DECEMBER 3, 2020
HOLA!LOCAL
THE EASIEST, SAFEST, AND MOST SUSTAINABLE WAY
INDIVIDUAL TRAVELERS CAN GET IN TOUCH WITH LOCALS!
HOUTEPEN, RAFAËL (182515) BUIJS, CHARLOTTE (172799) SUIJKERBUIJK,
NICK (184246) MONKEL, ROMÉE (173406) ELISE, ZIMMER (182409)
CREATING NEW BUSINESS; HANS DE NIE
Process Report
,Table of Contents
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................3
Problem definition ....................................................................................................................4
Problem context: ..................................................................................................................4
Problem customer: ...............................................................................................................4
Initial customer segment: .....................................................................................................5
Problem interviews ..................................................................................................................5
Hypothesises: ......................................................................................................................5
Interview questions: .............................................................................................................5
Interview process: ................................................................................................................5
Conclusions: ........................................................................................................................6
Pivoting and persevering: ....................................................................................................6
Solution interviews ...................................................................................................................6
Early adopters: .....................................................................................................................6
Lean Canvas blocks: ...........................................................................................................7
Pricing: .................................................................................................................................7
Hypothesizes: ......................................................................................................................7
Demo description: ................................................................................................................8
Interview questions: .............................................................................................................8
Interview process: ................................................................................................................8
Conclusions: ........................................................................................................................8
Pivoting and persevering: ....................................................................................................9
Minimum viable product: ..........................................................................................................9
Describe your MVP: .............................................................................................................9
MVP interviews: .................................................................................................................10
Conclusions: ..........................................................................................................................11
Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................12
Appendix I: Problem interviews .............................................................................................13
Appendix II: Solution interviews .............................................................................................16
Appendix III: Local interviews ................................................................................................32
Appendix IV: Demo visuals ....................................................................................................36
Appendix V: MVP interviews..................................................................................................37
Appendix VI: MVP visuals......................................................................................................51
Appendix VII: Lean canvases ................................................................................................53
Appendix VIII: Revenue stream .............................................................................................56
,Introduction
This report is written for the Creating New Business course provided by Breda University of
Applied Sciences. In this report the App ‘Hola!Local’ was created and designed by group
2.TB01, is explained upon. The improvements are based on some desktop research and
field research in the way of having weekly interviews.
It is important to get more insight in the wishes and demands of the customer as there
nowadays is a big shift in the attitude of people when planning their holiday. Because of the
changing and various different attitudes, our team was forced to do several different
researches in the field.
The outcomes are visualized in the canvasses which are updated per week (Appendix VII).
The canvas is there to clarify the discovered main problem, solution, the unique value
proposition, the unfair advantage, and additional important characteristics of the App. The
first step of creating the App was based on finding out our specific target group to later
define the most relevant noticed problem
The questions in the surveys are based on the target group and early adopters its wishes,
demands and the problems they encounter when going on a holiday. Every week the
surveys are adapted to the answers of the previous interviews to keep responding to their
observed behaviour. After each week of interviewing, we concluded the results and
determined if we had to pivot or preserve the lean canvas.
The interviews helped in further defining the target group, the problem and how to solve this
problem. The demo is converted into the minimal viable product which completely answers
the demand of that target group. Finally, the main purpose of ‘Hola!Local’ is to offer our
target group the help they need while being on their holiday by providing an easy, safe and
sustainable way to plan activities with locals.
,Problem definition
Problem context:
There are many trends and developments in tourism which lead to problems for the
consumer. One of them is information overload. ‘'The excessive information induces stress
for the people and makes it even more difficult for them to make decisions both at the
workplace as well as in personal life.’' (Bhasin, 2019) Moreover, the easiness to share
information. In the present time, with the high-quality phone cameras and the accessibility to
high-speed internet has made every third person on the street a news reporter. This not only
creates information overload but also an abundance of inaccurate and baseless information
and the same information is copied and shared repeatedly in a different form without
checking the validity of the platform. Thirdly, an important development is the demand for
transformational, experiential travel and stories. ‘'More travelers want to explore new places,
immerse themselves in local cultural heritage, make meaningful connections with local
people, push their physical limitations, challenge long-held personal beliefs, and become
more informed global citizens.’' (Sustainable-Leaders.com, 2018)
This leads to the problem that Travelers are being overloaded with too much information
which does not satisfy their needs and Internet leading travelers to mainstream activities/
sightseeing instead of the authentic.
