Face-to-face: Evaneos Travel CEO and co-founder Eric La Bonnardière
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How does Evaneos Travel tap into the global trend for ‘DIY’ holidays?
In terms of our position within the marketplace of ‘DIY’ holidays, Evaneos Travel focuses primarily on the segment of multi-day tours – a growing market that we estimate will be worth billions by 2020. Because multi-day tours, particularly those to far-flung destinations, are difficult and time-consuming for the traveller to organise independently, 70% of travellers turn to big-name Tour Operators and travel agencies proposing set tour packages. The obvious setback with this is that the planning and travelling process is extremely impersonal, and you end up setting off on the same standardised trip itinerary as everyone else.
Evaneos Travel provides a happy medium on this scale between ‘complete DIY’ holidays and structured tour packages. We combine the unbeatable expertise of on-site travel agents with the massive advantages of individual trip customisation. Travellers are therefore able to experience unique holidays 100% tailored to their needs and requests, as well as benefitting from the advice and knowledge of a local professional in their chosen destination. Considering the high average basket for multi-day tours, we believe that travellers need human interaction, rather than that of simply a computer screen, in order to put together a truly unforgettable trip. Having created a technological communication platform which is constantly in the process of being optimised, Evaneos Travel is revolutionising the holiday-planning and booking experience in a way that is mutually beneficial to both travellers, and our partner local travel agents.
What types of travel products and services can users book using the local experts you offer?
Evaneos Travel focuses on multi-day tours, typically travellers who wish to book a trip of more than five days abroad, and most often for the purpose of immersing themselves in a country or region. Our on-site travel agents are not only the experts of their destination, but also of creating tailor-made tours for each individual traveller or group. Every detail of our travellers’ itineraries is personalised to them, from day-to-day accommodation, cultural, sports or adventure activities, excursions, pace of trip, board-basis, whether they require the services of a guide, and transport.
Because our travellers can be defined as everyone looking to explore a part of the world, our model is not limited to or targeted at one specific demographic. Whether you are looking for a self-driving tour of Mexico as a family, or a trekking holiday with your significant other in Nepal, our partner travel agents on-site really are the best people to ensure that each trip is as unique and enjoyable as possible. They’re equipped to deal with all manner of requests, including honeymoons, couples’ retreats, family trips, groups of travellers, holidays for a slightly older demographic, or trips for those with reduced mobility. Our underlying aim is to make customisable trips, typically seen as a high-end product, affordable and accessible to everyone. We therefore provide low-price tours as well as luxury ones, (for example, 40% of our trips cost less than £700).
How has the UK operation performed to date and what booking, product and destination trends are you noticing from this market?
Evaneos Travel actually only launched in the UK after we participated at the World Travel Market in London this year. Before November 2015, we spent a great deal of time preparing for our UK launch by establishing a solid network of DMCs (our partner travel agents on-site), many of whom already operate within one of our four other European markets (France, Spain, Italy and Germany). We are only now beginning our marketing for the UK website, and 2016 is shaping up to be a big year for Evaneos Travel.
In terms of trends, the British share a long and fond history with travelling – the oldest tour operator in the world was in fact founded in Britain – and out of the whole of Europe, the UK represents the biggest market for travel today. Brits tend to be quite independent when it comes to their holidays, seeking trips to remote and exotic destinations all across the globe, and in the twenty-first century they seem to be becoming less and less interested in booking standardised tour packages. Our solution is to offer travellers 100% customisable trips designed with the knowledge, experience, and advice of a local travel agent. Via the traditional tour operator route, it’s extremely difficult to find a holiday exclusively tailored to your needs and requests, or indeed the insight or passion of someone who knows their destination back to front, and so we believe our marketplace model is truly the answer for the British traveller or holiday-maker.
How do you source your local experts/agents? Can you give examples?
All of our local partner travel agents are professional DMCs. For each of the five markets we operate across, there is a dedicated team in charge of sourcing these DMCs. We have a rigorous list of criteria when it comes to partnering up with local travel agents, including for example their ability to speak the language of the market they’ll be working in, reactivity, responsiveness, fairness of prices, dedication to responsible tourism, knowledge of their destination, and above all, they must be experts in creating tailor-made trips for every type of traveller.
When it comes to sourcing DMCs, our objective is to be able to offer our travellers the widest range of choice in terms of geography, on-site activities, and unique excursions, so we really try to work with travel agents whose expertise covers different aspects of these in each destination. For example, in India, we might look for one DMC that specialises in tours within Rajasthan, another one that specialises in tours within the south of India, and one that specialises entirely in trekking in Ladakh, etc. Our role is to support and assist our network of DMCs, by training them and of course providing them with the software to manage travellers’ bookings and enquiries. As pioneers of this marketplace model, we are confident that we offer the best services and assistance possible to our extensive network of DMCs.
This evolution of the way people book their travel need not spell doom and gloom for traditional agents if they look to embrace this trend – how can travel agents get in on the action? i.e. what scope is there for UK agents to work with Evaneos but also to take advantage of the DIY trend themselves?
Thankfully, given the enormity and diversity of the UK travel market, it’s possible for different models to co-exist at once. I suppose the main point I would make is that Evaneos Travel does not try to target the same travellers as big-name tour operators – our travellers tend to be those looking to organise individualised trips, or those who have previously booked using the services of a DMC.
Purchasing a trip to the other side of the world is a big deal for most travellers, so it’s somewhat understandable why people would feel more secure booking through famous or big-name brands, particularly for trips on the high-end segment. For this reason, I don’t see our marketplace model as the ‘end’ for traditional tour operators or travel agencies selling online or on the high-street.
As far as these big name brands embracing the ‘DIY holiday’ trend is concerned, I strongly believe that local DMCs constitute a valuable link in the chain, and that travel agencies in the UK could benefit from their on-site knowledge and expertise in the creation of their tour packages. There could certainly be opportunities for Evaneos Travel to work with UK tour operators and travel agencies in this respect, given our already strong network of partner DMCs, (over 600 across the globe and growing).
In addition, I think one of the best things about our model is that it has a direct positive impact on the local population of every destination that we have partner DMCs in. We are very proud to see their teams of staff growing thanks to the business that we are bringing them, so our concept is mutually beneficial for both our travellers and our local travel agents.
What plans do you have to roll out this concept in other markets?
The name ‘Evaneos’ has already made an international footprint in France, Spain, Germany and Italy to date, and our goal is undoubtedly to continue expanding on this scale. Having said that, we equally find it imperative to understand travellers’ needs market by market before launching our model in that country, which is why we make necessary provisions, such as hiring employees native to the country market they will be working for.
What growth potential is there for concepts like Evaneos, Uber, Airbnb – which are the key growth markets (geographically and sector wise) and why?
I think the magic of technology is its capacity to connect people who have never before been in contact – and who perhaps wouldn’t be able to do so without the use of a particular website or application. Uber and AirBnB are certainly good examples of this positive technology. Another fantastic example of a company benefiting from the trend of the ‘sharing economy’ is BlaBlaCar, who Evaneos Travel shares many of the same investors with.
Almost 50% of the world’s total travel market today is found in Europe, but we know that there are many more travellers in every corner of the globe who could benefit from the Evaneos Travel platform and the customised trips we are able to facilitate. Our function is to create a trip for everybody, but certainly not the same trip for everyone. This is only the beginning for Evaneos Travel, and we’re very excited and ambitious about the future ahead.
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