Travelling with your friends is awesome and we want to help you make this easier. We really believe in promoting sustainable tourism, to have fun while respecting local communities and the environment.

*GroupandTravel

*Agenda

*The Big Idea

*The Market Opportunity

*The Prototype

*Face to Face Interviews

* The Big Idea

*We are fans of our friends, we love the world, and we enjoy travelling. What else do you need to start an adventure? GroupandTravel!

*The mission of Groupandtravel is to offer an alternative way of booking and organizing trips. It has two main objectives:Provide a tool to organize group friendly trips Provide and Promote a sustainable travel ensuring to the

traveler an amazing and convenient experience

*Are we sure about the choices we do when we plan a trip? How can I select dates that are convenient for my friends? How can we synchronize our bookings? Is it the cheapest and the most sustainable option? How can I receive reliable feedbacks? GroupandTravel connects the dots!

*The Market Opportunity

33% of the respondents go 5 times or more on a group holiday in a typical year

The respondents travel mostly in groups for Ski holidays (82%), City breaks (64%) and Roadtrips (27%)

Let’s start with a short survey on travel habits!

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%

92% of the respondents said that they travel usually with friends

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%

92% of the respondents use emails to plan their group holidays and 67% organize face to face meetings

Are people satisfied with these planning options?“No, it is very difficult to plan over email - we usually end up making huge spreadsheets and complicated documents to track all of our traveling logistics!”

*The Opportunity

*Tourism is directly responsible for 5% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 30% of the world’s services exports and one in every twelve jobs.

*According to UNWTO forecasts, "Tourism Towards 2030 - Global Overview" (2011), international tourist arrivals worldwide are set to reach 1.8 billion by 2030, compared to 940 million in 2010. Whereas in 1980, Europe's share was amounting to 63% of the total number of international tourist arrivals, its share decreased to 51% in 2010 and is set to further decrease down to 41% by 2030.

*The Opportunity

*The analysis undertaken for this study has singled out a number of clear challenges lying ahead for the EU tourism industry, which will need to be addressed if the industry is to realise the high-level ambition set for it. These challenges derive, on the one hand, from the current structure of the tourism industry and the framework in which it operates and, on the other hand, from expected changes in society with an impact on tourism demand: the so-called ‘megatrends’. Eight such ‘megatrends’ have been identified:

• Megatrend 1: Globalisation

• Megatrend 2: Demographic change

• Megatrend 3: Access to information

• Megatrend 4: Experience economy

• Megatrend 5: Customisation

• Megatrend 6: Sustainability

• Megatrend 7: Health and wellness

• Megatrend 8: Low cost business models

*The Opportunity

*Group travelling is a segment that has been so far neglected by the tourism industry. Group trips are a common form of travelling but require complicated logistics. There is a need to simplify the planning process and to serve the growing demand for group travelling.

*Tourism is a key sustainability challenge. Our team believes that the growing engagement of tourists in terms of social and environment responsibility, by evaluating and selecting different travel options, will be the main drive of sustainable tourism. Resource based instead of market led, sustainability means authenticity and the local offer should not be changed just to please tourists.

*The Prototype

Website welcome page!

The user can add friends to the trip project. All the members of the project can then select options from

the offer panel on the right.

For example the user can click on the hotel section, enter the dates of the stay and select a hotel depending on the price, the standard and the

sustainability rating.

Once the team has selected (or directly booked) a list of proposals (hotel, activities, transport) an overall

sustainability rating is assigned to the trip.

For more information please visit:

http://groupandtravel.zxq.net/index.pdf

We hope you enjoyed our prototype, don’t hesitate to give us feedback at groupandtravel@gmail.com

*Face to face interviewsWe performed several face to face interviews to evaluate

our proposition and to understand how to improve it. Here is a couple of examples!

* How often do you travel with a group?

I usually travel 2 to 3 times per year with a group – often one week going skiing or visiting a country and then one or two city breaks.

* With who do you usually travel?

I often travel with a group of friends that I met at university in London.

* How do you plan the trip with your teammates?

We use mostly Facebook events and emails.

* Are you satisfied with the current planning options?

It is not ideal. The emails chains end up being very long, it’s hard to look back for information. You also have to chase people to know on which dates they are available, if they have booked their train/ plane tickets…

* Would you be interested by an online platform that will allow you to synchronize the dates and the bookings with your fellow travelers?

I would definitely be curious to see it. For me, the most useful features would be to be able to build an online itinerary , to be able to match availability dates and to choose together the destination/ activities.

* Would you be interested to know the sustainability impact of your trip?

Sure, I am not an expert in responsible tourism so it’s always good to learn if there are better options available in terms of sustainability.

* Do you think there are enough offers available for group trips?

When I was a student I used STA to book trips with friends . Otherwise I have done the YatchWeek with a group of friends last summer. I don’t have any other examples in mind so I guess the offer could be developed!* Marie, 25y, London

*How often do you travel with a group?

2 to 4 times a year. I enjoyed doing roadtrips with a group!

*With who do you usually travel?

Friends or family members.

*How do you plan the trip with your teammates?

Mostly on the phone, so I’m sure the person is booking her tickets at the same time as me! Otherwise I use emails.

* Are you satisfied with the current planning options?

It does the job but I guess there could be an easier way, especially with social networks.

*Would you be interested by an online platform that will allow you to synchronize the dates and the bookings with your fellow travelers?

Of course, I love group travels but planning them is a real hassle. The real problem is to convince other people to join you on the adventure, they postpone their decision and they end up paying a lot for their plane tickets.

*Would you be interested to know the sustainability impact of your trip?

Yes but I’m not too much into green/ tree-hugging trips. I still want my holidays to be fun. However I’m always interested to learn about small hotels and activities that support local communities.

* Do you think there are enough offers available for group trips?

Definitely not! * James, 29y, London

*When talking about the project and presenting the idea, we found many of the interviewed were really fascinated by the concept of sustainability. They showed a strong interest for the platform and they would be happy to use it. 

*Those of them who were more "computer friendly" were able to understand the prototype, while others needed some additional instructions. We are not sure if this is due to the low fidelity prototype, but we will see if we can create a simpler user experience. 

*Also, we found out that the word "Sustainability", can be quite dangerous. We have the impression that sometimes it is wrongly  associated with "more expensive", "bad service" and "boring". 

*Only after giving some example (e.g. choosing a run family business instead of a big 3000 rooms resort on the beach) they acknowledged their interests. So a clear definition of what we promote is something to work on. 

*Also we received many questions about the "sustainability rating", some of which we could find any answer, so again…  something to work on. 

*Overall,  despite the early stage of the project, people seemed to understand the concept and gave very useful opinion on many things to improve. We hope your opinion will be the next one! 

* Lessons Learned

*End of Play