Understanding the Product

Define -

Unlike the previous generation, which traveled for sightseeing, the rising generation is more experience-oriented. They don't just want to visit a location but also want to immerse in the culture, taste the authentic food, experience the wild, hike, camp, and much more. (They also prefer it to be Instagramable )

Yet, it is still difficult to explore authentic experiences, especially in locations that have heavy tourist influx. In niche categories like adventure experiences, there is still a lack of credibility and a lack of qualified adventure activity providers. And that's where Compass Crew (CC) comes into the picture.

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Compass Crew is an aggregator platform for experiential stay hosts and experiential activity organizers. It is a one-stop solution for discovering, comparing and booking the stays and experiences around the desired locations. Unlike a traditional itinerary-selling travel business, CC's idea is to break travel into "experience blocks" and allow the user to select, mix and match the blocks to customize their own experience.

( The product is in the Pre-PMF stage and the model is very similar to Airbnb, hence a lot of data points of Airbnb are used as a proxy.)

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Fundamental Assumptions -

1) There are many OTAs that provide the best options to book stay, transport and food options but none of them are focusing on selling experiences, which we believe is a huge market.

2) There is a huge unutilized potential in less explored locations, and with the help of technology, we can open a wide range of new options for travellers.

3) The adventure experiences market is very unorganized and CC can be a way of giving it a primary structure.

​The problem statement -

Today, when the travel patterns of youth are shifting the course of the travel industry towards "experience oriented tourism", there is still a major chaos when it comes to discovering and booking authentic experiences.

In case of adventure tourism space, customers are unsure about the qualification and soft adventure space is over crowded with copy-paste experiences.

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Elevator pitch

Imagine you and your friends are planning a trip to Pune. You have hear a lot about the treks, water-falls and camping activities around the city. So, the gang is excited.

First thing you do is, check sky scanner, compare flight tickets.

then go to MMT and check options for stay,

now you want to look for the options of treks and camping,

and you find yourself lost in the pile of poor quality websites and Instagram pages.

How would you take an informed decision?

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That's where CC comes into the picture.

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Imagine a website that not only helps you to discover unique stays but also gives you access to some of the most authentic experiences at the location you are planning to visit and customize you whole travel experience in few clicks?

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Core Offerings and Features

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(The Product is still in Pre-PMF stage.*)

The core value proposition for the user is

Discovery, Honest Information and ease of booking.

Hence the platform the designed to optimally cater to the user's core needs.

Listings categorization -

Search bar -

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The purpose of the search bar is commonly known, but for a traveller can exploit it to find exactly what they need. Tagging every piece of listing and content enables user to gather as much information as they want, before taking the decision.

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Quality of content and personalization -

At CC we believe in the power of quality content and we try to exploit user's Aesthetic-usability bias.

Thats why most of the content is created by our own in-house team. It helps us to stand out from the noise.

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( Dive deep in the content loop section )

Competitors

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Understanding the User

Data shows that since October 2020 propensity to travel in the next 12 months is at its highest among the younger generation of 18-24 years old. This cohort, (we refer to as Gen Z in this paper), is made of young people who will make the big transition between student life and financial independence in the next few years.

Even though the Gen-Z is inspiring the new age of travel, the spending capacity of gen-z is still limited.

Hence we can not ignore the comparatively mature and frequent travelers like Biz travelers and Family vacations.

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Sneak peak into what Gen Z wants from travel -

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ICP prioritization -

As CC is in pre-pmf stage, all experimentation and content creation is based around building a travel brand that caters primarily to the Gen-z/young traveller.

Hence "Saloni" becomes our Priority 1 out of the three ICPs.

Followed by "Saloni", "Sourabh" and "Pratik" will be prioritized as P2 considering their spending capacity and frequency of travel respectively.

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Understanding the market

Experience-oriented traveller ($22 billion): About 70% book online. They research extensively online and offline for “authentic” experiences and convenience of options. They display high loyalty to their preferred airline and hotel brands and actively shares experiences.

