Aid Abroad — Service Design Process Blog
Our Team: Ming, Yoon-ji Kim, cpozzi, Zai Aliyu, Tracy Potter
Our team is focusing on designing a service based around what happens when you have a medical emergency when you are traveling.
Week 11
4/24/16
Today we met to put together the different pieces of our presentation.
We also spent time shooting the photo storyboard for the presentation and finalizing high fidelity screens for the proposal pitch.
4/25/16 Meeting Notes
Today we worked through more of the case study and presentation pitch as well as discussing the high fidelity screens for our application flow.
We also prototyped the script for our liaison, which due to translation issues we have decided to change to an “Aide”. This is also more in keeping with our name “Aide Abroad”. The prototyped script can be seen here: script
4/26/16
Today we were working on finalizing all of the presentation design, screen design, and scripts and timing for the presentation on Thursday.
4/28/16
Link to our final presentation!
Week 10
4/18/16 Meeting Notes
We finalized the ideas for the problem statement/proposition:
We also further developed the logo for our brand:
and the image that we want our employees to convey to seem efficient, trustworthy, kind, and competent:
we decided on a black blazer with a blue scarf or pocket square in the company colors.
4/20/16 Meeting Notes
We spent some time today paper prototyping with the application flow to see how people responded and find where there were any pain point that should be changed.
Week 9
4/9/16 Meeting Notes
This week we were able to work a bit more on prototyping a few more of the different elements of the service as well as further refining our service blueprint, stakeholder diagram, and journey map. Additionally we started working on the outline of everything that we will need to include in our case study for the final presentation.
4/12/16 Class Notes
Today we spent some class time working with Mark Jones to think about how we can do a bit more rapid prototyping.
Comments that we received:
- should there be some type of emergency call button?
- What’s the entry point?
- Should people have so many options when they’re sick or can they just be assigned liasions with the option to switch if they want.
- “Information was useful, I felt secure choosing” Tracy was chosen in this prototyping exercise because she has the most experience
- “Next would be Zai because she was closest in age to me, although she has not lived in the area for too long”
- personas: Zai — young student/nurse, new; Courtney — older, familiar with the area, but not medical; Ming — local who had studied in the US, no medical experience; Tracy — Local who was older and had lots of medical experience.
- Would have liked more information about the location, how long they’ve been there and their familiarity with the area.
4/16/16 Notes
To Do List:
1. We need a name!!
2. Divide up the Case Study sections and assign them to each of us
3. Design a logo/color scheme/ choose a font for final deliverables
4. Take app wireframes and make Hi-Fi screens for mobile and a few website screens and put them in invision
5. Prototype Care Box? (we could probably create this pretty easily and bring in a “sample” box… we could also do a quick prototyping exercise with someone of what they might like to have in it)
6. We need a diagram of the payment structure
7. Further develop service proposition
8. Prototype liaison image (writing scripts for how the service rep will interact with a caller and test them, as well as figuring out what identifies the liaison, is it a particular color they wear or a specific hat or badge or something?)
9. Photo story board to explain service and touch points along the way
Week 8
4/5/16 Class Notes
Today we presented our working diagrams of our service blueprint, value proposition, wireframes, and journey map: Diagrams
We still need to do more prototyping with our users to get more feedback and learn how we need to make changes to better fit their needs. We are also planning to work through the stakeholder diagram in more detail.
We have decided to focus in on the urban environment to launch our service, so that we have the necessary resources and infrastructure to begin to build the business.
Feedback:
- Build out the wireframes further and think about different screen types and how the platform will transition
- Prototype with wireframes (currently working through)
- did you think about doctor and insurance integration? (yes very much and we chose not to focus on these aspects due to legal issues and different country regulations)
4/6/16 Class Notes
During class today we did a breakdown of the different pieces that we need to work on and we started developing them further in anticipation of our next group meeting this weekend.
