When we go on vacation, it’s to escape the stress of work or home or to get time out from our daily routine, but planning a trip and the actual travel can be stressful. Research by Liligo, a tool for comparing travel plans by Liligo shows that 1 in eleven Americans thinks planning a trip is more stressful than planning a wedding.
Which direction should I take? What should I do once I arrive? Which airline should I use? Which hotel is inexpensive but still good? What should I take? What should I bring? Are there any discounts? There are a lot of thoughts that come to mind when we begin planning our travel plans. This does not even mention any potential issues like being unable to access a tourist attraction or delays with transport.
Travel stress
An article in the Research Journal Tourism Analysis claims that the most stressful portion of every journey is the planning phase, which is followed by the journey to the destination and then, finally, the actual trip. The most significant stress points during the planning phase included financial issues packing, making arrangements, and preparing the plan for the journey.
Michel Karam, founder and CEO of muvTravelhas, admitted that planning travel is difficult. “With other than flights and lodging, the current travel planning process is lengthy and exhausting as it requires visiting several websites and online guides for ideas on what to do and visit. The information on each page is usually limited and can lead to frustration when we reach the destination,” he said.
I am the most stressed out during the planning phase because I constantly feel like I don’t have the cash or the time needed to accomplish everything I want. I need help choosing the best destinations I’d like to go to before I tackle other tasks like booking hotels and flights and preparing an itinerary.
Karam said that due to a variety of reasons, the majority of people drop their travel plans to make things simpler. “Travel in general, and the independent travel experience in particular, challenges everyone, even seasoned travelers, to step out of their comfort zones. What am I likely to discover there? How do I get in touch with locals, what will I choose to eat, and will the locals be kind to me or lie to me.’
“Add in the expense of travel, which is draining on anyone’s budget, and the possibilities are endless to abandon all travel plans and instead opt for the security of a cruise or an all-inclusive vacation in the “safe” country, or Disneyland,” he added.
This is where muvTravel is in. muvTravel seeks to ease stress by providing a vast collection of flight, hotel, and tour options. Having a single platform is familiar, as many businesses compete to become the best one-stop shop for travel. What differentiates muvTravel from the rest is how it curates results for every destination.
Karam’s experience in artificial intelligence enabled him to develop an algorithm that reviews thousands of possibilities to display businesses that meet the highest standards and receive customer praise. Thus, customers are assured they will book the most suitable and get top-quality service.
Karam also shared his thoughts on the reason why no one platform has been successful yet despite the necessity for it. There is a market since millennials are fans of something other than standardized tours. They also place the most importance on experiences over the price and are more likely to invest in unique experiences.
However, the way Karam declared: “None of the attempts were comprehensive or sufficiently deep. They were either too widely used and merely became global Yellow Pages with very little curation or were insufficient, offering only limited destinations and few activities and options. Some sites omitted one or other aspect of the planning process like price comparison, which forced customers to use another website.”
Create your own experience
muvTravel is a website allowing users to plan their entire trip from one site. Based on research findings, travelers go to up to 26 different websites and, on average, fifteen for planning their trip. Additionally, they go through up to 312 internet pages, an average of 124 pages per topic. Many people are overwhelmed by all the data.
Karam said: “As an avid independent traveler, I was amazed to discover, even after many years of being in the business, comprehensive and accessible resources were absent for travelers who want to plan and book personalized trips on their own despite the number of startup companies in the travel industry appearing every day. It simply requires too much time to prepare a travel itinerary, and the likelihood of wasting dollars and precious time on dull excursions and trips and not snagging the best ones is too high. I set out to do one-stop shopping where visitors could find the needed items.”
The first step in planning a trip is to learn about the place or country. muvTravel gives essential information about the city’s history, culture, climate, and transport. It has tabs for stay, visit shops, shop, and even events, allowing users to organize their hotel schedule.
“We have collected the top activities and things to see in all of our locations, arranged them into categories that can be narrowed, and then put the most information we can on them (description of the location, text, and so on.) to help users make an informed decision about what place or thing is worth visiting. Also, we employ AI to create a ranking system for these attractions and activities. It is possible to learn what the best artwork museums of Paris are, for example but also those located in France or elsewhere across Europe or around the World,” Karam explained.
“Finally, the most difficult thing is figuring out the lowest price. It can be great to discover that you overpaid for the hotel room or flight. Our search engines look through more than 700 websites across the globe to find the most affordable rates,” he added.
So, there’s no reason to blindly believe in the local concierge who isn’t aware of your preferences or may be able to send you somewhere they may not like. You can make your own decisions.
Making dreams come true
Chief Executive Officer Michel Karam wants muvTravel to expand beyond just a single platform for travel. He understands that charting the territory many have been in and failed to succeed isn’t easy. muvTravel aims to make the website simple and user-friendly while being sophisticated and rich.
“We want to see travelers discover unfamiliar and new places in the next six months with muvTravel. We want to help them plan as many travel experiences as possible. We would like muvTravel to assist us in want ate these plans, customize the trips for each user to determine the cost, and suggest the most efficient times to depart. We’re hoping to reach that goal by inviting users to share their past, present, and future travel plans with their friends and followers,” Karam said.
“In two years, we’d like to see the platform extensively used across Europe as the most active travel market on the planet and Asia as the fastest-growing. We want individuals to turn into travelers, not just tourists, and help to create their personal travel experiences rather than taking pre-packaged trips,” he concluded.
Karam’s dream of muvTravel is to be an instrument that can help people mark off things on their bucket lists and make their journeys to the places they enjoy while doing the things they’d like to do.
