The Travel Collection

The Challenge

Travelers are tired of tourist traps and touristy attractions, they want more. They want to experience the best each city has to offer and, they want to catch a glimpse of what it feels like to be a local when travelling.

My Solution

As a long-time traveler myself, I wanted to share my personal recommendations with fellow travelers. From authentic restaurants, unique experiences and memorable stays, I curated my favorite spots in every city I lived in, and shared my insights as a local to create memorable travel experiences.

I did not want to go down the pdf / ebook route as I didn't feel it offered a practical approach to travel. I had to think outside the box to create an experience that would feel seamless and authentic. The Google Maps App was the obvious solution. The app already existed, most travelers already used it, I just had to add my curated experiences to it.

My mission

Everything had to be done. From setting up a website equipped to process payments, building a brand, creating content to growing a social media presence. It was a project that would require different skills, and here's how I proceeded:

Building a brand

With a very specific target audience in mind, building a brand was essential to attract our ideal customers. I put together a brand book that included guidelines to follow across touch points to protect our brand image.

Creating content

Between putting together the travel guides, and writing SEO-friendly content for the website, content creation had a big role in bringing The Travel Collection to life.

Setting up a Shopify website

Early on in the process of setting up The Travel Collection, I identified Shopify as the best solution to support the sales of my digital travel guides and handle payments as smoothly as possible.

Growing an audience on Instagram

Travel being at the heart of the business, I identified Instagram as the best social media to promote my content and grow an audience. Creating an aesthetic feed, crafting valuable posts for the audience and using trending formats as a means to increase our reach.

Launching Ads

We managed to grow our instagram following from 0 to 1700 followers organically in a matter of months. However, launching Google and Meta ads was crucial to raise brand awareness and advertise our product to the right people.

Plot twist

After a few months into the launch of The Travel Collection, I realized we could broaden our targeting by selling our curated guides to luxury hotels as well.

From past personal experience, I always found luxury resorts had some room for improvement when it came to offering recommendations to their guests. The hotel concierge would always leave us with a map, featuring some encircled spots to check out during our stay. But, it would always leave me wanting for more.

I thought offering hotels access to my guides as a monthly subscription, for them to share it with their guests would be an opportunity worth exploring. It would make them stand out from the rest and increase their client satisfaction.

Discussions with key profiles from luxury resorts in Dubai are still ongoing.