we book we book the price we see

I would not pay money on top of a whatever the event/holiday would cost separately

Concert ticket sites do have a charge but that to me is a standard thing even though I am annoyed

I think you have something valuable to offer OP but maybe not in the way you think.

Rather than offering a paid service, what about setting up a blog/website that people can access for free. Maybe free printables/downloads too.

That saves you the liability and means you can set yourself up as a brand with expertise. You can then seek to monetise your blog/website once you have the traffic.

We live in an affluent area and im aware of somebody here who offers almost exactly that service - she researches, sets up the itinerary and plans, advises on what vaccinations and
visas and currency etc people need to get.

She posts on the local social media and neighbourhood groups most days, is well known locally anyway (the kind of person that seems to know everybody), and is clearly quite savvy.

But I’ve been seeing her posts and advertisements for over a year now and I’ve only once seen an example of a trip she’s actually been paid to organise…..otherwise lots of advertising and word of mouth, lots of work going on to this, but only one family seems to have actually used her.

I don’t know her personally but do know the expensive school her kids are at, and the big house she lives in, so I assume this is nothing more than a fun hobby for her and that there is significant money coming from somewhere else!

I just went to 4 travel agents for Asia packages. Not one was cheaper or more interesting/better than what I found myself. It’s a dying field.

Have you traveled much yourself and been to the countries you recommend?

Hey!! So exciting to hear you have this kind of trip planned 😃
We are totally budget end travellers as well, like you say, the cost is extreme with those type of companies.
I haven't thought about anything other than this idea if I'm honest... But you're right, the planning takes up so much time, and sometimes what you read online doesn't actually tie up with the reality.. of you want to send me your email/insta id be happy to chat with you and see if I can help out!

No. The hard work is in the bookings and local liaison with things like booking private drivers or safaris or hotels. Plus dealing with issues when things go wrong.
I would use a local agent. I also like my money to stay in the country I am visiting if it’s a poorer country. Have just returned from a Sri Lanka trip and the agent there did a fantastic job of sorting everything and I was happy to pay the premium for their work.

I get they are popular destinations but my idea has came off the back of all my family and friends saying 'i love what you do with the kids, but I could never plan that.. wouldn't know where to start. Are you not worried about all the travel' etc etc
This year we visited lake toba and bukit lawang in Sumatra, Singapore and several stops in Malaysia.. various modes of public transport, taxis and internal flights. It's a lot of planning. People from our area had never heard of lake toba and bukit lawang... I'm sure others haven't either but it was one of our favorite trips. We now have contacts there as well.

Thank you. I did actually think about this as well.. so it may be more the route to go down by the sounds of this thread!!
Thanks for your feedback

The hard work is definitely the looking for and booking everything, but if you get given a lot of that on a plate then the actual booking part is made easier. It's the hours of searching thats the most time consuming.
We have also travelling sri lanka and have contacts for drivers there who have their own business... 8 wouldn't be taking money for any services provided from your trip, I would more or less be saying.... This is a tour I have done with our kids, we experienced x y z, this was our route, this was a waste of time, do this instead.... It's not for seasoned travellers... I'm talking about those people that go all inclusive to Spain every year who maybe look at others holidays thinking I'd love to do that but dont know where to start.
And it wouldnt be a huge amount.. I'm talking a maybe £200ish....

Your friends are probably just saying that as something to say - and if they are reasonably competent adults, they probably could do this kind of holiday, they just don't want to. But it's rude to say that!

I wouldn't because you are neither taking on any risk, nor doing the boring admin. You're also just basing this on your own travels as one family - with the internet, I have access to thousands of families experiences to find out what is best for mine.

No, some people do say it's not their kinda thing... Which is fine.
Thanks for your feedback

I follow similar on fb - a family (including solo at times) who do trips then list options and links for flights, where to stay, tips and trips etc. with suggested itinerary. I also follow similar for solo trips.

The ones I follow are for mainly bargain and short trips and not ones to jungles etc so there may, or may not, be an opening there.

I wouldn’t therefore pay you to do what I can look up myself nowadays, unless you were booking/insuring, but there must be a way of monetising it looking at one of the pages I follow. I’d perhaps investigate that angle - though be prepared that someone is already doing similar and see if you could better that.

Only thing I’d be wary of is too personal recommendations to taxi drivers or similar - if anything wasn’t to someone’s liking then some may be holding you responsible. And be aware that there are too many out there who would hold you responsible for the trees in a jungle and report back just to be awkward and awful. So there may be a bit of a learning curve.

Sounds great though especially as it is what you want to do.

If someone fancies going to eg Sumatra they would justask on her or FB, youtube videos/TripAdvidor/Get my Guide etc and get zillions of responses to form an itinerary.
As a PP said, peope will politely say ‘ooh I’d like to do that, how brave you sre’ when they are being told about (bored by?) someone’s exotic ‘travels’ but if they want to do it they easily could.

Unless you are rich enough to go on 8 holidays a year to exotic locations, and on each of those holidays you exhaust your family by doing far too many activities, the quality of what you can offer is not going to be any better than what most of your potential customers can get for free from a friend.

If your holiday experiences are more "normal" (one overseas holiday a year with a sensible level of activities) then you don't have the level of experience to create what you claim to be able to offer. I'm not interested in duplicating your specific holiday choices.

It's lovely that you want to write a diary about what you did on your summer hols. I don't think you can monetise it as a service.

The market for blogs and YouTube videos etc is hugely oversaturated, mostly by “travel influencers” who have done lots of social media training, video editing training, are happy to put their kids online, and often have other sources of income to cover the first few years while they try to get established.

And no offence but off the top of my head I can think of 5 friends who’ve travelled extensively with kids in the countries you’ve mentioned, some of whom have family connections so the “inside scoop” on those countries as well, if I wanted to visit those places I’d ask them.

You’ve glossed over the many posts pointing out that if it’s a paid service you’d have liability should anything go wrong….

Yes, I would take that type of advice.
Your knowledge is useful and worth sharing.

I see you being paid by travel agents though.
Can you work at this, explore new places and experience the vibe, difficulties, travel connections etc. and offer your services to travel agents?

Otherwise, startup your own travel agency with someone else who is an experienced agent (or not) and who will expertly know all the regular travel information and booking deals etc. while you specialise in your own family adventure area. It could be as a point of difference to other agencies.

IMO people either like to plan and discover their own itinerary
OR they like to visit a one stop shop - for ease of travel planning.

This

No. Agree with PP, if it’s not ATOL protected there is no benefit, may as well do it myself with the ton of travel blogs that are free. Or just take a punt.

Also street food in Singapore…? I just don’t think anyone needs advice on that. And if they do, they can use Google.

Why don’t you start your own travel company if that’s your passion?