Towner

Overview

Tourism as a whole

Not just in economic terms, not just growing number of visitors or revenue. Successful tourism has to embody well-being of the country. It means nature, human health, and community identities of the country should be all respected and treated mindfully.

Problem Space

A large number of travelers are not aware of cultural contexts of their travel destinations and it leads to harming local communities environmentally, economically, and culturally.

Solution

Linking visitors to locals with overlapping interests by building cross-border relationships which helps tourists be conscious and respectful of local community and culture.

Process

Secondary Research - User Research - Ideation - Iteration - Final Design

Solution

Towner (Mobile App)

Towner is a mobile app that matches locals & travelers based on their interests.

Search Activities

It enables travelers to search activities by locations, dates, # of party, and interests. Travelers are recommended activities based on the interest they listed during onboarding.

Sign-up

Thorough yet engaging onboarding & profile-building process ensures interest-based matches between the hosts & travelers

Create Activities

Activity host lists an activity based on their interest & expertise. Host can review the travelers' profile before accepting.

Sending Activity Requests

Travelers can send requests to hosts to join activities. Travelers can check and manage activities status in My Page screen.

Accepting Activity Requests

Activity host will receive requests from travelers and manage activities status in My Page screen.

Messages

Once requests have been accepted, travelers and hosts can send messages to each other.

Research

Subject matter experts interviews and surveys were conducted to get better understanding of status quo of tourist industry and travelers perception on local culture when traveling.

Focus Areas

• What makes modern tourism unsustainable?
• How do we solve cultural irresponsibility?
• How much travelers' respect for local culture mattered to them?
• Does traveling with a local make a difference in their travel behaviors?

Survey Results

A survey was conducted on 51 participants in varying age groups from 18-24 to 55-64, almost half of whom were in the 18-24 group. 80% respondents based in NYC; rest in the West Coast & Midwestern US and Seoul, Korea.

• 69% of participants showed higher interest to slow travel
• 75% of participants reported knowing local culture matters to them when traveling
• 70% of participants answered fellow travelers' respect for local culture highly matters to them
• 65% of participants reported their behaviors change when they're traveling
• 49% of participants reported their attitude changes when they travel with a local vs when they don't

Subject Matter Expert Interviews

1. One of the directors of an international NGO on global sustainable tourism, Ph.D in ecotourism & forest recreation

2. Environmental science graduate student, trip leader/designer with 5 yrs of experience across Europe & Asia

Key Takeaways

• Overtourism - there is a problem with capacity management and a structure that enables irresponsibility
• Tourism in the midst of crowds detracts travelers from respect or appreciation and imposes a culture of "consuming" culture
• This consumption culture eventually leads to damage and vandalization
• There is a perpetual cycle: influx of people and capital prompts building infrastructures and vice versa
• Cultural irresponsibility - education is key. A lot of times, the impact comes from people not knowing
• More value added when you have someone who knows the place intimately

Project Direction

Here are the primary & secondary research results that informed our project direction:

Reduce overtourism through diffusion into other activities

"[Expanding] cultural tourism by appealing to travelers interested in food, art, history or music" - Frank Haas, former VP of Hawaiian Tourism Authority

Take input from local residents

"... linking visitors with locals who share their passions for things like history or food and making storytelling central to sites like its World War I battlefields" - VisitFlanders, Northern Belgium region tourism representative

Problem Restatement

How might we reduce the overcrowding of tourist attractions and prevent culturally irresponsible travel?

Project Scope

Our two goals for this app are:

• Matching locals and travelers based on their interests
• Diffusing overcrowded tourist activities

Ideation & Iteration

After we set our goals, we moved on to building the structure and user flow of this app starting from a sign-up process to managing travel activities.

User Flow

These diagrams show two different user flows. First one is for a first time user who needs to go through the sign up process. The second one is focused on sending/receiving activity request as either travelers or hosts.

Sketches

Sign-up, Search, Explore, Create Activities, My Page, Sending & Receiving Requests screens were developed with detailed UI elements based on the user flow defined earlier.

Wireframes

The quick sketches of each flow has been developed again as black & white wireframes. In this stage, the alignment and spacing of each UI element was considered thoroughly.

Reflection

If we had more time...

Test & compare two onboarding processes

"Everyone is a Towner" (current process). Users can switch between being a traveler and a host. Also, we can separate sign up processes for hosts and travelers.

Test different matchmaking processes

For example, swiping interaction like dating apps do

Provide service & test in multiple languages

Ensuring the flow makes sense for a diverse set of audiences