Helping the Traveler Evolve as a Person
Interview #6 with Andrea Campagni & Nicola Bandinelli, Co-Founders of Bigmama
Travel is about discovery and evolving as a person. Italian Tour Operator BigMama Itinerari co-founders Andrea Campagni & Nicola Bandinelli talk to Turbulence to explain how they build evolutionary tours.
About Bigmama: Bigmama Itinerari Evolutivi (or Bigmama Evolutionary Itineraries) is an outbound tour operator providing customised travel experiences in Africa, Northern Europe, Central and South-East Asia, America, India and Australia with a fast-growing share in both B2B and B2C markets.
Either through guided tours, fly&drive packs, personalised travel itineraries, honeymoon packages or travel experiences for groups or individuals, Bigmama’s trademark is the traveller’s personal development in contact with nature, the local community and its culture.
We spoke to Andrea Campagni and Nicola Bandinelli, cofounders of BigMama, about their original proposal and how they manage the challenges of working in specific destinations.
Turbulence: What inspired you to launch such an innovative proposal as that of the evolutionary itineraries?
Andrea: To answer this question we would have to explain why we founded Bigmama in the first place. After having spent most of our lives working in the travel sector, Nicola and I have noticed that the traveller has changed and that the transformation was giving birth to a significant market segment untapped by traditional travel operators.
We wanted to go beyond the standard group tour with picture stops and offer a real travel adventure or what we call the “evolutionary” experience.
What do you understand as “evolutionary itinerary?”
Nicola: Our motto is “look at the world through different eyes” and our itineraries are “evolutionary” in the sense that we design them with the mentality of capturing the essence of the destination.
The evolutionary itinerary involves intense contact with nature and the immersion in the local culture. While disrupting the notion of traditional tour packages is one of our goals, above all, our concept about escaping from the standard touristic routes in each destination. In Iceland, for instance, we do not visit the famous Jokursarlon glacier lagoon. Instead, we take the travellers to “live” on the Fjarsarlon lagoon, with a boat trip to observe the glacier’s edge. Overall, we try to create a wholly Icelandic experience by introducing local legends to our customers.
Another example is Kyrgyzstan where the travellers go in trekking tours along the ancient Silk Route. Along the journey, they get to meet and share meals with the local population.
All in all, we look for a real experience where the traveller lives the essence of the place.
Andrea: We are having great success with the client’s response to this class of product because there is a growing type of traveller who wants to live the place and to escape from his day-to-day life. Additionally, honeymooners also responded well to this concept.
However, the fascinating part is that our clientele is broadly heterogeneous. For example, our Iceland product isn’t just
attracting adventurers but is a big hit with families as well.
Nicola: Ultimately, the itinerary is evolving because the traveller comes back a different and more evolved person compared to when they left.
What is a destination that you consider peculiar as a product and as a speciality of Bigmama?
Nicola: Bigmama staff members hold broad expertise in different regions around the planet. They use this knowledge to build thorough itineraries, guiding travellers through each step of their voyage. To that end, we continuously research each destination so that we can offer our clients the most genuine experience possible.
Andrea: Each one of our destinations is somehow particular. From a tourist’s perspective, Iceland is unique for its climate and geology. From a tour operator though, the payment and business cultures of our local suppliers are equally exotic. Providers there are quite inflexible and often ill-organised, and overall scarce lodging availability makes it difficult to put together competitive packages.
Further, Iceland has experienced an exponential increase of tourism over the last years and due to a bit of a homegrown resistance to the sudden change, has not adapted its hospitality sector accordingly. We learned how to deal with all these shortcomings and have achieved a considerable degree of flexibility also with the travellers.
At the same time , we must say that Bigmama represents an Icelandic inbound firm with Italian ownership. This way, our local knowledge and our logistical know-how are updated continuously by a local agent who is moving to find new destinations and fresh travel proposals.
In general, (and this is a question we’re asking all of our interviewees), what do you see as the biggest challenge facing tourism and the travel industry today?
Andrea: A while back, the sector entered a disintermediation stage where everyone is buying and selling from each other. From my perspective, technological developments powered this trend, and we’ve seen its effects in many different sectors. Anyone can access information and share experiences in real time almost everywhere, and this empowerment will transform the travel sector for years to come.
Already today we are witnessing a commercial war in which or travellers book straight from local hotels or with the tour operator’s suppliers, and travel agencies cut out the DMC.
In conclusion, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and in this context, you have to stand out with a unique product if you want to survive.
Those companies that succeed in understanding and leveraging this trend will make a fortune. On the contrary, those sticking to obsolete business proposals and outdated schemes will disappear.
Nicola: Along the lines of Andrea’s comments, I would add that the democratisation of low cost of technology and communication tools has led to a complete turmoil in tourism, which is good for some aspects but bad for others.
Customers and travel agencies can get in touch directly with tour operator providers while tour operators can directly contact customers without going through travel agencies.
Photography lovers have rebranded themselves as travel photographers, flooding social media with their shots of every corner of the globe. Likewise, proficient writers with adept entrepreneurial skills can quickly become a travel blogger or designer.
At this point, though, there are also toxic elements in this ecosystem. The so-called “experts” — individuals that are social media savvy but with no license or permission to provide tourism services — masquerade as the definitive authority of a specific destination. There are legal flaws that need to be sorted out. In this sense, the media is playing an ambiguous role in helping solve this issue.
Thus, is social media disrupting the sector?
Nicola: Sure. And they have a strong influence on travel products. Social media has generated new work positions, created new business opportunities and reached an even broader audience pool. At the same time, they helped rejuvenate the market by bringing in new players and eliminating the obsolete ones.
Today, being familiar with the destination is not enough: you need to get into the social fabric of the country you are selling, knowing the culture and the customs, having good pictures that show to the customer that you have been there and, above all, be able to communicate your experiences. Surviving in the travel sector today requires more than being an excellent professional; you need to be the travel blogger of your own company and to involve your clients in the travel experience.
That is the future: content immediacy, communication and social interaction with clients. Price has become a secondary element. Now, it’s all about the image and about being able to demonstrate that you have travelled to the places outside the traditional touristic channels, considered outdated by those seeing themselves as “travellers”.
The big question about a future tracked by great communication and an all-out war for the acquisition of the customer is perhaps about the very future of social media, because with them the travel system will change.
Originally published at www.kantox.com on November 28, 2017.