- stakeholder diagram
- revised journey map
- further development of service blueprint
- establish defined value proposition
- develop more in depth wireframes and prototype with users
- begin outline of case study
Week 7
3/28/16 Workshop Notes
We spent some time acting out our different possible scenarios today with people who had a previous experience with illness while traveling to see how they would respond to the different aspects of our service. Full notes and scenarios can be found here
Some of the key things that we learned were that:
- sending a concierge doctor alone is fine, but it is much more preferable to have that in conjunction with the liaison who can pick up prescriptions or care items that are needed
- customer should be able to track liaison or doctor coming to see them
- customer wants to have a lot of transparency and be able to decide who is coming to help provide them care some type of picture or profile or credential ranking system to choose your concierge doctor that you are referred to or to choose the liaison who comes to help you is very important
3/29/16 Class Notes
Questions from class discussion:
Who is the liaison and how do you build a level of trust and elevated status into the branding to represent them?
Differentiation from an average delivery person is necessary and it should potentially be paired with more of an Airbnb type hotel business model rather than traditional models that already have staff to take care of these concerns.
What specific value proposition does the liaison represent?
When focusing on “care” rather than “cure” can we have some type of pre-made care package with items from home that the liaison can provide? Would people prefer local options to try and alleviate FOMO a bit more? Are people interested in more of a build your own model?
What are the liaison touch points and specific services that they can provide?
Next Steps:
3/30/16 Meeting Notes
We met today to develop our second prototyping activity that will help us better understand what people want out of the care package level of the service and what they would be comfortable with as well as a rough prototype of the UI elements for the selection profiles that will be necessary to begin to understand the trust and transparency aspect of the liaison selection.
After we met we came to a bit of a roadblock with how we should move forward with our prototyping. We feel like we know what the questions we need to answer are, but are struggling with how to create a more comprehensive journey map or prototype specific touch points in the experience because it seems like we always need one to do the other, so we’re not quite sure how to move forward.
4/2/16 Meeting Notes
Today we met to work through our initial wire frames for the service as well as to come together on a particular aspect of our service to focus on for the blueprint and the flow options for the journey map.
Working draft versions of our service diagrams:
Week 6
3/23/16 Workshop Notes
Today we met to work on a bit more of our scenario “speed dating” with some volunteers who had been in situations where they were ill while traveling. We spoke with four different people: Jane, Kaylee, Sarah, and Catherine. The full notes from our workshop can be accessed here: Workshop Notes
Some key findings from the workshop were:
- People didn’t like the idea of having to call to talk to a doctor
- People had mixed reviews about trusting a phone doctor’s diagnosis (mostly negative and there were questions about whether a doctor would even be willing to do this because of liability concerns)
- Local liaison was well received as long as they were extremely professional via brand, image, professional conduct, background check etc.
- Pre-paying for the service was preferred because of fear of being scammed or giving too much financial incentive to the local liaison
- Medicine/prescription translation service by local liaison or platform to help increase transparency of what you’re actually taking was very helpful and well received.
Things that we will need to reconsider at our next meeting:
- What is the phone doctors role? Do we need to keep this portion of the service? Should they just be more of a reference to confirm local doctors diagnosis/treatment?
- Producing trust through the brand seems to be more powerful than talking to a doctor on the phone even if you are unfamiliar with them.
- *Idea to incorporate*: after hours delivery of over the counter medicines to treat common illnesses that don’t necessarily require a hospital visit.
- We might need to pick much more specific regions to look at, thinking of our service as something that will start small somewhere and then be able to grow to a larger scale, but not necessarily start with the whole world. We thought a good place to start would be by looking at world tourism rankings to see where we would have the biggest audience for our service.
3/24/16 Class Notes
Today in class we spent a lot of time looking at how we can better scope the service model. Trying to plan for issues in every region of the world seems to be a bit more than we will be able to handle right now, because different countries and regions all have laws, customs, and access to medical care that is vastly different.
We began to look at the idea of caring vs curing and how me might start to pivot our project to this direction:
After talking about our project with Miso Kim, who came to visit class today, we started talking about the idea of trust and how we can build this into our service to have travelers want to use it. What are the types of attributes that will signify a service or system or person that someone can trust? How do we portray this through our brand image? She made a very helpful diagram for us with four different areas that we might dig a bit deeper into: value systems, identity, system of reviews, and certifications.
We spent some time listing out all of the different attributes for the value systems that we would need to take into consideration in any given location and with any potential employees as we build out our service model.
