A new way of traveling with “Mytriplan” a french application to get in touch with the locals.
Discussion with Bastien Pailloux, CEO of the start up created 2 years ago.
1.How did you start your project ?
I did a business school in Nantes and through my career I went to live in Mexico. For a year I worked there and while arriving in the country the locals wanted to show me around their country and I found myself in places that I liked a lot more than the classic tourist places, there were like secret for me, not necessarily in the guides, but they were great because that corresponds much more to my expectations and to what I was looking for as a traveler and simply as a person.
Afterwards, I continued my school career, I came back to France and then I left for six months in India and the situation was reproduced exactly in the same way I realized there was this common point in all the countries of the world, meaning that the inhabitants love their country, generally they know it very well and want to share it. They want their country to be recognized by the value they have for them.
On returning to France, the opposite happened. The Mexicans and the Indians who came to France, the first thing they did, before looking at what they could do in France, was to ask me “what do you advise us to do ?” When you’re a traveler, you want personalized advices. You don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. For me, it’s these two aspects that led me to start thinking about Mytriplan.
But I continued my active life. I started to be an internal auditor and through this job, I had to move around the world. And suddenly, as my travels progressed, I began to mature the project more and more. And when I got tired of Paris, I came back to Toulouse and I said to myself, it’s now or never to create something !
2. What is the difference between following a program like in all-inclusive holidays in resort villages and really discovering a country by meeting people ? How does it feel?
In fact, I think there is a distinction in the sense that it is not the same type of vacation and travel. Actually in a resort village, people don’t go there to discover the country, the culture. We go there to relax and possibly see unmissable sites already known.
There, we want to broaden a little our vision of hyper-known places. Conversely, getting out of tourist circuits and trying to immerse yourself by asking the inhabitants for advice, is having the will to discover the culture ! Discovering a way of living is an open mind that is much greater, but on the other hand, often, it is not necessarily relaxing. These two different types of holidays are hardly complementary, and it is difficult to do both.
3. Before creating your application what kind of technologies did you use while traveling ? What was missing from these technologies?
I didn’t use technology. The last trips before I started creating Mytriplan, basically I took my plane ticket, arrived there and I asked the locals ! So what was missing? One of the constraints was that you have to dare to talk to people, with the risk of disturbing them. And then, the main constraint that I followed people so much that sometimes I found myself in places that were completely isolated. And I found myself stuck for 4 days because there was no train or bus. Sometimes I was also in cities where there was not much to do either. That’s why I wanted to make a mix of the two kind of travels by organizing it but putting more flexibility and immersion in it.
I wanted to give people a chance to get out of these circuits, and we couldn’t do without an application.We give the opportunity to the traveller to be helped by a local because without this help it may be less comfortable.
It’s not always easy to get out of our comfort zone and talk to someone on the street. Often, in a language which is not ours, it’s necessary to dare. It’s quite complicated. So, through Mytriplan, this allows you to formalize this, to have someone in front of you who often speaks the same language and be able to create your route to be sure not to get stuck in a city. It allows also the traveller to have nice things to do constantly.
“We give the opportunity to travellers to be helped by a local because without this help it may be less comfortable.”
4. What is the identity of Mytriplan compared to other applications?
The will is really to get out of the tourist circuits and immerse yourself. We really want travelers to be seen as something very positive for local life. They must be able to immerse themselves in local life.
5. Did you make this app for people who are afraid of traveling alone but still want to avoid organized trips?
Exactly, in fact this application allows people to be able to discuss upstream with a resident who will be able to advise places, activities and therefore, it allows to get more in touch with the local population because the resident will advise places and activities that are more authentic than what conventional tourist circuits can offer. It allows you to immerse yourself without finding yourself alone and not daring to talk to people. There, at least, the advantage is that we have someone with whom we can discuss, throughout the trip.
6. What benefits this app can bring locally?
In fact, local residents (triplanners) are regularly asked why they are doing this. In fact, there are several reasons.
The first reason it’s because they love their country, their region, their city. And they want to share their knowledge to make them appreciate, so that travelers will also love their region. This is the main reason.
