Which type of traveler are you? You’re either the selfie-stick wielder who snaps a few photos at popular tourist attractions or the backpacker who squeezes every bit of foreign culture from a country. With the rise of crippling digitalization, chances are that you’re more of the latter. Millennials today find themselves with the need to disconnect often so they can experience the world to the fullest. Getting that authentic travel experience isn’t as easy as 1-2-3, however.
To live like a local, you need a local guide. That can be a problem if you don’t know anyone in that particular country. If you find yourself in that cultural cul-de-sac, a Philippine startup wants to hook you up with the best local guides you need for your travels in the ASEAN region.
Authentic experiences
Tralulu is a digital booking platform that connects travelers around Southeast Asia to guides who can organize local travel experiences. “Basically, think of it as a web application platform where you can see different local guides if you search a destination,” says Chief Visionary Andrew Cua. Searching for guides enables you to compare them based on itinerary, specialty, languages spoken, and prices. When you select a guide, you can then book ahead of time and coordinate with him or her regarding your itinerary.
The Tralulu team is made up of diverse travelers. During their many travels, they quickly realized that people will always look for a memorable experience. The best way to have those experiences are if you’re with other people. “Destinations will always be there, but the people will be different. In these destinations, we hunt for these local experiences. We realized that the greatest pain is that we can’t find them because we don’t know anyone there,” says Cua.
The hunt for localized experiences is “usually limited to the touristy places we see on TripAdvisor. Sometimes we’re looking for something more authentic but we don’t have an existing digital platform,” says COO Ruth Rivera. The desire for that authentic experience led to the birth of Tralulu.
“What matters is the people you’re traveling with. [They] make a lot of difference to the entire experience. We’re looking to make that experience authentic where you’ll also see the authenticity of the people you’re traveling with,” says Head of Guide Acquisition Belle Garcia.
Uplifted tour guides
Tralulu isn’t just about connecting you with your next big adventure. At the heart of the team’s mission, Tralulu wants to uplift local tourism by creating value for local guides. You can’t have an authentic local tourism scene without local guides. And you can’t have local guides if they think being one isn’t going to be sustainable. They can have all the passion in the world, but if their job as a guide is going to stagnate their welfare, they’re going to experience a hard time keeping that job.
When Cua was hiking in Mt. Binacayan, he was welcomed very well by the local guides there. They didn’t ask for money; they were just asking for a tip at the end so they can keep themselves sustained. At the summit, Cua had a hard time getting back down so the guides had to call in other senior guides to carry him downward. They didn’t ask for any compensation. In fact, when they got down, these guides suddenly vanished presumably to help other travelers.
During these experience, Cua realized that these guides love their passion so much. They’re not after the money. Rather, they just want travelers to see the beauty of these mountains. In reality, the biggest threat to their passion is the profitability. “Some of these guides are actually fishermen who bring travelers around the island, says Cua, “What people often forget is that these guides are not financially sustainable especially during the rainy season when nobody wants to hike a mountain. For that entire period, they get no income.”
“On weekdays, nobody hikes. On weekends, they only get tipped. Some travelers wouldn’t tip the guide at all. Imagine the difficulty of being a guide sustainably.” Tralulu complements these guides’ incomes because they can finally be listed online.
Who wants to travel?
Tralulu’s market most effectively taps the younger, tech-savvy crowd who doesn’t want to follow the traditional tour package commonly offered. This crowd believes in the do-it-yourself package. This crowd is then mostly comprised of expats living in Southeast Asia and “backpacker wannabees.”
Since they work abroad, expats find themselves bored on weekends without their friends or family. Their only recourse is to learn about the country they live in. These are the people who can both afford and compensate local guides appropriately. At the same time, these are people who are looking for more authentic experiences that aren’t touristy.
“Backpacker wannabees,” on the other hand, want to travel authentically like a really backpacker. In reality, it’s hard for one to be a real backpacker. In Western countries, people have gap times either between studying and working, or during one-month vacations. They have the time to actually live like a local. Young people in the region don’t have that same luxury. The best way to live like a local in a limited timeframe is to travel with a local.
Long trek up
Tralulu has yet a long trek to climb. Their primary challenges are market education and manpower. As with most new services, the market hurdle is to educate their audience about the benefits of using the service. For now, early adopters are responding well to the service, but the challenge is to spread to a wider market.
Another challenge is guide acquisition. “[Guides] won’t go to Tralulu kaagad. We have to inform them that it’s possible to coordinate directly with the traveler,” says Rivera. “It’s very hard to manage and coordinate with guides because we have to engage them one by one.” Currently, they have more than 200 guides in their roster. Guide acquisition is done manually by the team members who personally travel major trails each year, which pass by areas they’ve never been before. They then contact the area’s LGU and tour guide associate. Guides are screened according to their communication skills and languages spoken, capabilities to offer local experiences, and proper security documentations.
A year ago, Tralulu couldn’t have even imagined having 200 guides. They attribute their improvement to a culture code every member shares. This culture code ensures that everyone is travel-ready any time, hungry for growth, authentic to each other, empathic with each other, and biased for action.
Conquering the world
With the world’s growing desire to disconnect, the need for authentic travel is underlined and highlighted in yellow. Tralulu wants to humanize the old and tired travel industry. “We see a trend where people want less automation, but more organic and natural interaction,” says Cua. Over the next 10 to 20 years, he predicts that people will prefer local experiences over just getting off the bus and snapping a few photos. Further, he’s optimistic that Tralulu will contribute in uplifting less developed countries from poverty and getting them to focus on tourism.
By the time you read this, Tralulu has already launched their website for public use. In five years, expect them to spread their coverage over the ASEAN region and hopefully start on conquering the world.