We also started breaking down geographic regions on a scale of most similar to the US to least similar taking into consideration language and culture as well as level of medical care available in each region.
We have also been comparing the rural locations and urban to try to narrow down our scope as well. We seem to be coming to agreement that at least to start our service needs to be focused on urban regions where we will have the resources both human and infrastructural to begin to pilot the service.
At the end of our session we met with Molly and are going to reconsider the doctors role in the service entirely. It might be more beneficial to look at the service liaison aspect that we have been talking about and, instead of focusing on doctors who have many liability issues with care over the phone, we could focus on how a local liaison could help you with simple errands or negotiation of different healthcare systems when you are sick or injured in a foreign country and can’t necessarily find the items that you need to get well, or are too sick to go and get them yourself.
3/26/16 Meeting Notes
We met today with Molly to work on the pivot within the design of our service that we are undertaking.
Week 5
This week we spent some time synthesizing our research findings from the break. We were able to conduct three interviews as well as receiving the results from our online survey.
3/15/16 Class Notes
Interview #1 — Kara (Tracy’s sister)
- Place where she stayed in, ‘local contact’ was how they got referred to whatever place
- FOMO
- Didn’t know that domestic insurance could cover
- Every time people got sick, it ended up being the local host contact that they could trust for health information & locations
- Not understanding medication (name, effects, etc)
- Hospital doesn’t trust international insurance
Interview#3 — Alice(Ming’s friend)
- FOMO
- Local contacts
- Waited it out / bought medicine
The results of the survey showed:
- Waited it out / bought medicine
- Language barrier / lack of information
- Participants were ages 24–46
We took some time in class after Catherine and Hannah’s business model presentation to begin to work through the different aspects and details of how our service might work as well as the value proposition of our service.
Proposition:
- Secondary contact via a trusted first degree contact
- Not Googling
- Trusted people
- Designated doctor “concierge doctor”
- OneMedical
- “Text a concierge doctor” service
One important finding from the research was the importance of having some type of trusted local human connection for travelers to help ease and facilitate this situation, which is generally unpleasant. We mapped out the levels of local knowledge/trusted contact that a traveler might potentially have in any given situation:
3/16/16 Meeting Notes
We met again on Wednesday of this week to work through a bit more of our business proposition map:
We also took some time to consider the type of business model that would fit with our service constraints and plans for what we wanted to include:
Understanding the connections and users groups within our systems who would interact with each other was a very important aspect:
Being proactive by being reactive
Service Proposition — What does our service do?
- Provide a point person of contact (via phone, mobile, etc.) when the user is in a situation of medical need to provide referral services to a doctor on the phone for consultancies or to local treatment facilities (doctors & pharmacies, etc)
- Refer patients to trusted doctors within their locale
- Provide consulting doctors to give brief initial phone consults
- Provide payment facilitation for foreign treatment providers to give them financial insurance that the user would pay for treatment once they make contact with a local doctor
- Provide medical history & illness notes for foreign hospitals and healthcare providers, especially when English is not the native language of the foreign provider
3/17/16 Class Notes
During class time on Thursday we started to work through an outline of the journey of our traveler and the different levels of the service that they could potentially interact with or need based on their condition:
We also spent a lot of time thinking about the type of physical and/or digital touchpoints that would occur and what form they might begin to take and the types of feedback that they could give
Thoughts on prototyping and next steps:
What value does this service bring to each stakeholder of this system?
- Maybe via this question we may bring about possible solutions or goals through this service
- “How might we …”
Ways to pay/profit not via $$?
- We are only considering monetary benefits, but what other benefits?
- Could be trust, brand, corporate benefits, etc.
Constraints → interesting service ideas; moving between the lines
- Example: Netscape with ergonomic fitters for ADA accommodations
Prototype = build a touchpoint (ish)
To Do for the weekend:
- To lock down a few service propositions to experiment with
- Find limits: where are our limits & design within limits
- Start experimenting if time
3/19/16 Meeting Notes
Today we met to further develop the service system of our project. We looked at a multitude of different angles and options that our service could provide and mapped out a plan for our storyboard experiments with users.
