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1. THE BEGINNING
This innovation came to life when…
In the red corner, a kite surfing, mountain biking, former naval weapons engineer and startup master.
In the blue corner, a dude who’d just spent a year cycling across continental Europe, kayaking the length of the Dead Sea, scaling Patagonian mountains and living with Amazonian tribes.
Naturally, an adventure travel marketplace was born!
2. WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
Provide you a place to safely search and book the absolute best adventure tours and activities on Earth.
Every time you book, 25% of proceeds are invested into the Changemaker Program — empowering social entrepreneurs in communities suffering extreme poverty.
It does this by…
Curating the experiences of real travellers, verifying the tour operators and making it possible for other travellers to then safely book direct with the local operator.
The customer pays a 20% deposit, is connected to the operator to book a time and settles the balance owed on the day they get their honey on.
3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
- Less sophisticated operators in developing countries can take bookings online — they don’t even need an Internet connection! More choice for consumer, more opportunity for operator.
- Experiences are curated by other users. A few clicks later…you’re doing it too!
- Niche focus on adventure. NO double-decker buses or walking museum tours here!
The benefits to the customer/end-user include…
- Safe. Experiences curated by fellow travellers and verified by AdventureHoney.
- Niche adventure focus. Unique experiences that are otherwise impossible to safely book online.
- Convenient. Book anywhere, anytime.
4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
Travel agent at home before you left, Lonely Planet guide as you travelled, hotel/hostel/tourist info brochure stand, walking down main street in-destination, limited selection of tour and activity booking engines with even more limited number of operators who are technically capable of playing with their technology.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
Viator, UrbanAdventures, Isango, GetYourGuide with a dash of Intrepid or Peregrine.
Like a highly focused digital version of Lonely Planet for adventure. Unlike Lonely Planet, our content is in real time, curated by our users and has a booking engine.
5. TARGET MARKET
This innovation is made for…
We’re targeted toward independent young travellers aged 22-40.
At this stage, we’re focused on Aussies, but are already getting interest internationally.
From Uni students to young (if not, young at heart!) professionals who prioritise travel and crave the next amazing life experience!
Typically, an AdventureHoney customer is someone whose travelled before, seeks ‘out of the comfort zone’ adventure and, is confident enough to do their own thing without having a travel agent there to hold their hand.
6. DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
It is available for sale through…
Our marketing strategy is…
Very simply, our focus is bottom-up and connecting with those passionate about specific niche adventure activities. We then connect the customers with experiences that fulfil that passion overseas.
Grassroots, consumer advocacy across shared passions…
PPC and SEO are important too, but not as easy to powerfully/cheaply leverage now as they once were.
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FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.
