7 / Market Scan

Though the proposed idea is not finalised and is only envisioned to be a little broader (culture & lifestyle), the main purpose of the project is to ultimately educate people about a foreign country’s lifestyle and culture before physically traveling there. Hence the brands that I’ll be looking into will have similar purposes.

1. KLOOK

Media & Entertainment / Technology / Travel and Leisure

Klook allows travelers to discover and book attractions, accommodations, and tours, find the best foods and provide unique experiences around the World on its website and award-winning app.

Hypothetically I’m going to Seoul, and I’m browsing through Klook. Here are some of the things from the website that I appreciated.

Things needed to prepare for the free-and-easy trip are neatly organised. Down to even the SIM cards.

Activities to do are also kept up-to-date and are categorised clearly.

For package deals, the details and terms are neatly written and showcased. The timing and location to report are also displayed. They even recommend other activities that people can do with the package deals. For the Korean words, there is even translation that helps me understand.

At the end of the activity/package deal, users can see others’ reviews before making a purchase of their own.

Deals are refreshed often, helping users save money.

Even if users don’t end up booking activities through the site, there are some blogs (that are free to read) that share places and itineraries which users can do on their own time.

According to TrustPilot, Klook has an overall rating of 4.1/5. The majority of the reviews (79%) for Klook are excellent. And even for poor reviews, the Klook review team replies to their review, ensuring that a “specialist will be in touch for follow up actions”, which at least shows accountability.

Of all the highlighted problems, Klook managed to solve 4/10 problems (in yellow), which is great for a travel agency site.

Ultimately, I think Klook is extremely convenient during the planning phase when deciding and purchasing activities. However, one thing it doesn’t solve is the experience when in a foreign country. When users reach that foreign country, they are still faced with other on-site problems such as the language barrier.

Additionally, with so many functions, navigating through the site can be a little confusing. But the good thing is whenever you click on a new activity, a new tab opens. So it’s easy to backtrack (though you’ll end up with too many tabs.. Equally confusing at times I guess).

2. ENACT EUROPA

Education / Technology / Culture & Language

Enact Europa brings foreign culture to life by using an innovative and interactive task-based digital learning method, educating on the foreign languages as well.

Hypothetically I’m interested in learning more about Japanese culture, more specifically Origami. Here are some of my experiences which I appreciated.

Home page has the menu neatly categorised. Interface is really easy to use as well.

Proceeds to click “LEARN”.

Search engine within the site makes it easier for me to find the particular country/culture I’m interested in. Though, I do think the overall choices for the different cultures are very limited. And some country’s culture (eg. India) is not featured.

Proceeds to click “Origami Boat (Japanese)”.
[The following is a step-by-step guide, which I think is really helpful.]

Step 1: Youtube tutorial of what an Origami Boat is

Step 2: learning to speak the names of the materials in the native language

Step 3: time for me to do the activity! Video and instructions (in English and Japanese) are given as well

[okay I’m unsure why it’s glitchy.. but I’ve spent way too long compressing this..] Step 4.1: dragging the words to match the images (taught in step 2)

Step 4.2: another challenge to recap the order for making the origami (there are some Japanese instructions for each step)

I think the idea behind the website is great, the visuals and videos are really engaging.

The reviews on Enact Europa’s website are mostly in English and are generally positive, with many using the words “entertaining” and “fun”. It doesn't seem to have a bad review, which honestly is a little suspicious to me.. Since it’s on the website, it could have been filtered right? So I’m quite unsure. Plus, this brand is not as huge as Klook, so there aren’t many reviews circulating online as well.

Of all the highlighted problems, Enact Europa managed to solve 3/10 problems (in yellow), though the variety of solutions is really little.

Personally, one thing I don’t like was how I have to actually physically have the materials. Plus, learning how to fold Origami Boats and learning how to speak this process in Japanese will not actually help improve my travel experience when I visit Japan.

All in all, I think the idea of combining culture and language learning is great, but the culture used in Enact Europa doesn't seem to be of much relevance to traveling experiences, but more to the country’s traditional activities. Maybe could delve more into the traveling experiences?