During this meeting we also began to map out different touch points and flows within the service model. We found many different potential options for the directions and levels of the service that could be implemented depending on the medical issue and severity at hand as well as restrictions within various locations.
We then devised several initial storyboard scenarios to “speed date” with a few of the people from our surveys and interviews who had been in situations where they had medical issue while traveling.
Several things that we are looking at within these scenarios as well as thinking about for next steps are:
- Experiment with what roles they play
- Explore off-duty nurses
- Location: urban / rural
- Sickness: illness / injury
- Severity: wait / help
Week 4
Next Steps Over Spring Break:
Along with surveys and interviews, start to identify specific problem area and intervention points to focus on and develop stakeholder and journey maps.
People to talk to:
Classmates
- Mina
- Catherine
- Lisa
- Alison
- Hannah
Outside of Class
- Ming’s Cousin
- Alice (Ming’s friend)
- Tracy’s sister
- Zai’s parents
Official services
- Office of International Education (Warner Hall 3rd Floor)
Interview concierge people while away for spring break
Research Methods:
- Survey
- Interviews
- Secondary research — online research into other services, synthesize into “resources” page
Week 3
We have scheduled several interviews with different people who have experienced illness and industry while traveling as well as different travel representatives and planners who would interact with those people along the way, or help them plan their journey. Our interview outlines can be found below:
Interview Questions–Travel Industry Representative (ex. Study Abroad)
- Do you have any procedures in place for when students get sick or injured while traveling?
- Can you describe a situation where a student has gotten sick or injured while traveling?
- What resources do you provide for students to help them stay safe and healthy while traveling?
- Do you provide travelers insurance for students?
- What is covered / how to use it / etc.
- What steps do you take to acquaint travelers with the culture and customs of the place in which they are traveling?
- Do you educate travelers on the quality of healthcare in the place they intend on traveling?
Interview Questions–Traveler
General
- How often do you travel? Are you an experienced or novice traveler?
- What locations do you normally travel to?
- Have you ever gotten sick or injured while traveling? Can you describe the context that this happened in and how the situation played out?
- Why were you traveling in that location at that time?
- Were you alone or did you have travel companions?
- Were you familiar with the area and language?
- What was the most stressful part of the experience?
- What was the least stressful part of the experience?
- Who was the most helpful resource during the experience?
Pre-Planning
- Do you normally take any precautions for unexpected health issues when planning a trip? If so can you describe how you plan for this?
- If you don’t plan for unexpected illnesses why do you not choose to worry about this?
- Do you ever purchase any type of travelers insurance when planning a trip?
- Are you aware of the government’s STEP program for travel planning?
Treatment Steps
- What were the steps that you took when you realized that you were sick/injured?
- Did you feel safe in this situation and that you were receiving appropriate medical care?
- If you decided to wait it out instead of receiving medical care, did you have a back-up plan? and if so what was it?
- Were you able to speak to a doctor in your own language, so that you could understand what treatment you were receiving?
Payment After/During Treatment
- How did you pay for this treatment — was it out of pocket, or did you have any type of insurance that covered it?
- If your travel insurance covered the treatment, what caused you to purchase the insurance before your trip?
- Was it easy to get in touch with and access the insurance company when you needed help?
- If you didn’t have insurance what was the experience of paying for treatment like?
We are also planning to send out a general survey to get feedback from a broader audience of people who have experienced sickness or injury while abroad, so that we can learn from their experiences and journey as well:
Survey Template
Any information you provide in this survey will NOT be shared out to the public!
Mention how long the survey will take [foot in the door!]
- How old are you?
- How often do you travel overseas?
A. Less than once a year
B. 1–2 times/year
C. 3+ times/year
D. Never been abroad
3. Have you ever gotten hurt/sick while traveling?
A. Yes
- Physical injury (i.e. broken ankle, migraine, etc.)
- Illness (i.e. flu, stomach bug, etc.)
- Mental (i.e. depression, mania episode, etc.)
