Why not connecting travellers with locals who really know the good spots

Very Local Trip is an innovative collaborative platform that puts in relation travellers with locals. It is now launching a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to develop further. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) July 03, 2015 - Since a couple of years, the classic economic model is being disrupted by the emergence of the "collaborative" economy. This market of collaborative economy, which is affecting all the business sectors, is booming and could reach $335 billion by 2025 according to a reliable PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) study. Supported by new technologies, the sharing economy often takes the form of collaborative platforms (also known as crowdsourcing platforms). This is a direct result of the shift in consumers' behavior: people are more and more looking for simplicity and authenticity.

Our ambition is to redefine the concept of travelling. Very Local Trip is an innovative collaborative platform putting in relation travellers- keen to travel in a different way- with locals all over the world! More and more travellers are looking for authenticity during their holidays or stay in countries that they might be visiting for the first time. The best way to discover a country is to spend time with local people by going off the beaten track instead of doing it the traditional, touristic way. Do you want to try Muay Thai with a local in a Thai boxing gym in Bangkok? Or maybe just spend the day visiting the city with a local who will show you around and take you to his/her favorite secret places? Ride around the narrow and mysterious alleys of Chinatown in Bangkok to taste authentic food that only locals know of? These are only some of the services proposed on Verylocaltrip.com.

At Very Local Trip, we are truly convinced that the collaborative economy is a growing key player that will trigger a major change in the global economic scene; it will also modify consumption habits thanks to people's willingness to get closer, help each other, and find an alternative to mass consumption. One of our goals is to contribute to the local economy in countries we are covering, by offering to everybody the possibility to have a fully independent activity. The "local friends" can choose and create their own program according to their availabilities and interests. Flexibility is our keyword. These "local friends" will be able to fix a price themselves for the service they offer, including 20% commission to ensure the transaction fees, the promotion of their profiles and our own development of course. Very Local Trip is NOT a travel agency. Our concept is simple and bypasses the intermediaries like travel agencies or tour operators which usually offer non flexible group tours not enabling the traveler to go off the beaten tracks. Possibilities for travelers are multiple since they can chose activities through unique experiences proposed by local Friends: sport, artisanal, food, workshop, photo… There are a lot of talented people around the world. Travelers can optimize their time on-site, by accessing quickly to practical, useful and cultural information, without getting lost in heavy guidebooks which are bulky and most of the time, incomplete.

With 12 years of experience in the Pharma/Biotech/Healthcare industry in France and Thailand, Maxime Besnier is the founder of Very Local Trip as well as a freelance consultant for several international Public and Private organizations in the field of vector-borne diseases prevention such as Malaria. Passionate about travelling and multicultural exchanges, Maxime has been living in Bangkok for the last 5 years and founded Very Local Trip in May 2014. The idea was first born when he realized through his own personal connections that there was a growing and real demand in alternative tourism; a large amount of his friends were reaching to Maxime for advice on visiting Bangkok in a different and authentic ways, bypassing the traditional tourist tours. Currently composed of 7 individuals, the team is a real melting-pot of ethnicities: covering the Philippines, Japan, Canada, France, Russia, Australia, Spain and USA, our team brings a strong international energy with a very large scope of vision and open-mindedness as well as a big global outreach.

Very Local Trip registration is free for both travellers and locals and is lead by an international team. It has many other advantages such as the presence of ambassadors located in some destinations who represent and supervise "local friends", ensuring the reliability and quality of the experiences proposed to visitors, a secured payment system with no cash collection, a community that will allow the travellers to share video contents, photos, blog articles, a rating and review system enabling travellers to select their experiences based on previous travellers' satisfaction and a concrete contribution to economic and cultural development of some regions neglected by mass tourism.

Very Local Trip has several plans for the future. First we are already covering over 30 countries with 150 unique experiences around the world. We continuously put in efforts to keep increasing these numbers. Moreover, as the company is based in Bangkok and was founded only a little more than a year ago, our activities that are already available on the platform are mainly located in Thailand. Very local Trip believe it is a geographically strategically positioned as Bangkok is one of the most upraised tourism hub in Southeast Asia, if not, the world. We believe that we should therefore focus on first diversifying our local portfolio here in order to use it as a stepping stone to enter the global scene powerfully. In the near future, we are also looking to raising capital through a fund in order to nurture the growth and expansion of our business. For now, we are starting a crowdfunding campaign, which we believe will be a very good start to bring our business to the next step.We also want to develop a French version of the website as well as a sponsorship system allowing anybody to enjoy exclusive advantages.

###

space

Other Related Press Releases