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Customized Travel with Local Flavor: Automation + the Human Touch

Travel is all about experience. Decades ago, consumers looked to travel professionals to build their dream itinerary. Then digitization occurred, and suddenly everyone was a travel guru. However, they didn’t have the local insights that would help them curate the ideal trip. From special activities to simply logistics, it’s hard to design travel without…

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Travel is all about experience. Decades ago, consumers looked to travel professionals to build their dream itinerary. Then digitization occurred, and suddenly everyone was a travel guru. However, they didn’t have the local insights that would help them curate the ideal trip. From special activities to simply logistics, it’s hard to design travel without having any inside knowledge.

kimkim, a technology startup, is trying to merge both aspects on their platform. They help travelers design custom trips by connecting them with local specialists around the world. It’s part human connection, part technology automation. The automation part is mainly on the side of the local travel specialist. They can use tools to do basic, mundane tasks around the itinerary, enabling them to have more time for the personalization aspects.

This new approach to travel planning could be a new trend that allows people to use technology to book and get locals’ insights. Chris McCarty, Head of Engineering at Kimkim, recently shared with MarketScale how his company technology brings together independent travelers and local specialists for great results.

“So, how do we use automation to create a more unique experience? We’ve tried several things around recommendations and sign-up processes. We found, generally, that it does a pretty good job. But ultimately, it falls short of what an experienced travel agent can do. There’s always some piece of the puzzle that’s not quite right or not perfectly curated for that traveler.

Instead, we focus on the technology and a lot of automation, more on the traveler specialist side, with the tools we built. We try to make it easier and more efficient for our travel specialists to customize trips, add more information, and pick the activities, hotels, and transportation that are a good match for that traveler. It’s also a reminder of the library of suppliers available.

They may go, oh that’s right, I have that tour line that would be a great fit for that couple. While it also keeps them aware of possible problem areas, such as too many activities for one day and date for confirming or adding reservation details for their booking. It helps with following up with travelers faster. Automation makes the biggest gains by giving the specialist more time back. They can spend it on giving more attention to the travelers, coming up with more ideas, and talking to them on the phone. They can do more of these things rather than spending their time on getting basic itinerary information out.”

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Video TranscriptExpand ↓

Hi, I'm Chris McCarty, I'm the head of engineering at timkin, and what we try to do is help travelers plan great unique custom trips around the world. And we do that by connecting them to local specialists on our platform to then design and communicate about these custom trips using the various tools that we have built for them. So to the question of how do we use automation to give our children a more unique experience, we've tried a few things around sort of automating the recommendations and a sign up process and things like that. And I think what we found generally is that you can do a pretty good job, but ultimately it falls short of what a great experienced travel agent can do. There's always some piece of the puzzle that's just not quite right or hard to say that or it's not perfectly curated to that particular traveler. So instead, what we've tried to do is focus a lot of our technology and a lot of automation, more on the traveler specialist side with respect to the different tools we built for them. So what we try to do is make it a lot easier and more efficient for our travel specialists to customize trips, add more information, really pick the activities, the hotels, the types of transport method. That's really a good match for what particular traveler wants and to both kind of get an idea of what their full library of suppliers looks like they can remember. Oh, that's right. I have that line tour, provided we work with would be a really great fit for this couple while also it just kind of keeping them aware of the possible problem areas, such as, you know, too many activities and a date for getting to maybe confirm or add reservation details for their booking, maybe for getting to follow up with the traveler for a couple of days and things like that. So we really think of the automation where we can really make the biggest gains is by giving the specialist back more of their time, which then they can use to spend more attention on the travelers, come of more ideas, talk to them on the phone, do things like that rather than kind of spending all their time just getting the basic itinerary information out and just sending it on. So that's how we approach the problem because other people do it as well. Thanks

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