B. No
4. Were you travelling alone?
5. Did you buy travel insurance / medical insurance
6. Did you need medical attention?
A. Yes
- Explain
B. No
- Explain
7. On a scale of 1–5, how severe was the injury/illness?
A. Scale
- 1 — not severe
- 5 — emergency
8. How did you deal with your medical situation? Check all that apply:
A. Consult the internet
B. Consult hotel personnel / guides / officials
C. Talk to a local pharmacist
D. Consult home doctor
E. Consult insurance company
F. Call for emergency medical services
G. Do nothing — wait it out
H. Other: write your own
9. If you consulted a third party: On a scale of 1–5, how comfortable were you in seeking help?
A. 1 — not confident at all
B. 5 — very comfortable
10. How distressed were you when you first realized you were sick / injured?
A. Scale
- 1 — not worried at all
- 5 — extremely concerned
11. What was the most challenging part of dealing with your medical situation?
A. Language barriers
B. Money concerns
C. Lack of information
D. Privacy concerns
E. Other
Notes From Class Discussion:
3/01/16 Class Notes
Molly comments
- 3 days professor friend, broke ankle
- Taken home to have surgery
- Talk to her??
- Insurance company negotiated her flight back (business class back to Rochester)
People to talk to
- Brainstorm people to talk to?
Design for the extreme (solo) and extrapolate to non-solo situations?
3/03/16 Class Notes
Agenda: propositions & questions
- Create templates for survey & interviews
- Storytelling
Feedback:
- Foreign doctors working in a foreign country
- Type of doctors who treat patients in foreign countries
- ? Look at medical tourism — going to a country for surgery
- Citizenship for people who are getting treated?
- Medical system of the country in which traveler gets sick
- Private urgent care clinics
- Concierge medical care — one medical
- learn about how they work
- Things you need when you are sick that aren’t medical
- Soup, food, comfort items
- Home doctor pre-travel visit to prepare for trip
Week 2
After all of our brainstorming activities we pivoted a bit from our original focus of services for solo female travelers and have decided instead to focus our service design on medical services for travelers who are ill or injured while abroad.
Notes From Class Discussion:
2/28/16 Class Notes
Summary: We decided to focus on health & insurance (peace of mind) for travelers, particularly having to do with when health issues go wrong when people travel abroad
- Ex: food poisoning while abroad, pharmacist doesn’t speak English, what to do?
- Ex: elderly broke leg while traveling abroad, what to do?
- Ex: health issues while abroad, hospital doesn’t take insurance, what to do?
- Ex: what exactly is travelers insurance, and how to leverage the benefits when needed?
- Ex: what benefits come with certain credit cards and memberships, and how to leverage benefits?
- Ex: how to not break the bank when in an emergency?
The “health” topic emerged almost as an afterthought, mirroring how travelers normally think of travel health emergencies — an afterthought. How to bring forth the intricacies involved in resolving health issues when traveling, making it transparent, easy to use, and economically viable?
Resources Cited:
- Oscar Health Insurance — simple, transparent, human designs for healthcare. Leverage the interface & design values for our service?
- Loyalty memberships & benefits of going to a foreign subsidiary hotel/club and getting service
Week 1
We have decided to look at the travel industry, specifically in regards to solo female travelers and how we might be able to create a service for people in this user range. We are considering many
Notes From Class Discussion:
2/23/16 Class Notes
Tracy — dedicated place to check in
- Go home at night, link app to friend so friend can check location (safety)
- Build community of solo travelers in network
- Hostel: incorporate physical places
Courtney — LonelyPlanet
- Where to start?
Tracy — where to stay? She wants to walk all over
- Mapping — getting around
Courtney — google map walk path from school to place
Courtney — what places NOT to be in at night?
Tracy — what about rural areas?
- Transportation changes
Courtney — what am I doing once I get there, and how do I find out what I want to know?
- Reliability of information?
- Curate / tailor the information for you
- Example: like a local
Courtney — reasons for going to a city?
- Goals
- Tailor information
Tracy — level of independence
Courtney — where are you, how much money do you want to spend today, generate options
Facebook M / chatbot?
Zai — why do locals contribute?
- Airbnb, Couchsurfing, people who love their cities
- Traveler debt / kinship with travelers
- Lunching — communication with someone
Courtney — Facebook groups of people abroad
- Not wanting to feel like a tourist
- How do we make users aware of other users who are alone without making them vulnerable?
