Ventoura is a new travel startup taking on this very same P2P local tours and activities vertical. The model is familiar: Locals apply to join the platform and then create curated tours for travelers visiting the area. Platform takes a cut.
Tours and activities continue to be popular in travel tech, even as cautionary tales play out in the headlines such as Groupon's purchase and then recent shuttering of Sidetour.
Ventoura stands out with its mobile-only focus and exceptional user experience and interface design that includes more of a community focus. Local tour guides can chat with travelers right from the app and travelers themselves can chat with other travelers who are going to the same places as them.
Each tour operator can either process payment in-app or take payment in person. This is a bonus for those who deal primarily in cash or want more control over pre-tour payment.
The startup believes its mobile-only approach distinguishes itself enough from the other companies in the space and sees a real opportunity to become the center of a traveller community focused on locals-driven experiences. Scroll on for the Vine and more on Ventoura's approach to P2P T&A.
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
The founders are passionate about two things; travel and creating awesome software.
After having a mixed bag of travel experiences – sometimes meeting a local or other travellers and discovering things we never would on our own or sometimes only skimming the surface and failing to find authentic experiences – we wanted a more reliable way to unlock the secrets of the places we travelled.
Between our networks we had a team with the collective skillsets to make it happen and a mind-set ready to take the plunge into the startup world.
What is the size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
The founding team includes Raymond Siems (CEO), Jamin Wood (Quality), Xuguang Ren (CTO), Wilson Griffiths (UI/UX) and Wenchao Chen (VP Development). At the heart of any great software development company is a team of talented engineers. We’re lucky to have a Chinese technical backbone; their expertise and non-stop work ethic sets the tone for a relentlessly motivated team.
We have our HQ in tech-hub Helsinki, a development office in Shanghai and an office in our old home base in Brisbane, Australia. We have a diverse team, from Australian to Chinese to British to Finnish nationals, so we’re ready for a global challenge.
What are your funding arrangements?
The startup scene in Australia isn’t great, so we knew we had to look internationally for investment. We started out bootstrapped before securing $250k in an extended seed round from a private Finnish venture capital group. It’s been an ideal arrangement allowing us to set up a presence in travel mecca Europe whilst maintaining our Australian and Chinese offices.
What is your estimation of market size?
According to Embark.org’s estimates which were based on IBIS World Reports and the US Travel Association, the global tour booking market is around $275 billion dollars. We expect much of this to shift from traditional B2C transactions to P2P, mirroring sectors like accommodation. The global sharing economy is currently a $25bn industry annually, which PWC expects to grow to $335bn by 2025 with peer-peer services to take up a large chunk of this.
Collaborative consumption, social discovery, experiential travel and mobile adoption are predicted to increase rapidly, so Ventoura is in the right place at the right time.
Please describe your competition.
There have been numerous attempts in the P2P activities and experiences line. These include Ashton Kutcher backed Gidsy (acquired by GetYourGuide), American Vayable, and the Spanish Trip4Real – but all of those are Web-focused.
In the traveller to traveller social discovery line there are old web-based players like travbuddy.com and TripTogether and new players like Tripr – again, no one has had a significant go on mobile.
To our knowledge there has been no attempt to combine both; creating a high traffic social hub and marketplace.
What is your revenue model and strategy for profitability?
Primary revenue is achieved through 18% commission on sales through the app. Secondary revenue is through commercial partnerships… stay tuned! The final revenue stream, which is also the most difficult to do right, is relevant advertising. Long term, we aim to provide travellers tips and offers from local businesses to experience the best of a destination.
What problem does the business solve?
We work so hard all year to go on vacation, yet when we finally go, we so often miss out on experiencing the best of our destinations. Everyone agrees the best way to dive beneath the standard tourism surface is to meet the people that actually live there, but we lack a reliable way to do it.
At Ventoura we believe travel should be first and foremost about people. When we reminisce about travel experiences filled with nostalgia and excitement, we remember the awesome interactions with fellow travellers and friendly locals.
The people make the memories. Gone are the days that travel was associated with maps, travel guides and having a paperback book to read while you were flying. Now if we think about travel, it’s more about those things in our pockets that run out of battery. Ventoura Locals are the new travel guidebooks.
