Experience Africa

Experience Africa is an online platform that bridges the gap between tourists travelling into Africa and local tour guides. We are seeking enhance a platform that  enables local guides curate travel experiences and have access to tourists travelling into Africa.This solution digitizes travel by creating a comprehensive platform that will enable tourists to link up with local guides.It also seeks to fully exploit and tap opportunities available in tourism in Africa.

The solution has a very huge opportunity for creating job opportunities for young people in LDCs that have a very rich heritage in travel and tourism.It also offers sustainability in tourism by positively impacting the community.

The solution also redefines the travel industry by personalizing and authenticating travel experiences.

Experience Africa will provide thousands of opportunities to young unemployed Africans whose continent is rich in wildlife tourism, culinary tourism and outdoor activities.The unemployment rate in Kenya currently stands at around 38% and that of Tanzania stands at around 25%. It is very contrasting as these two East African countries boast of variety of wildlife, beautiful scenery and richness in heritage and culture but most of the local young individuals do not benefit from this fact.

Part of the problem is based on the monopolistic nature of their industries as well as inefficient policies that fail to have a social impact to their communities.Capital requirements, brand identification,cost disadvantages,distribution channels and government policies also hinder young budding entrepreneurs in venturing into this lucrative industry.

Experience Africa seeks to demonopolize the tourism industry in Africa by creating an online based platform where local guides can be able to link up with tourists. The platform offers consolidation  variety of tourist activities,attractions and expeditions to choose from.

Local guides can simply register on our platform and curate travel experiences and expeditions in their local cities and communities whereas the tourists can book for their preferred curated travel experiences through the same platform.

The platform acts as a mediator between the customers and the service providers. Local guides can be able to register on the platform for free as well as usage of the platform for the customers.However, the service provider pays a certain percentage of his/her revenue to our platform.

Experience Africa employs B2B sales, B2C sales, Artificial Intelligence, mobile and website friendly UX and UI,Data and Blockchain technology in order to run the platform.

This solution seeks to onboard young unemployed Africans who have the capability to curate travel experiences and become local guides in their cities and communities.

Using data from the Kenya National Census 2019,Kenya being the pilot country of this solution, we will be able to capture relevant data of potential local guides,their challenges and their needs in order to create a comprehensive platform that is accommodating.

The solution will also seek to look at trends in the travel industry, tourists preferences as well as engaging both parties involved.

Experience Africa aligns itself with creating good jobs and inclusive entrepreneurship to young unemployed Africans .By creating a local guide platform, many young people can be able to earn decent incomes through their own terms and curated travel packages.

Our platform will also offer direct employment to young techies such as Back-End Developers , Software Developers, UI and UX designers, Product Engineers, Data Analysts and Scientists as well as support staff i.e sales,marketing,business development,customer service etc.

This solution is very innovative because it uses technology to create a new application that seeks to solve the unemployment problem in Africa while leaving a very big social impact.What makes this solution unique is that it enables the service provide to design and curate the services they can provide to the best of their ability as well as their stipulated time frame.

This solution can not only be used by individuals but also has a B2B model where existing tour operators and firms can also register on our platform and provide their services.

This solution offers not only tourist activities but also incorporates learning of fun outdoor activities .This is a cutting edge that makes it unique from our competitors.

Experience Africa relies heavily on technology to be fully functional and operational.

Our solution uses blockchain technology that allows it to save thousands of data on the platform.

The solution heavily relies on Data(Big Data) in order to gather information on how to adjust operations as well as providing the best possible solutions to all parties that are involved in our platform.

Artificial intelligence is also a major boost in our platform in order to draw conclusions on business development and trends in the travel industry.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are also employed in our platform to provide a touch of authenticity and personalisation. 

UI and UX design will also be employed to create interfaces that are user friendly.

Our main competitors and existing platforms that offer the solution on a global scale include AirBnb who have a product known as AirBnb Experience that enables locals to host tourists in their cities and communities for curated travel activities and expeditions on a global scale.

Another competitor is Berlin based startup Get Your Guide.

https://www.airbnb.com/experience-hosting/listings/564805

https://www.getyourguide.com/discovery/?utm_force=0

The most basic theory of change in our solution is providing sustainability in tourism by enhancing maximum socio-economic benefit to the local communities.

Youth population in Africa is rapidly growing in both urban and rural areas. With tourism being one of the biggest contributors of the African economy, it is only just to incorporate it into aiding the socio-economic growth of local youth.

The best way for tourists to learn about culture and local places is through its people and therefore the need to facilitate a form that benefits the local people.

Global tourism is changing where tourists are shying away from the prepackaged travel experiences but would rather prefer curating their own preferences led by skilled locals for authentic experiences.

This form of travel allows the tourist to experience a city or a local community the same way a local does while the local becomes an ambassador of his country/community.

Right now our prototype has 5 local guides who have created 20+ curated travel experiences and activities.We are still researching on reachable tourists but they currently range between 1000 to 2000 in both Kenya and Tanzania.