Factors of anonymity?
Feedback from Molly:
- What are you thinking about doing beyond just providing information?
- The resources we looked at are websites providing information
- Stakeholders & what they will be exchanging?
- Females travel vs. females walking down street?
- What would happen if you are not looking only at 20 something travelers, but also looking at older travelers?
- Mother In Law traveled to China & Tibet and was solo but part of a tour group.
- Are there different needs you might find at different levels?
- How do things differ from “I’m going to Omaha on a business trip” vs “I’m going to SE Asia for 3 months”
- Tinder for solo travelers?
- Piano bars for women at airports!
- Upscale travel tailored towards men, but changing towards women?
- What if you are working on a network of young business travelers? Maybe you will discover that newly retired ladies is where it’s at. There could be some interesting trends you can dig into that may not be related to your own population.
- Secondary research & see how the industry talks about itself.
- Energies vs. Age
Additional Notes:
Blog mining
- It’s never going to be my exact interest
- Information pool/community
- Some countries it’s hard to connect to wifi
- Access in hostel but can’t check later
- General
- Specific to where you’re going
- Important to where you’re going
- You might not know
- Physical places as a network
- How do you check in?
- Walk home safely app
- Network of people
- Cultural differences — open networks
- Check places
- Check study abroad office
- Gap year
- 20–30s solo female traveler — could translate to baby boomers
- Meeting people
- Safety
- Cultural immersion
- Stakeholders of who cares back home?
- Current students studying abroad
- Collecting not new
- Frommers, fodors, lonely planet — narrow in scope — only highlights — wouldn’t be authentic if it was in a guidebook
- How to check in on something — amass a service with all blogs etc. background checked. Etc.
- Joining a network of people
- Daunting to go on your own — consolidate — personal travel agent
- Females — which sections of the city to avoid — where should you not be night vs. day
- Local customs culturally — for conservative for women
- Rural vs. city
- RELIABILITY
Things to consider
- Transparency
- Where to stay
- Communication
- Knowledge
- Meet people
- Going out and safety
Where things go wrong
- Airbnb
- Couchsurfing
Demographic
- COLLEGE/young adult
- Business factors
- Leisure vs. luxury
Travel
- Solo travel
- Where what when
- Safety
- Finances
- Women
Questions to Consider
What am I doing when I get there? and how do I know what I know?
How do I know my information is reliable?
How to Curate it for you?
How to filter the information?
Why are people going a place for region?
Gauging a level of independence?
How much money do you want to spend today?
Chatbot doing the research for you — watching you — for safety
What motivates locals to contribute?
Locals who just really love their cities and want to share with others.
Kinship with other solo travelers
Apps that match people based on their interest — exists
Meetups exist “meet a local tour”
Where does the control
How do you filter for age and preferences?
How do you make people aware that you’re alone without telling people that you’re alone?
Factors of anonymity
How do you filter crowdsourcing?
Actors and touch points
- Travelers in their 20’s
- Travelers in their 60’s
- What are the needs that you have at different levels
- Business class
- Wine bars — places to catered toward particular people
- Mac store at O’hare
- What types of things are geared towards women — travel trend research — what demographics to look
- Trends outside — college travel
- Young — female business travelers
- How does the industry talk about itself?
- Levels of interest
- travel trends
- girlfriend getaway
RESOURCES:
Some resources and background research that we have been looking into in regards to existing travel resources and services as well as where particular problem areas may be:
WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET SICK DURING TRAVEL & PREPARATION TIPS
- TRAVEL INSURANCE — http://www.today.com/id/25100740/ns/today-money/t/travel-insurance-worth-extra-money/
- Can include: trip cancellation, trip interruption, accidental death or dismemberment, medical and dental care, transportation to medical facilities, loss of luggage or personal possessions and protection against the bankruptcy or default of your cruise line or tour operator.
- Your medical and auto insurance may be valid in other countries. Your life insurance policy should cover you and your family while you travel.
- Buying from “established insurance company” is better than buying through travel company
(2007) http://www.today.com/money/do-you-need-travel-insurance-2D80554941
- 30% of Americans “purchase travel insurance, an increase from 10 percent before 9/11.”