The second reason they tell me is that they are obliged to keep informed of what is happening on their territory to be able to offer the best activities, the best events, the best places to travelers. Even for themselves, they find things to do for a weekend such as cultural places to visit, monuments they did not know. They learn about the history of their city and their region.
The third reason is that there is an economic interest, that is to say that this service will cost 7 euros to the traveler, and of these 7 euros, 5 euros will go back to the inhabitant. On a seven-day trip the traveler will pay 49 euros, so there are 35 that go back to the locals.
Beyond that, in addition, it allows them to benefit from the tourism economy. Today it’s focused on very few economical actors. So they’re also benefiting from it. It creates a link between travelers and residents. Today, it could create tensions because the locals complain about the fact that there are too many travelers, tourists. There, on the contrary, it creates a benefit for them..
7. How do you become a Triplanner (guide)?
In fact you just ask. But we still have a few criterias to validate the relevance of an inhabitant.
The first is that the resident lives in the city in question for at least a year, so that he knows his region, his city, he is able to advise as best as possible.
The second aspect is that he is himself a traveler used to travel, to organize trips. So, he is able to advise someone who comes to travel in his region. He will know what is important to prepare, what a traveler is looking for.
And the last thing is that we don’t want tourism professionals because necessarily, there will be economic interests in recommending one activity rather than another. Because he has created a partnership with this actor, he will receive more commissions, so in fact he will recommend this activity where, in reality, it is not necessarily the most suitable for the traveler. A resident has no interest in recommending one activity over another. He will really try to understand what the traveler is looking for to recommend the best activities.
8. Imagine if a local resident wants to be guide all the time to make lot of money as a regular job… As a result, I think it will move away from Mytriplan’s initial philosophy. Are there limits to avoid this kind of extreme?
I think it’s complicated because it’s only 5 euros per day of travel. It still takes a little time to help prepare a tailor-made trip. Since the inhabitant restart again with a new traveler each time, I am not sure that someone can live on it, at least not in France. Of course there are countries where 5 euros is a lot. But here we are, we set this limit there. We will adapt according to use.
9. So a tourism company cannot register on Mytriplan? It has to be someone alone?
Exactly. He must be alone, not representing an entity. Afterwards, if he himself works in tourism, it will be difficult to detect it. But here it is, if this person advises things that are much too touristy or that he has an interest each time in an activity rather than another, there is a rating system that will limit this tendency ! He risks being poorly rated by travelers. If he is poorly rated, he will inevitably be asked less later.
“But here it is, if this person advises things that are much too touristy or that he has an interest each time in an activity rather than another, there is a rating system that will limit this tendency !”
10. What is the next step in the project ?
We are in the process of releasing a new version of the website which will allow travelers to contact and choose for themselves the local inhabitants with whom they want to spend time.
We are trying to understand a little what a traveler expects, in order to have him match with a resident. There, he will choose his own criteria, his destination, what he hopes to do during his trip, writing a little description. Depending on that, the traveler will see all the available inhabitants and we will try to sort them so that the most relevant are the first. And like that, he will be able to start writing to them. We offer them a thousand characters. They will be able to send each other messages to see if it matches between them and if they can go further.
11. And what would be the ideal site? Would the end result be a kind of social network focused on sharing, services, travels?
I think that usage will say what it will become. Today the vision that I have is that once they are in contact with each other, we provide them with a map on which they will be able to trace the route to create a tailor-made trip.
Travelers and guides create itineraries and activities together, and these activities will be referenced on our site. Other travelers can then book certain of these activities. Of course the resident can add activities that we have not yet listed. The objective is that gradually we add accommodations, transports, insurances, all the aspects that we need during a trip. We can become an unique platform for any trip. You create your trip with the locals, and then, as you travel, you can book activities and accommodations.
“We can become an unique platform for any trip.”
12. How many guides do you have?
We have over a hundred guides in thirty eight countries. Knowing that in fact, today, we manage to find inhabitants quite easily. We have our own techniques, which allow us to find inhabitants who are relevant to each traveler.
So, as soon as we have a request for a new destination that we don’t have today, at least a week later, we manage to open this new destination.
