trek.

Solo-travelling doesn’t mean you have to be alone.

An app for solo-travellers to discover new experiences and meet new friends around the world.

Tools
‍Figma
Adobe XD

Roles
Business Analyst
Financial Analyst
UI/UX Designer

Scope
‍6 months

Tags
Feasibility Analysis
Design

About trek.🚶

Problem

🏃  Solo travelers love to travel alone but want to occasionally meet up with people to go on unique experiences.
‍
👨‍👩‍👦‍👦  Those who travel with others or meet people on their trip often have conflict on finding something everyone wants to do.
‍
📱  Right now, many solo travelers will use apps meant for other purposes, such as Bumble and Instagram, to meet up with others to go to these experiences. However, these people can be unreliable.
‍
🍺 Hotels and bars, which are common places to meet people can also be unsafe and unpredictable.
‍
💰  Airbnb experiences are an option for those looking to go on unique local experiences. However, with budget being a primary concern for solo travelers, this isn’t always a feasible option.

Our Solution

trek allows the traveler to choose from a multitude of experiences near their area of travel, connect with other travelers, and build a community of friends around the world. We offer unique, local activities and adventures that bring together a community of travelers looking to meet others during their trip.

Simple sign up process that connects you to experiences in your area right away.
‍

Find top-rated and suggested experiences near you. Simply swipe left 👈 to see similar results or swipe up 👆to view more details.

View all experiences and read user reviews before making your decision.

Or, you can sort experiences by category as well.

Bookmark your favorite experiences and save them for later.

Connect with other travelers near you through events. Find hostels with the best deals. Plan your trip and experiences ahead of time so you don't waste a minute during the trip.

We know that safety features are a main concern for solo travelers. Keeping this in mind, we have incorporated features such as peer-to-peer reliability ratings, nearby features such as quality of cellular signal, wifi availability, and nearby assistance centers. Finally, we also included location sharing, so the traveler can send where they are going to a trusted friend.

Edit your profile as you like. Add more information about yourself so other solo travelers get to know you more!

Market Analysis 📈

Customer Discovery

Research methodology

Qualitative

In-Person Interviews 🙍

Quantitative

167

Survey Responses 📝

key takeaways

73%

Travel at least once a year

1/3

Solo travel at least once a year

92%

Used other apps like Airbnb experiences, Instagram, Bumble etc. to find places and activities when traveling

83%

Are open to meet new friends while traveling

primary concerns to address

We incorporated the results of our customer discovery to make the following improvements to trek.

🤸‍♂️ Flexibility
The user plans the activities they want to experience, whenever and whenever.
‍
💵 Budget
Once a user signs up, they can view can any experiences offered on trek. A low commission fee is charged to the experiences offered by users, so that the price of many experiences will be within a user's budget, but events that support community building in the connect section are free. This way, users can meet new people in their area and go on new experiences with them.

We've also added a subscription option for our heavy users, where most paid experiences within a user's area will become free or offered at a discounted price once the user subscribes for our membership. This way, users will be able to save even more during their trip.
‍
Experience ✨Local✨ Culture and Highlights
Solo travelers often travel to experience other cultures and meet locals in a meaningful way. Our goal is to avoid offering experiences featuring the typical tourist traps.
‍
Priority will be given to experiences with local hosts or hosts who have lived in the area for over 10 years, as well as positive user reviews. Each experience also comes equipped with thorough description, reviews, and photos from past users.

🦺 Safety‍

17%

of our interviewees refuse to make new friends while traveling because of safety concerns: making friends in an unfamiliar place may put themselves in danger.

In fact, solo travelers highly consider the crime rate and social stability of the destination before deciding whether or not to travel there alone.

We've incorporated features like user reliability ratings (i.e. peer-to-peer ratings), location sharing, cellular signal at experience location, and wifi availability. To join communities in the connect section, participants can also check out other participants' profiles before attending. Experience hosts can also decline travelers with low reliability ratings.

Market Analysis

trends

131%

INCREASE

in the number of Google searches online for 'solo travel' between 2016 and 2019

1/6

PEOPLE

have already taken a holiday alone

59%

OF WOMAN

solo travelers would travel alone again in the next 12 months

11%

OF THE TRAVEL MARKET

belong to solo travelers.

Interest in "Solo Travel" Search Term Over Time

According to Google Trends, interest for the search term "Solo Travel" has been steadily been increasing, up until when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred.

Just to put everything in perspective, the total revenue for the Travel Industry in 2018 was $970bn. 😧

Demographics

80%

of millennial travelers

are going solo.

84%

of solo travelers

are women.

86%

of solo travelers

are aged over 35.

32%

of those who travel solo

start planning 6 months in advance.

Spending Patterns

$20,000 is considered the average cost for a solo trip around the world for one year.
Solo travelers are spending about 20% more on travel insurance than other travelers.
Going solo can mean 50% extra on accommodation costs due to single supplement charges.