- The top three reasons are: peace of mind, protection against the unexpected, and concern over losing the financial investment in a trip. Some 70 percent of cruisers buy travel insurance.
- “among travel insurance buyers, only 50 percent were aware of medical evacuation insurance.”
- “Medical Evacuation and Repatriation”
- There are a number of good companies that provide this plan, two of which are Travel Guard and Medjet Assist. The annual premium is about $300, and it’s the card you hope you never have to use. My Advice: YES, get this, with another important caveat: read the fine print. With Travel Guard and Medjet assist, these policies provide that they will get you initially treated and stabilized and then send a medically equipped and staffed jet to fly you to the doctor and medical facility of your choice. This is crucial. Outside of Travel Guard and Medjet assist, many other companies that offer this insurance will fly you to the doctor and medical facility of their choice.
- If you’re in a foreign country, particularly a developing country, many hospitals will admit you without caring about coverage, but they won’t let you leave until you pay. Travel insurance can help facilitate payment, and act as an advocate so that you’re not overcharged because you’re an American.
- Travel major medical plans are a special type of coverage designed specifically for people who are planning long-term travel. Or rather, they are designed for people who will be traveling outside of their home country for six months or more
STAKEHOLDERS
- Travel insurance companies
- Traveler
- Doctors (overseas)
- Travel agencies
AirBnB Hell Stories
http://www.airbnbhell.com/airbnb-guest-stories/
Travel Trends for Women
http://gutsytraveler.com/women-travel-statistics-women-travel-trends/
- Golden Years: According to 68% of travel agents, most female clients taking trips in small groups are over the age of 45. Women ranging between 35–44 years old make up 26% of those traveling in groups, while 5% are between the ages of 25–34. Only 1% are between 18–24 years old. Following the same trend, the majority (81%) of solo female travel clients are over 45 years old, while only 13% are between 35–44 years old. Only 6% of solo travelers are between 25–34, and 1% are between 18–24 years old.
- Many older women are also experiencing this rite of passage.
She’s Looking for Adventure, She’s Going Alone and She’ll Tell You All About It: Introducing the Solo Female Traveler
- 66% of US women polled by Booking.com have vacationed without her partner.
“Booking Brianless” commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoPAzoy4KJM
- The study looked at women aged 25–45 from the U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada and Germany. Of the 500 U.S. participants of the study, 58% said that social media made them feel safer when traveling on their own. While it’s not clear what the relationship is between safety and connectivity, this feeling of virtual connection is spurring many changes in traveler behavior, including the trend of “flashpacking”. Staying tethered to home through mobile devices and social media, travelers feel less alone when they are on the road by themselves and more likely to travel solo as a result.
- “We estimate that in 2011 there were approximately 4.5 million international trips by women from the seven [Asian] countries that we have studied,” she wrote on the company’s blog, “but by 2030 this will have increased by 400%.”
- When it comes to marketing to female solo travelers on business or vacation, there is agreement that getting rid of single supplements is key to attracting this growing demographic. “Women are frustrated with the premium applied by some travel companies for traveling alone,” says Phyllis Stoller. “Some trips actually penalize solo travelers.” Cruise lines are especially guilty of this practice. It’s not always financially possible for operators to charge one person the same price as a couple, but it is certainly something to consider for travel organizations that want to appeal to this rising demographic.
“What Do Millennials Really Seek When They Travel?” Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lea-lane/what-do-millennials-reall_b_9064232.html
- Topdeck Travel, popular provider of group travel for 18–30 somethings, surveyed 31,000 people from 134 different countries: 88 percent of them traveled overseas between one and three times a year; 94 percent were between 18–30; 30 percent traveled solo; and the majority traveled in Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand.
A sampling of the surprising survey results are below, along with my comments:
- Reflecting peer-influence at that young stage of life, in choosing where they travel next, 76 percent said that friends’ recommendations were a main factor, and what’s on sale, and social media also came far ahead of travel-agent advice (18%).