It’s now so common for people to chat online, and then meet up in person. It’s only natural that this expands properly into the travel industry. Ventoura taps into our thirst for social discovery by connecting travellers who are going to be in the same place at the same time.
I can find someone who likes the same things I do, then go explore a city together. By chatting with other travellers before we set off on a trip, there is an opportunity to develop connections and pack more awesome into those precious few weeks on holiday.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
Ventoura evolved collaboratively within the founding group. To say we conceived the idea of P2P guiding or traveller matching would be ludicrous; people thought about that long before we did. What we have done is combine concepts that everyone loves into a viable business model with potential for explosive growth.
Services that only do traveller connections lack for revenue streams in their infancy, while services that only cover local experiences can’t grow fast enough. We saw the natural harmony between these concepts and their complementary business characteristics. Ventoura is moving into new territory by combining collaborative consumption and social discovery.
Why should people or companies use the business?
Ventouring is a new way to travel. Anyone interested in getting an authentic travel experience, one they can tell they friends and family as the story of a lifetime, should get involved. Locals can gain greater independence and less reliance on the sluggish traditional economy, while doing something they love.
Travel businesses should take notice because of the growth potential and market insights we can offer without being a competitor.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
We’re employing a diverse range of methods to spread the word about Ventoura; user-generated content is important to us as a social hub, creating awesome in-house content, trying social media hacks, working with bloggers, running engaging promotions, email marketing, SEO etc. Our tireless team knows there is no golden egg.
Where do you see the company in three years’ time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
In 3 years we would love to have a worldwide network of locals and a vibrant community of travellers.
A challenge will be maintaining a top-notch core experience in the app, and not being distracted with requests for bloated features that don’t improve the experience. The first version of the app is a simple iteration of the core concept – it makes things possible. In order to grow sustainably we need to listen carefully to feedback and user data to select the right improvements and functionality advancements – it’s now about making the experience more seamless, and continuing to lower the barriers to setting off on an adventure.
Ventoura is a path to developing cultural understanding and breaking down barriers. It’s very easy to travel and never really connect with local culture, or to lament the hordes of tourists visiting your hometown every summer. It’s our dream for Ventoura to connect people and bring them together all over the world.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
The rapid uptake of collaborative consumption is occurring because it is by definition more efficient. There is only one transaction between the provider and consumer – there is no middle man, and so less double handling and profit sharing. In the past such a business model was unachievable, simply because we lacked technology adoption that allowed a single provider to access a single consumer and transact effortlessly and in a scalable manner. Ventoura can lead this evolution in our space inside the travel industry.
Our thirst for connections with people and authentic experiences has never been higher. If I see another travel brand saying they are ‘about the experience’, and ‘people are the face of our brand’, with no substance behind it, I may pop. Ventoura facilitates connections between people and delivers authentic experiences, literally!
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why?
It’s difficult to assess what the internal culture and style of other companies is like, outwardly we love what Rome2Rio are doing. From Australian roots they’ve built an impressive technical platform that is effortless for consumers to use.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup, and why?
Ventoura could be crucial to collaborative consumption players aiming to be a single service for all aspects of a trip – accommodation, transport and experiences. Thus far, no firm has managed to tie all three together. As the sector matures this may occur.
Ventoura could complement a range of travel brands looking for destination services and a way to fill their marketing with the ‘people’ and ‘experiences’ that are so often touted but seldom substantiated.
Describe your startup in three words?
Awesome people. Awesome places. (I can use the same word twice right!?)
Tnooz view:
We mentioned it in the introduction and we'll say it again: This is an extremely challenging space to be in. It's the perennial supply-and-demand challenge: you need enough high-quality tours to attract travelers and you need travelers to attract high-quality tours.
The move to mobile has long since occurred, so it makes sense that the team would focus resources there. The mobile-centricity means that travelers can open the app before they arrive, or once in the destination, to explore available options without having to commit.
The added advantage is the social chat functionality, which adds an element of a local resource into the value proposition. If a tour guide is a good one, they will respond to any questions as a local concierge to the traveler. Of course, the traveler needs to book a tour with a local expert and so that ensures that there's at least a cultural/passion fit between the local tour guide and guest.
The commission also seems a touch high, as Vayable's compares at 15%. So the team will need to be sure to provide an excellent user experience for the travelers to keep them coming back and using the service while also ensuring responsive customer service to tour guides so that they feel that the commission is worth it.