What does Instagram Indicate about the market -

• Shift from static photos to stories and reels: Travelers are increasingly sharing immersive content showcasing experiences rather than just posed pictures. This format allows them to capture the essence of the journey, highlighting activities and local interactions.

• Rise of travel influencers: Travel influencers on Instagram promote experience-oriented travel through their content. They focus on showcasing unique activities, hidden gems, and local culture, inspiring others to seek similar experiences.

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Justification: This represents the total market size of the experience oriented travelers in India.

Note: Transport is not considered as it is not concerned with CC, this data is purely around the consumption of stays and experiences.

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SAM -

• Proxy 1: Internet & Smartphone Penetration
• Proxy 2: Growth of Online Travel Booking in India
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Prioritizes convenience (71%) or preference for modes of transport (58%) to ensure pleasant travel experience; high loyalty towards preferred online booking providers (66%)

Market Validation -

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Acquisition Strategies

Channel Selection Framework -

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Selected Channels - Organic | Content Loops

Content Loops -

We observed that there is a common set between the sets of Instagram audience, Exp oriented travellers and the Gen - Z and this combination makes travel more and more interesting.

Content plays a major role in inspiring tourism and one of the primary channels for travel related content would be -

• Instagram
• Youtube

Case 1 -

Growing Instagram Presence

Post covid there has been a significant increase in vertical format content creation and consumption. One of the common categories of content on IG is Travel content. While there is already a heavy demand for such content, it is a golden opportunity for brands like CC to become a source for authentic and high quality content source.

We have already experimented on this for last one year and results were Satisfying.

We conducted over 20 events.

Avg participation was 15 seats per event.

Avg Ticket size was 2900 INR

and we managed to sell all of these seats using only organic content on Instagra.

How it loops -

Step 1 - Hook

CC creates high quality content around one destination and builds hype.

Step 2 - Opportunity

We offer an opportunity to experience it with CC.

Step 3 - Experience

We take people to the places and deliver what was promised

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Step 4 - Shout outs

The happy customers post content on IG and share their experience with their friends.

Back to Step 1 -

For the next event we again create high quality content based on the last event and start building the hype.

This way, people who were present in last event get a chance to be featured on the page and it creates a personalized experience for them.

Challenges - Event coverage / experience coverage for every activity is costly and operations heavy.

Content creator - Customers

Distributor - Instagram

Channel - Organic (SM)​

Case 2 -
Paid Content promotions

Compared to paid search, IG paid micro - campaigns can give great results when performed correctly.

Key points that worked for us -

• Purposeful content - Targeting the audience and narrowing down on a specific value proposition for one micro-campaign.
• Specified KPIs - Keeping track of the campaign daily and testing its performance. ( stopping the once that are leaking money. )
  

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Organic

Solving for the search intent -

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Keywords -

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SEO -

Content Optimization:

• Landing pages: Create dedicated landing pages for different types of stays (beach houses, apartments, etc.) and experiences.
• Blog content: Develop informative blog posts targeting travel interests and destinations.
• • Examples: "Top 10 Unique Stays in India," "Budget Travel Guide to [City]," "Benefits of Vacation Rentals for Families"
• City and region pages: Optimize city and region pages with relevant keywords and information about available rentals and experiences.
• High-quality visuals: Use attractive photos and videos showcasing unique properties and experiences offered by CC.

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​Technical SEO:

• On-page optimization: Optimize website elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags with relevant keywords.
• Mobile-friendliness: Ensure the website offers a seamless user experience on mobile devices, where most travel searches happen.
• Website speed: Optimize website loading speed for better user experience and improved search ranking.
• Structured data: Implement schema markup to provide search engines with richer information about properties and experiences.

Link Building:

• Partnerships: Collaborate with travel bloggers and influencers for backlinks and promotion.
• Guest blogging: Contribute guest posts to travel websites with relevant backlinks to Airbnb.
• Local listings: Ensure Airbnb listings are present on local directories and tourism websites.

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