Problem customer:
Having done some research on the travel trends that are developing these days we found
out that most travellers are arranging their travel via mobile bookings. Personalization is very
much taken into account. Especially the Millennials and Generation Z are looking for
something authentic and want to experience something which they think is worth going to
(Leonhardt, 2019). The individualism made backpacking and solo- (or duo) travel a way of
travel which gained a lot of interest over the years. (Nyorani, 2020) Having read that, our
consumer is described as an adventurous, individual traveller being a Millennial or
Generation Z.
The problem of our consumer can be cut down to the simple idea of information overload.
The overload of information has the downside of leading travellers to mainstream activities
which you can find on every blog, website and Instagram page.
Firstly, as travellers are planning and organizing their trip their first step is going on the
internet. The internet is generally the perfect place to find the answers that one may be
looking for, but the internet has its downsides. As the internet has grown to be bigger and
bigger with many more opportunities to find the answer, the chances of finding your specific
answer has decreased. Even more, you cannot really tell whether the information or the
person who wants to offer you something is reliable.
Our consumer is a traveller that at any time of its travel needs many solutions to his/ her
problems very quickly. As the consumer goes online for new information, there are several
opportunities that some form of information can be acquired, but the quality of this
information is never ensured (Rainie, 2018).
Secondly, whilst popular activities are popular for a reason, there is no authenticity. The
more unique experiences cannot be easily found on the internet. Therefore, the contact with
a person who knows all the ins and outs of the place, a local, is perfect.
Lastly, not only the travellers phase problems, there is also a problem for the citizens of the
visited destination. Many locals face unfair tourism within their destination. One of these
problems is that big intermediaries take high commissions on them for bringing in
consumers. This makes it very difficult for locals to earn some money, However, locals do
need these intermediaries in order to have guests. Furthermore, many big companies
nowadays offer activities/tours at very low prices with which locals cannot
compete. (WorldTravel&TourismCouncil, 2017)
, Initial customer segment:
Our Initial Customer segment are Individual, Millennial and Generation Z, travellers from the
Netherlands that are seeking for authentic experiences with locals in the Mediterranean Sea
area.
As explained earlier the most important group to focus on when looking at tourism is
Generation Z and the Millennials. Just like the travel trend, this group is merely individualistic
in its travel behaviour (Nyorani, 2020). This target group seeks for authentic experiences.
They do not book a package deal but want to their own customized ‘'package’' as also stated
by the CBI; ‘'The goal of FITs is to follow their own path; explore the things they want to see
and with that create their own unique travelling experience. By planning their own trip, they
can travel at their own pace, not bound to a group.’' (CBI, 2020).
Secondly, we chose to focus on Generation Z because they tend to be more adventurous
and more willing to experience something unique when travelling. Moreover, this group uses
merely online platforms to plan their trip (Leonhardt, 2019).
Furthermore, we chose to focus on experiences in the Mediterranean Sea area as this is
one of the most visited areas for Dutch people. According to Zoover, six countries who
border on the Mediterranean Sea are in the top 10 most visited countries for Dutch travellers
(Zoover.nl, 2020).
Problem interviews
Hypothesises:
There are three existing problems which our target group could recognize in order to use our
product. By means of the problem interviews we will find out if these problems are actually
existing among the target group we defined. The three problems are:
• Travellers are being overloaded with too much information which does not satisfy
their needs.
• The Internet is leading travellers to mainstream activities/sightseeing instead of the
authentic.
• Unfair tourism in which locals do not earn money at all.
The hypothesis to be validated in the problem interviews are:
• Our target group that is going to sign up for the app will be generation Z.
• The target group is encountering difficulties when seeking for authentic experiences
while going on vacation.
• The target group recognizes difficulties while meeting locals during their vacation.
• The target group wants to pay for the app by means of a monthly subscription.
• The target group searches activities to do for their vacation before their departure.
• Locals see opportunities in accompanying travellers and offering activities to them.
Interview questions:
The created our interview questions are based on the Problem Interview template in the
book of Running LEAN Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works, by Ash Maurya (Maurya,
2012). The exact interview scripts of the solution interviews can be found in Appendix I.
Interview process:
During the interview process we interviewed both Millennials and Gen Z because they are
most interested in buying our product. The choice to interview both generation groups was
made in order to identify which group has most need for the product. We contacted the
interviewees via WhatsApp or by calling them and arranged a personal or online meeting.
The location of the interviews differs per person since the members of our team do not live
at the same place.