- The survey revealed that this younger generation is no longer seeking a party-animal atmosphere when traveling, and instead wants to fully immerse themselves into new cultures, and feast on local cuisine. In fact, of the group surveyed, experiencing a new culture (86%) and eating local foods (69%) were listed as common determining factors for motivating people aged 18 to 24 to travel — ahead of partying (44%) and shopping (28%).
- Almost three-quarters of those surveyed do their own travel planning and reservations, and half book their trips six to 12 months ahead. About half travel independently, but book some tours when they arrive at their destination.
Forget wedding plans — Pinterest’s massive ‘wander women’ trend is all about traveling solo
http://www.techinsider.io/women-on-pinterest-are-making-more-solo-travel-boards-2015-7
Travel Insurance:
https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/index.cfm
- GeoBlue Travel Insurance
- Prices vary
Travel Health Service:
https://www.iamat.org/medical-directory
- IAMAT — network of international English-speaking doctors.
- $100 max for consultation with doctors within network, does not include treatment fee
- Membership required, but joining is free
- “IAMAT is a social service linking travellers directly to healthcare providers who are vetted by us. You pay our affiliated doctor directly for the consultation. Members who seek medical care from one of our reputable doctors may choose to file a claim and get reimbursed by their travel insurance provider after their trip.”
US Consular Service* What about non-US?
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/health.html
- Contact US Consular services for referral to medical services.
International Society of Travel Medicine
- The ISTM, with more than 3,500 members in 100 countries, is the largest organization of professionals dedicated to the advancement of the specialty of travel medicine. Members include physicians, nurses and other health professionals from academia, government and the private sector. ISTM invites all who are interested in travel medicine to join and participate in the advancement of this field.
- The directory is an international listing of ISTM member travel medicine clinics that offer pre-travel immunizations, counseling and medicines to help protect travelers while traveling internationally. Most clinics also provide care to travelers if needed upon their return. There are currently clinics located in 65 countries included in the directory. You can find your nearest clinic by searching here.
- Sounds like a professional network rather than a health help network
Smart Travel Enrollment Program
- The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) is a free service to allow U.S. citizens and nationals traveling abroad to enroll their trip with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.
- Learn about your destination
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html
The State Department’s Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (ACS) administers the Consular Information Program, which informs the public of conditions abroad that may affect their safety and security. Country Specific Information, Travel Alerts, and Travel Warnings are vital parts of this program.
We provide Country Specific Information for every country of the world. You will find the location of the U.S. embassy and any consular offices, information about whether you need a visa, crime and security information, health and medical considerations, drug penalties, localized hot spots and more. This is a good place to start learning about where you are going.
Planning your Trip: Health and Safety before you leave: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go.html
Survival Guide to Safe and Healthy Travel
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/survival-guide
Solo Travel
Wandermates
http://www.wandermates.com/#mainpage
- Meet other solo travelers, provides a list of other solo travelers who want to meet up
- Find an activity buddy to do certain activity at intended location
- FEMALE TRAVELERS: emphasis on security and privacy
- But just links to blog post with tips
Backpackr
- Discover travel buddies and connect with other like-minded travellers across the globe.
- Find a travel buddy, meet people to travel with
- Community of other travelers
- Activities/deals/offers
Tripr
- Allows you to plan who you’ll cross paths with on your next trip.
- Find a travel buddy
- Get local advice
Other Travel/Meet People Apps
- Findery — share stories about places
- Skout — meet locals, see who’s around you
- Highlight — show who is nearby
- Planely
- Couchsurfing
- Virtual tourist
- Tripadvisor
- Meetup
- AirBnB
- Lets Lunch
- LunchMeet
- Meet Me
- Get Lunched
- Like a Local
- TravBuddy
- Epenpal
- Badoo
- Partner Dancing
- Bon Appetitour
- Happn
- Reddit R4R / Reddit specific city subreddits (ex. /r/pittsburgh)
- Wildcard
- Grouper
- MeetnGreeted
- We Met on a Plane — match travelers who met on planes
- Bumble — women initiate Tinder contact
- Get Real
- Chatouts — Special interest chatting
- Tinder
Opportunities for intervention:
- Accommodation
- Transportation
- Location exploration
- Understanding differing cultures