With an average budget of around $20,000, solo travelers can only spend around $54 a day to cover flights, hotels, food, insurance and any required vaccinations.

Keeping in mind that there are increased costs to insurance and accommodation, with the main reason being that travel agents and hotels have not yet caught up with the increased popularity in travelers going solo, trek. must offer meaningful experiences at a cost that stays within an average solo traveler's budget. With this in mind, we’ve also made sure to add a hostel search feature that offer deals that are a ✨bang for the buck✨. Our future plans are are to partner with hostels so that users can earn special discounts through trek. as well.

competitors

🏓 Competitor

📋 Differentiation Strategy

Planned Hostel Activities

Lower, more reasonable prices that fit a solo traveler's budget
Experiences hosted by locals/experts, not by companies
Hosts are also users that can go on experiences
Highly focused on safety
Created with solo travelers in mind

Offer a platform for solo travelers to connect
Avoid typical tourist traps and fake reviews
Offer unique experiences sorted by location, not just reviews

Offer a platform for solo travelers to connect
Experience photos only come from past users with detailed reviews
Experiences are ranked based on location and past reviews
Safer: user gets to know who they meet ahead of time

Offer a platform for solo travelers to connect
Experience photos only come from past users with detailed reviews
Experiences are ranked based on location and past reviews
Safer: user gets to know who they meet ahead of time

Users are free to choose experiences they like create their own schedule
Safer: user gets to know who they meet ahead of time

Target Customer

After much analysis on trends, demographics, and competitors, we came up with what trek.'s ideal target market will look like:

🧍‍♀️

Adults (especially women) ages 35+, who are solo travelers or interested in going solo.

🧗‍♀️

Thrill Seekers, who are looking for spontaneous adventures in their free time.

👫

Downtime Travelers, who may still travel in groups, but occasionally want their own time.

👧

Millenials, with disposable income who enjoy traveling.

The Business Case 💰

Business Model

Sales and Marketing Strategy

revenue steams

Our users have two options to choose from when picking their experiences:

Pay by experience.

Users pay for experiences as they go. This option is suitable for users who are planning to embark on only a few experiences during their trip. Experiences are still offered at a fairly low price regardless.

Targeted Customer Segments: 👫 Downtime Travelers, 🧍 Solo Travelers ages 35+, 👧 Millenials

Subscription model.

Users subscribe for a trek. membership before their trip. During the trip, most paid experiences will be free with premium experiences and certain hostels offered at a discounted price. This option is suitable for more active travelers who are planning to fill their days with unique experiences.

Targeted Customer Segments: 🧗 Thrill Seekers,🧍 Solo Travelers ages 35+, 👧 Millenials

Marketing Strategy

📱 Social Media Accounts

Use social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok to market trek.
Create content daily to actively engage with our followers using paid ads, promotions (such as discount codes), and live streams.
Our main tactic is to create meaningful content and continuously interact with viewers to build a relationship.

👩‍💻 Influencer Marketing

Send influencers on trek. experiences or trips to further promote our application.

⌨️ Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Increase brand exposure through paid keyword search and content management.
When users are searching for keywords like "travel" or "solo traveling," our application/website should appear as a top result.
Build a landing page that suits Google's algorithm to raise ranking in the search results.

👫 Partner with Local Attractions, Hostels, and Restaurants

Reach spontaneous and non-tech savvy travelers by partnering up with local attractions, hostels, and restaurants to give out deals and promo codes.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Host Free Communal Events

Host free connect events for solo travelers to attract new users to sign up for trek.

📣 Referral Programs

Grant users free credits for referring trek. to their friends.
Through referrals, new users who sign up would also get the same amount of credits.
These credits can be used to buy experiences or as discount (for places and attractions trek. has partnered with) in the application.

Financial Projections

3 year income statement

For a breakdown of our monthly projections and assumptions on calculations, please follow this link.

Summary of our financials

The growth in trek.'s net income is summarized in the graph below. We've paired Yearly Net Income with Accumulated Net Income to see when trek will breakeven and begin making profit.

Although it is project that trek. will have accumulated negative net incomes in Years 1 and 2 due to high start up costs and customer acquisition, we will breakeven in Year 3 and this accumulated loss will be offset with positive net incomes in the following years.

trek.'s Projected Yearly Net Income vs. Accumulated Net Income

Next Steps 👣

Milestones

Moving forward, we wanted to highlight the most important milestones we must meet to reach achieve profitability in Year 3.

Why Now?

We have a huge opportunity in the solo traveling market right now. Solo traveling is up 134% from 2008, yet there is no traveling platform made with solo travelers in mind yet. With trek., travelers are given the complete freedom to do what they want, with whom they want, all on their own time, without having to go overboard on their budget.

Next Project 👉

03

👈 Previous Project