Travel Information

As travel becomes cheaper the demand for travel seems to increase exponentially. Visitors are requiring more and more information than ever before and there is a real need for specialist information.

If you haven’t seen Luxe travel guides then check out www.luxecityguides.com . This was a new idea, in a different format to anything that had been done before. The company started out with just a few titles and targeted high end fashion boutiques as well as book stalls. The easily folded, information crammed leaflets contained valuable information, no pictures and fit easily into a pocket or handbag.

Recently the travel guide market has been seen as saturated and difficult to break into.

As with most products the possibilities are endless, a quick brainstorm might give the following: -

1. Specialise e.g. luxury, backpacking, family, honeymoon, gay, seniors etc.
2. Specialise in a country, or area e.g. The Cotswolds in England, or Guan Dong province in China
3. Write books/guides
4. Distribute specialist tours/activities
5. Distribute packages –hotel/flight/activities
6. Lead tours/activities –e.g. haunted houses in Boston city centre

Have a look at the following links for inspiration, search on Google for travel and any geography, sport of activity that interests you
www.Realtravel.com
www.gr8-travel.com
www.virtualtourist.com
www.evanevanstours.co.uk
www.travel-quest.co.uk/tqwater_kitesurf.htm
www.luxurytravel.com

Distribution is the key to the information business; you need to get your information out to as many people as possible. Some ideas: -

1. Approach stores directly (if you are selling a privately funded book), remember that Luxe used high end clothes shops etc as well as traditional book shops. Maybe bike shops would stock your book for mountain bike tours, LV or Gucci might be prepared to carry a luxury cruises guide (you never know until you ask).
2. Create a website and use SEO techniques to maximise your hit rate
3. Use email lists for related interest groups, e.g. if your subject is adventure tours then try to partner with bungee jumping clubs, skateboard clothing sites, diving blogs etc.
4. Advertise in specialist magazines
5. Create a short summary of your product and email everyone in your address book, ask them to pas it along (make sure there are plenty of links to your site in the email)
6. Advertise on free tourist maps that are handed out at airports/hotels
7. Ensure your clients refer you to others, offer discounts etc. to those who have been referred, or send a personal note and small gifts like key rings to those who have given your referral business.

Making Money
There are many models now for making information generate cash, apart from selling the information itself (very competitive) you might consider the following ideas: -

1. Sell advertising in your guide, or on your website
2. Offer a personalised tour service, creating itineraries, booking hotels etc.
3. Offer products that fit with your guide e.g. camping gear for a walking guide, bike accessories for a cycling guide
4. Take a %age from hotels/restaurants/flights booked directly through your site

Being an information business stock itself is less of an issue. If you are looking to write travel books then you will need to find either a publisher or a printer/book binder to physically create your product. If you do this privately it can be quite expensive, get quotes before setting your pricing.

Essentially your stock is the information that you are providing to your customers. Even if you have good knowledge of your subject area you will need to do some research to pull it all together. The owner of Luxe guides claims to have eaten in every restaurant that they recommend, but as the business grows he will need people to take on this responsibility. He also needs to get recommendations from his contacts on the ground in each country and will use a team of researchers to help with this.

When you start out you will be able to get a lot of information just by asking others who have similar interests within the area you have chosen to specialise in. You can also get information from the internet and from other free resources such as Yellow Pages, and the local library.

The great thing about this business is that you will usually choose an area that interests you and thus the research side should be interesting, although no less work than any other business start up

Collecting the information and writing your guide(s) will be hard work but fun

Frustration will come in starting to generate income from your information

Consider outsourcing the distribution; if you have a friend who is a killer salesman ask them to help with selling advertising. My Sister’s boyfriend did this with www.poriruacity.com by asking his father to help with the sales side and splitting the income.

Those first dollars you get mean you are officially in business

© 2007 HK Business Angels Ltd.