Traveling the world isn’t a walk in the park. It takes a lot of planning and organization. Even the most seasoned adventurers traveling abroad can be littered with potential headaches. Couple that with a limiting disability or a physical hurdle and travel can seem like an impossible task. South Korean start-up Amuse Travel has set out to make common travel difficulties for the disabled a thing of the past. They offer a wide range of tour packages in South Korea for wheelchair users, the blind, and seniors.
User-driven growth
Amuse Travel, founded in 2016 in Seoul, is a travel company dedicated to streamlining travel for the disabled. They offer a full concierge service and provide travel packages that are specialized for those with disabilities. They have been very successful in developing a user-driven intuitive phone app. This app has multiple applications to help guide the user’s journey abroad.
Through the app, Amuse Travel is able to collect data from over 100 tourist sites. This data includes ground conditions, the size of facilities, and wheelchair accessibility. Therefore, they offer the safest travel packages tailor-made for those with special needs. In addition, it has an SOS button that allows quick contact with Amuse Travel customer reps. However, the key feature of the app is the intuitive map interface that utilizes LBS (location-based service), public big data, and user-generated content (UGC).
They offer travel packages to a variety of hidden nature spots in Korea. As well as, tours that show the history of South Korea along with Gyeonggi-do and Jeolla-do provinces.
What is UGC?
UGC is any form of content or information shared by a user on an application at no charge to the company. Therefore, UGC gives companies the opportunity to hand off some of the work to the user and ultimately accelerate growth and evolution. Incorporating UGC certainly isn’t a new concept. Map applications such as Waze have incorporated this feature for some time now. In addition, Waze is held in high regard for delivering reliable, real-time mapping services. While the larger mapping companies (Google and Apple) were investing in expensive infrastructure (road sensors) to improve their mapping services, Waze was wielding the power of numbers.
An engaged user base yields better data
The Amuse Travel map is populated by users and local travel experts in their respective travel destinations. This function highlights disability-friendly tourist hot spots both internationally and locally in South Korea. The map interface is constantly evolving and delivers a unique benefit to those traveling abroad. Amuse Travel users can share their knowledge of their favorite areas/routes in the application and give back to the community. Similarly, Waze relies on its users to note road conditions and accidents. In large numbers, UGC used in this fashion has proven to be extremely effective in accelerating the growth of an application without breaking the budget. It also encourages start-ups to compete with the “big boys”.
Future of UGC in Korea
UGC is certainly on track to becoming the future of content marketing in South Korea. UGC creates a sense of community that can drive support for the application and improve user involvement and retention. It is cost-free and is received better by consumers. Therefore, in the end, UGC benefits the corporation. Today’s brands are pushing to bolster credibility in their content marketing and UGC will likely hold a substantial role in this development. Amuse Travel is betting on UGC to grow its brand as more travelers write reviews, post pictures, and publish blog posts. The content uploaded onto Amuse Travel increases its credibility and brings its brand’s services into perspective. Best of all, consumers in Korea really trust UGC because it is created by people in Korea who used their services.
Before purchasing a tour package on Amuse Travel, potential customers can see actual pictures taken by previous customers. This is a great strategy that Amuse Travel is using because they are still in the startup phase. Therefore marketing budgets are not as big as more established travel companies in Korea. Therefore it is a smart and creative way of getting more visual content onto their platform. In addition, it is highly likely that customers who have had a great experience through Amus Travel will upload their trip on their own social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. This will also greatly help increase brand awareness. When startups encourage customers to share UGC, it provides another forum for customers to share their authentic experience with your brand. Therefore, you will come off as accountable, open, and authentic.
