Travatar – A Travel Business Idea for the Taking

This is a post by travel entrepreneur Drew Meyers.

Travatar

Most of you likely know what Gravatar is (& have an account):

Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog.

It’s a drop-dead simple service. All it does is match an email address to a profile photo via a simple API call, yet it’s integrated all over the web on thousands of websites. Why? Everyone on the internet has a profile photo, and millions of sites want to use your profile photo as part of your profile. But, of course, individuals do not want to upload their same profile photo to every site they use. Gravatar lets you upload your photo once, and allow any website to access & use it.

The travel business idea for the taking?

Gravatar, for the travel industry.

Travatar.

Your Travatar is your location that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog.

Every single traveler is constantly changing location, though they certainly don’t want to update that location on each and every website and app they utilize. On the flip side, every travel startup desires travelers current location to deliver them a relevant, personalized experience.

[Matt Zito and I discussed this concept about 6 months ago, and full credit for the “Travatar” name goes to Matt]

How exactly would this work, and what is needed to bring such a concept to reality? (more…)

The Starting Point to Real Time Travel Advice: A Location Based Content Delivery Platform

Travel Startup Ideas

This is a guest article from Drew Meyers.

I arrive in a Chiang Mai on a Wednesday morning. Turn on my phone, and am greeted with a push notification, “You have 6 personalized gems waiting…” I click.

  1. I see a promotion for 20% off ZIP lining with Flight of the Gibbon (which is an awesome day trip I went on last year). I book it with one click.
  2. great photo of a pagoda at night.
  3. A tip from a local food junky who lives in Chiang Mai to visit the Mrs Pa’s Smoothies at Chiang Mai gate. Directions are one click away.
  4. A recommendation that Anoma is a great, quiet place to stay once, with superb wifi.
  5. Tomorrow (Thursday) is trivia night at the UN Pub.
  6. Punspace is the co-working spot where geeks work during the day.

Ok, awesome. But I have a question, “where is the best place to get decent American food”? (I wouldn’t ask that given Thai is my favorite food, but I know many would) No problem, there is a prompt to type my question in, knowing I’ll get a response from a trusted human within minutes. Oops, one more question. “Where can I get a haircut near Chiang Mai gate?” Boom, an answer hits my phone a few minutes later, with directions from my hotel one click away and a quick recommendation to take a Songthaew for 20 baht instead of a cab for 100.

All information is personalized, based on my likes, dislikes, and past travel habits. No spam. Everything is vetted and curated. This arrival experience exists for every city in the world.

So, how do we get there? How do we enable a scenario where real time travel advice is streamed to you, in every city in the world? (more…)