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 think your idea sounds interesting. The issue I have with holidays is that so many agents advertise with words like ‘luxury’ and it’s really off putting when I’d love luxury but know my budget can’t afford it (more premier inn than mandarin oriental!). Organising a more experience led / adventure trip is much harder than just booking an easyJet package holiday, as I have to research the accommodation and activities for us as a family of 4 it takes time. At the moment I’m planning Poland and Canada for next year but honestly I’m finding it is so time consuming, if I could tell somebody what sort of things I’d like to do and what sort of accommodation I actually think I might pay for that!!

No. I would use a specialist travel agency.

But people give that information for free.

As another username I do a bit on here, but I do loads in a specific FB group for the areas that I know well. And it isn't just me, there are loads of people that do it for free, because we simply enjoy talking about and sharing our holidays.

So something like Rough Guide books used to do?

I’d be interested in something like that, but only at that price point which I can’t imagine is economic to deliver.

I posted above but also just had a thought - your service is more like a guide book than a travel agent. I definitely think that sort of thing is marketable and sellable. All the people above saying about how they’d go to a travel agent is fine, but some of us don’t have the budget for that. It may be silly of me but I wouldn’t walk into somewhere like Travelbag or Trailfinders to book a holiday because the mark up is out of my budget, so I need to do it myself. Traditional guide books aren’t necessarily family friendly.

I follow someone on instagram who does exactly this. I’m not sure I would go as far as to pay for the service but you could probably do really well with an instagram page. The tips are really useful. Family holidays outside of the ‘norm’ are definitely a bit harder to get good information on.

It costs a couple of hundred quid for you to register as a travel agent, you book the trips and earn commission on them

and your own travel too

a friend of mine has just done this

There are travel agencies that do this already, and which provide abta/atol protection. I've been to Thailand and mauritius with my daughter and it didn't cost extra than if I'd booked it all myself.

I think it's quite a niche market and most of the people wanting to take that kind of trip are willing to put the effort in themselves. I don't think many of the people going all inclusive to Spain genuinely want to be travelling in South East Asia instead, maybe a very tiny portion. We are going to Namibia in August and we've booked with Exodus. Exodus far cheaper than any of the tailor-made trips offered by companies, but still really pricey for 4 of us, but my husband didn't want to self drive. I might have been happy to pay you for an itinerary if you were going to able to save me at least 2k on the Exodus price, but to draw me in to using your services I'd need to feel confident that saving was achievable.

There are people who do this with all the protection, NotJustTravel is the one I've used.

Generally for a trip for me & partner or me & friend, I'd just wing it. But when taking kids I do prefer having that contact and the extra protection (I've also found it's usually cheaper than booking myself as they can juggle more options that can be difficult to find when booking direct). I think you should maybe look at that sort of option because I do think they often lack the understanding of the type of holiday I want to book - they seem to assume people want to lounge by a pool!

No chatGTP can do that in a second

What makes you an "expert"?

Yes it can... But it doesn't understand travelling with kids in tow.

What happens when people ask you about somewhere you haven’t been, and don’t know?

I haven't said I'm an expert, but I do have 9 years travel experience I'm SE Asia with babies right up to my son being 9 just now.
It's a huge thing travelling with kids outside a resort.. it can be off putting and id just like to guide people and provide them with the information we have gathered over the years, routes they can travel that have worked well.

I have a family member who makes money from being an "adventure coach" aka rich people pay him to plan itineraries and give advice on hiking.

So yep, people would 100% pay for this service. Maybe you could call yourself an Adventure Guru!

I wouldn't be looking at world wide travel. I'm taking about the areas I've travelled in and areas that I have local contacts.

Oh, interesting!! Is this through a company or something they set up themselves? If you have any more details on this Id appreciate it!

How many of them have actually paid you to do it though?

You’re ignoring all the important points. You’ll end up in court. Holidays go wrong so much more than people realise. What will you do if a client dies off the back of something you recommend? The reality of this job is so much more than people think.

You’re not hearing the things you don’t want to hear, from people who actually are experts. This is dangerous.

In your OP you say, "Would you pay for an expert to take the 'fear' out of planning a big adventure like this?"

Or were you not referring to yourself?

Just does it self employed, bit of a side hustle.

They have a good-sized following on social media (IG/TikTok) and also make YouTube videos. The clients seem to be people who find him through his posts and ask him to curate their own adventures for them.

They're not raking it in with this work, but it certainly tops up their income. Plus they get sponsored deals and freebies from outdoors-y companies etc.

So, my advice would be to set up social media, start building your followers and network. What have you got to lose?

It is a nice idea, and would also be my dream job. But i don't think people would pay for it.

The examples I've seen of similar companies are all local. E.g. there is a "London for families" Facebook group, and there is an admin or member who sells itineraries, I believe. But there is a lot of free expertise on the facebook group, and the reason I would trust it is that it they are based there. Similarly, I've always fancied the job of a company in Scotland selling self-drive holidays in the highlands and islands. But they are the experts in that area.

If I was going to use a company for a trip, I would need a reason to trust that they could do better than I could.

If I was you I would pick a specialist area, set up a Facebook group, website, you tube channel, etc, and make yourself the UK expert in that location, and see where that takes you.

(Edit: cross post with previous poster who said the same thing!)

I think a big problem is people want somewhere nice/exciting/different but on an smaller budget than is needed.
I’ve travelled all over the world with my DC and chatted to friends who have asked many questions and this has come up over and over again.
My DC are grown up now, when they were younger I got a lot of information from trip advisor and joined forums and then booked drivers, made plans, found out what to do and so on. I also copied a lot of tours from travel agents such as Virgin holidays and tweaked them. One trip to South America I did for just over half the price and added quite a few bits too.
I never really found travelling with DC a thing, I just allowed some down days and made some day trips slightly shorter.
OP I’d also suggest going down the social media route, I follow a few families that travel, they are fun to watch unless they seem too smug.

Hi OP, this is the kind of trip I do and I spend a lot of time planning. I have friends who are independent travel consultants and they book all this stuff for you but I don't want to pay the fee for that. Also, I'm picky about timings and everything so wouldn't want to leave it to someone else.

I think I'm your exact market as people are always asking me about my trips. But I wouldn't want to pay you £200 to get your notes and then book it all myself. It's easily done now but it's just the mental power, confidence and time it takes to do it. I would want to read your website and you could make an amount from advertising on it. For example, one I'm using at the moment is Japlanese.com to help with my upcoming Japan trip. I also use Lonely Planet and Chat GPT. I also join a number of Facebook groups for the destination. These would be good places to promote your website and drive more traffic there.