The Unfair Value Distribution in the Travel Industry
The travel industry is one of the biggest segments of the world economy. In 2016, its annual contribution to the global economy reached up to 7.6 trillion USD*. This was more than the Gross Domestic Products of Germany, France, and Spain combined for the same year. The world GDP for the same year was around 75.5 trillion USD, in other words, the travel industry’s annual contribution to the global economy from was around 10% from the world GDP.
Considering how staggering these numbers are, the imbalanced distribution of value in the travel industry is an unresolved issue that is waiting to be solved.
A more specific example will shed greater light on the problem. Let’s say you want to book a trip for you and your friends for 1 week to the Maldives through an Outgoing Travel Agency.
You call them or visit their office and ask for an offer. You receive the offer and hear something along the lines of, let’s say $1000 per person. You tell your friends and you all agree on that price and trip, you book the holiday and transfer the money. But when you arrive in the Maldives, check in the hotel and start exploring, you realize that the prices locals are giving to you are significantly lower than the ones you’ve paid for. In the end, you could have actually paid 30% less (in this case 300$) for the exact same holiday.
It turns out that these 300$ were, in fact, an add-on. The Outgoing Travel Agency contacts another party that is being involved — a Tour Wholesaler. Their job is to gather as many travel activities & offers as they can and sell them in bulks. Afterwards, the Tour Wholesaler contacts a Local Tour Operator in the Maldives, the one that is actually organizing and managing most of the trip. So, $100 go to the Outgoing Agent that you booked from in the first place, $100 are designated for the Tour Wholesaler and $100 to the Local Tour Operator.
These are simple mathematical calculations, which you can see in the following figure.
There is also a different figure which illustrates that these numbers go even higher.
These middlemen barely add any value to the whole process, yet benefit as much as the end-service providers. We truly believe that the real heavy lifters in the travel industry are the Local Tour Operators. Since they are the people involved in organizing and managing the whole trip, they have their right to their fair share, because it is only natural that the honest and hard work benefiting the customers’ needs and satisfaction is rewarded. The question is, is this possible and optimal for the travel industry?
And the short answer is ‘Yes’, it is 100% possible. Creating a Social Travel Network and a Group Travel Marketplace utilizing blockchain technology brings additional value to the LTOs. Firstly, they are enabled to offer their services directly to the end-customers and secondly, they have the opportunity to gather crucial data about the clients before the trip itself so that it is more personalized according to everyone’s needs.
How does 15toGO actually benefit LTOs?
- It facilitates the booking and customer support processes, resulting in increased revenue for the LTOs.
- LTOs offer trips directly to the end-customers, getting to know them better and curating trips for each particular group.
- It reduces the cost of trip management by improving the group communication process with notifications, chat and location-based services.
- The LTOs will be able to benefit from different bonus options that the platform provides.
If you are an LTO, apply here.
So, how about we skip the travel agent and the tour wholesaler and we save an estimated 20% + on our trip. In addition, we can invite friends to join! The more, the merrier, and even cheaper! This is possible thanks to the so-called ToGO Deal. If you are one of the first 15 to book and more people join the trip, you will receive additional bonuses in TGO points and ultimately pay a lower price. For example: when reaching 10 travelers, the original 15 will receive a $120 reward in TGO points and when reaching 25 — an additional $140 reward in TGO points and etc. You will not only have the opportunity to meet like-minded people but also travel for less.
All of this is possible if you join 15toGO’s platform. If you are interested and ready to GO, you can visit our website www.15toGO.com and read more about it.
You can also download the app and try it today: https://15togo.page.link/medium
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