In the next year, our growth projections are to onboard 2000 local guides who will be able to create 5000 different travel experiences and activities. Our projected customer base by then will be 100000 tourists globally.

In five years, we anticipate immence growth with over 20000 local guides on our platform who will be able to create 50000 different travel experiences and activities. Our projected customer base by then will be 1 to 2 million tourists globally.

Our main goals within both the next one year and next five years is to ensure that we have channeled income from tourism to the social economic space.

We aim to be the leading OTA in Africa that links tourists with local guides within the next year.

Within the next five years, we are seeking partnerships that will enable us to scale up globally. We aim to penetrate the global market and become one of the world leading OTAs that link tourists and local guides.

In the next five years, we aim to come up with different types of products that are tailored to enhance the tourists travel experience.

Our main barriers include finances.Funding is needed in order to be able to scale up our solution all lover the globe.

The funding is needed in order to build the technology, build a team of experts as well as market the product to our target market.

In this age of digital marketing, funding is needed in order to reach a large target market all around the globe.

Different countries of operations have different legal policies for operation. Some have stringent legal policies while others have less stringent ones.

Most of the local guides that we seek to put on board are from poverty stricken communities and may not have access to technology.

Other young people that we also seek to put on board may have high illiteracy levels.

Funding being the main barrier, we hopefully expect to gain mentorship as well as financing if our solution proceeds to the next stage of this challenge.

Other than that, we are also seeking to seek for additional funding as well as mentorship from other potential funding opportunities.

This will enable us to assemble a team of experts in the technology department, business development, operations, data and analytics and customer service.

We also seek to assemble a team of legal experts from all the countries that we are seeking to operate in to handle legal regulations.

We will evaluate our mechanisms of on-boarding young local guides into the platform that will be user friendly.

2 full time staff.

1 part time.

Our team is very well positioned to deliver this solution because we have experience in travel and tours industry.

I being the founder of this solution have a background in Economics from the University of Nairobi. I champion for youth empowerment and sustainable development in my community, country and globe. This has made me seek solutions to the problems that are affecting the young people and how to improve their lives economically.

Two of my other staff are experienced tour consultants. One is a freelance tour consultant in Kenya while the other is a tour consultant in Tanzania.

I believe with this able team, we will be able to create a business model that will change the tourism industry.

Our business model entails providing customized travel experiences to our customers. This means that tourists travelling into Africa can be able to curate their own experiences.

They can be able to log on to our platform where we will have on-boarded local guides on our platform who provide a variety of travel experiences in their local cities and communities.

We therefore link the tourists seeking personalized travel experiences with local guides that are providing these services.

Tourism has over the years evolved and tourists now seek travel experiences that are more personalized rather than fixed itineraries. Hence a need to create a platform that provides these services through local guides.

We mainly aim to bring in capital through sustained grants and donations. This is because our idea is a new to the market idea. We will probably pivot when seeking to minimize expenses and increase revenues. Through sustained grants and donations, we are more likely to take calculated risks rather than the traditional businesses that risk investment capital.

Once our solution/idea is established, we will sell our products and services in order to expand.

Solve can help me overcome the barrier of funding and mentorship. We are aware that our solution is still on the hypothesis testing stage and is more likely to pivot in order to come up with a sustainable business model.

We therefore aim funding from sustained grants and donations in order to take calculated risks.

Solve can also greatly assist in creating the business model as well as building the technology.The solution will most likely rely on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and big data.

I am also applying to solve in order to get more advice in terms of building a sustainable business.

Our solution seeks to get exposure through media and marketing. Solve can do a great deal in helping us get the necessary exposure that is needed for the solution/idea to scale up to a global level.

As explained above,  building the technology would also need assistance.

Monitoring and evaluation assistance is also needed to carry out data analysis on the Target Addressable Market (TAM) as well as the Served Addressable Market (SAM).

We would mostly like to partner with MIT in helping us build the technology. Since MIT is a worldclass institution in technology, our wish would like a partnership in order to create a sustainable technology for our solution.

We would also appreciate a partnership with faculties that provide funding.

Women and young girls are part of the local guides that we seek to bring on board as local guides. 

Our team will use our innovation to create an opportunity for young women in the local cities and communities to use their knowledge and skills in the grassroot level to earn a decent income.

Some of the travel experience activities will include home based activities that are most relevant to young women such as cooking expeditions as well as social activities such as female empowerment tourism.

Yes, we qualify for the above prize because our solution provides opportunities for local young people in the community to earn a living.

Our solution gives these young people to list as many quality travel activities as they can and have a management portal where they can be able to manage their engagements with tourists.

One of the main aims of our solution is providing digital literacy to the young local guides.

Our platform is fully digital where the local guides and tourists engage.

This means that we will have to do civic education to the intended local guides that we seek to onboard. Young people will therefore have a chance to increase their digital literacy.

Our team is aware that illiteracy in our target operation countries is a problem. We are therefore determined to create an environment where the local guides will improve their digital literacy in a user friendly way.

Yes, our solution aims to impact the lives of millions of young people especially in Africa who are affected by unemployment.