Piggybacking a business on an existing brand can be a smart move – Twitter apps, eBay drop-off stores and IKEA customizers are all good examples.
So, if you wanted to start a niche travel business what brand would you look to piggyback on? Expedia of course.
Expedia is unquestionably the global player in online travel booking with around 4 million travelers visiting their network of sites every day. If you’ve booked with Expedia before then you may have noticed the range of ‘add ons’ that they make available after your purchase. These are part of Expedia’s Dynamic Packaging – i.e. suggested additions sold on behalf of 3rd party providers.
For example, if you book a hotel in London you could be offered museum tickets, open top bus tours or seats at the opera. The supplier gets access to a huge number of travelers (at the point that they’re planning their visit) and, needless to say, Expedia earns a little too.
That’s fine for travelers visiting London or Paris or New York – but what about those heading somewhere a little more remote?
Niche Travel Company Idea: Organize Events, Tours and Evenings in Less Popular Destinations
A niche travel company could potentially put together tours, packages and events for those areas, ready to be sold via Expedia or any number of other travel sites that also use similar Dynamic Packaging to upsell their customers.
From the entrepreneurs perspective, the trick would be in developing interesting packages and negotiating with the end providers – everything after that is just promotion.
Tie your packages together with a content-driven website, some traditional marketing and you’ll have a funky little niche travel business (or the beginnings of an idea that you could replicate nationwide).
In fact, dynamic packaging or not, this is still a great idea that could be promoted online, offline and through any number of joint venture deals.
Inspired by: TooLazyToDoIt – Travel Add-Ons for Expedia Users
Pic: Flickr
Subscribe for Free: RSS | EMAIL
{ 0 comments… add one now }