Global Adventure Travel

[bakpakka]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of starting up a business to cater for people worldwide and connect them with reputable dive centres, jungle trekking, white water rafting, etc... type activities. We'll probably start by organising trips for foreigners (meaning those out of Asia) and have trips centred around Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc... Our focus will be on those with backpacking type budgets, not the 5 star hotel luxury travel types.

As a traveller, would you be keen to sign with an adventure website that arranges / organises trips with reputable dive centres, tour guides, etc... with good english? We will attempt to provide "localised" rates, and not inflated rates meant to slaughter tourists!

We'd like to eventually partner with companies overseas to arrange cross-border trips, of course.

Perhaps you could leave some feedback on what would attract a foreigner to an Asian country, and what would make them trust us.

 

[ssra30]

Many dive operators on Koh Tao in Thailand are probably going to be a good model for you since the majority of divers they cater to are backpacker's crowds.
Personally, I think it is not gong to be easy to attract these groups of people to come over to SE Asia just for diving. It seems that most of these group of tourists just plan to come and spend a long period of time in the region without any significant prior arrangement. One of the larger dive operators on Koh Tao, Ban's Dive Resort basically has an office on Soi Kow San in Bangkok, the hub for backpackers in Bangkok and they offer cheap accomodation and scuba diving course. I think majority of these people just wanted to try scuba diving just because they can get a good deal on the OW course, generally for under $US 200.

So I think if you are going to cater to backpacker type clients, you are going to be dealing with OW courses and inexperience divers. Most I think just wanted to try it out more for curiosity while a few may be interested in going to other places for more diving so I am not sure you will get a lot of cross border business or clients who come specifically for diving in SE Asia.

Just my thoughts....

 

[bakpakka]

What about a business that caters for a range of activities, and not just diving? Would you as a traveller be keen to sign up and go for a mix of activities, over a site that has only scuba diving?

Yes, you are right about meeting inexperienced divers / those wanting to do their OW courses. I guess that would be a primary focus.

Perhaps a backpacker may want to have a complete package of a mountain top holiday, coupled with diving and a jungle trekking one too? Any ideas on that?

Thanks for the feedback, ssra30.

 

[ssra30]

Yes, I think that there are definitely demand for the various outdoor experience type adventure, rainforest tour, mountain climbing etc.
Again, my guess is that since backpackers tend to spend a long time in one place and they generally make their plans to move whenever they feel like it. Some that I talked to on the bus from Soi Kow San, on the way to Koh Tao seems not to have any definite plan until they actually get there. They pretty much only have vague idea that they want to go there and do some diving but only make arrangement for scuba course, accomodation once they arrive on the island. I guess what I try to say is that if you are gonig to try to offer a package tour of 4 days diving here and 4 days in the rainforest there, they may not like those kind of more organized trips as much. Those I met on Koh Tao usually leave when they have to leave the country or when they are bored with the island and want to try something different.
I think if you want to provide a trip with travelers with lots of different experiences in one package, you might be looking at someone at bit less laid back than the backpackers crowd ( more like my crowd, I supposed), who like to organize everything before the start of the trip.
I think that's why local tourist office in southern Thailand are doing well as they get a lot of walkins looking for diving experience or jungle treking or whatever, but on a more day to day basis rather than a multi day package trip. When you try to do something on a bigger scale, offer multi countries trips, combination of trips in one package, I think you will most have to aim for a different group of clients.
I might be completely wrong here since I am not a backpacker myself and only talked to a few here and there but this is my perceptions of them anyhow.

 

[The Hamburger]

Bakpakka,

See Planet Scuba theys seem to be doing just what you are suggesting.

 

[cmdasia]

They seem to have just changed their website around - this is a better link to the page you are after:

http://www.thewildplanet.com/

 

[bakpakka]

Yes, those are excellent sites indeed and they do cover a broad range of activities.

Would a person actively sign up via the web for activities? Or would backpackers still require to meet people face-to-face before making a commitment on where to go, what to do?

Any ideas for making a site that rocks and caters for backpackers? We're looking a little beyond SCUBA but for those on a budget, not necessarily shoe string, though.