European/Asian Solo-Trippers that consider Iran: I'd love your input for a service-idea
Hi,
I'd love to pick everyone's brain here a bit. I'm a traveler that loves Iran and it's my favorite solo travel destination so far and have promoted it a lot with friends (& online).
However, because a lot of people (usually those, who are not as good with the internet like redditors) have a negative view of Iran as a travel destination or are even scared of going to Iran, I've been toying with the idea for a while to start a website that connects people with travel assistants that "virtually" travel with them and support them via chat / phone along their journey, give tips, translate things and make reservations or bookings.
Similar to what a travel agent would do, but much more personal and casual: Just like a local friend that you can ask anything (compared to someone who'd try to sell a certain hotel as part of a tour that increases their profit).
It would amaze me if this could bring just one person to Iran who otherwise wouldn't go and increase the understanding of the country, which I think would be a positive impact on the world.
Who could this be for?
- Travelers who'd like the extra comfort and make things easier (e.g not having to go to bus stations and buy tickets yourself, have a direct person who can answer questions and not having to search the internet)
- Travelers who are not fully independent (adventurer/hitchhiker/couchsurfer/experienced-traveler), but wouldn't like tours.
- Travelers that want to save money or time (locals would be able to search in the local language and find cheap restaurants).
Why would they want it?
- For many Iran seems not as easy and straightforward to travel in and a contact would make them more interested.
- Banking restrictions make bookings difficult
- Iranian websites / info about Iran found online is often not up to date or websites hard to use.
- I've noticed, that some websites that are shared by actual travelers on sites like TripAdvisor charge extremely high prices (3-5 times the actual price) to book things like buses in Iran.
- Some people are scared of going to Iran (language, media, etc.) and this could give them a sense of security
Pricing?
I'd set up/maintain everything website-related without wanting anything for this and I know a lot of Iranians would jump in and offer their help on it for free (and tech-savy solo travellers probably easily find someone online for free), but I believe the website should charge some kind of fee for the service, because:
- It needs to be sustainable. The domain and hosting the site would cost money and if there would be some sort of income, Iranian devs could be hired to improve the site and maybe add automated services or do some sort of marketing.
- There would probably costs involved with the transfer and acceptance of money (because of taxes, accounting and transfer costs), so doing it for free would make them lose money.
- My idea is that if this could be successful, it could put a couple of Iranians to work or make them earn an little extra income, while also improving availability/quality.
The question is: Do you think this could be interesting? And how much do you think would be a fair price or how should it be structured (i.e flatrate (e.g chatting during trip + up to X bookings), travel-pass, booking commission, etc.)?
Submitted May 16, 2018 at 01:49PM by SH_DY https://ift.tt/2L2Uw4e
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