Tourism is one of the busiest industries that fuel many airlines, transport services, ship services, restaurants, hotels, taxi services, and so many other businesses. So, establishing a business relevant to tourism is a clever idea to earn money quickly.
If the business can provide endless money as passive income, it will be the greatest idea ever. Through this blog, you can explore such an idea and the way to execute it.
That is an online marketplace for local tour guides. If you doubt the returns through this business idea, then you should take a look at Showaround. It is one of the successful applications for the local guides’ marketplace. Let us share more about it.
What is Showaround and What is Not?
First, you need to know about Showaround. It is an online marketplace for local guides that connects them with tourists/ travelers effectively. So, the travelers can find the best local guides or local people who have minute knowledge about the region and the landscape. It also helps the guides to get more clients.
This US-based online platform has more guides around the world. It earns money by collecting commissions from the guides for every appointment they get through the platform. Approximately it charges 18% to 20% commission. The platform also allows local people to register as guides if they have fulfilled the eligibility criteria.
Many people thought of it as a dating platform due to misunderstanding, but it is not. It was developed for travelers who are looking for freedom in touring like roaming the streets and new places in an unknown region.
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Why Should You Develop an Online Marketplace for Local Tour Guides?
If you are an entrepreneur who is searching for a business idea for passive income, then you can choose to develop an online marketplace for the local tour guides. The available opportunities and demands in the market for local guides make this business model profitable and feasible.
A recent report from Expedia shows that US travelers are spending more money on the things that made their tour interesting. That ranked topped with 35% of their spending amount. So, there is a high possibility for them to choose local guides from such a platform to explore unknown places and the areas that are not covered on the digital maps.
In addition, a report from TripAdvisor stated that 60% of people who want to travel in recent days wish to take local trips. So, local guides are one of the high-demanded services expected by travelers.
Beyond these statistics, many solo travelers are looking for friendly guides who know everything about their destination. The tourists who are frustrated with traveling agencies and their scheduled trips, also give priority to the local guides.
Simply, the flexibility of freelance guide service convinces tourists to choose it. So, you can get the advantages of this by developing an online platform as the marketplace for the local guides. After developing such a platform, you can get passive income regularly from the guides every time they get an appointment through the platform. But, really is making money through the online platform easy? Let’s check.
Is Monetizing Easy with an App like Showaround?
As per the aforesaid statement, the commission fee is the main factor in monetizing the online marketplace for the local guides. But it is hard to obtain such a passive income. As an entrepreneur, you should pay attention to the app development process, marketing process, and strategies to enable passive income.
Things to be Focused in App Development Process
The online marketplace that you developed to aggregate the local guides should be effective enough to be accessible with mobile devices. It is crucial as mobile phone users are increasing significantly. So, developing a tour guide booking app like Showaround can help you in this case. That application should have the following features.
- The app should allow the users to book the local guides online and schedule pre-planned trips in advance.
- The travelers should be able to check the availability of local guides for the destination of the travelers, and their profiles.
- That must have an in-app communication feature to connect with the guides.
- Tracking the real-time location of guides and travelers will be a plus for the app that prevents travelers from being lost.
- After completion of the trip, they must be able to pay the guides through the application.
- The review and rating facility is also an important feature that must be included with an app like Showaround. It’ll be helpful for the tourists to identify the best-rated guides and the local guides to show their reliability to sell their services effectively.
So, when you have an app like Showaround with these features you can dominate the industry. That provides core competency to your online marketplace. So, you can onboard more local guides in your network. But, at the same time, you need to drive more travelers to use your local guide marketplace.
Effective Marketing Strategies
To drive more tourists and travelers to use your service, you should market your online platform and create brand awareness. That can be possible by conducting online marketing campaigns and traditional campaigns.
It can also be done with an app like Showaround. You can run a referral program to increase the customer base. Compared to any other marketing strategy, this method has more efficiency to reach potential customers. As per the statement of Signpost, nearly 92% of people trust referrals from their friends or the people they know. So, your tour guide booking app like Showaround should have the potential to run a referral program.
Maximizing Revenue
Once you achieve core competence and more loyal customers, you can earn more money from the app like Showaround. You can get your commissions from guides. It is your primary income stream of the application. Other than this, you raise your revenue with the following methods.
- Listing Fee – You can collect a listing fee from them to list their service on your online platform.
- Get Paid from Promotions – Generating revenue through promotional content can maximize your revenue with an app like Showaround. For instance, you can write other businesses products and services through your app, and get paid for it.
- Ad Banners – In addition to the promotional content, you can show ad banners to generate extra money.
- In-app Purchasing – With an app like Showaround you can sell relevant products online. It is also an effective way to raise more income.
- Prime Member Fee – Allow the travelers to get additional discounts and other offers from you, by paying a certain amount as a prime member fee.
Through all these methods, you can earn money with an app like Showaround. But to enable such profitable passive income streams, the application should be built with robust tech stacks and flexible workflow. Let’s check the best way to avail of such productive and profitable applications.
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How to Develop a Freelance Tour Guide App like Showaround?
To get an operative mobile application like Showaround, you need to find the best mobile app development company. Then approach it with a solid business workflow and the objectives of developing the application. At the same time, you should note that it may cost you a high to develop a freelance tour guide application.
Instead, you can choose a clone script to develop your tour guide booking app. Even though it reduces the development cost, it is a highly productive legal solution to connect guides and travels online with all the essential and advanced features. A high-rated app development company like SpotnRides also allows the entrepreneurs to customize the tour guide booking app by providing customized clone scripts.
SpotnRides provides three elements with a Showaround app clone script. They are the traveler app, the local guide application, and the admin panel. Through these, you can manage your online marketplace for the local guides from onboarding skilled and qualified guides to the online payment process. So, availing a ready-made Showaround script from SpotnRides can ensure the maximum possibility of success in your business.
On a Final Note
Now you are all set to initiate the tour guide booking app development process. With SpotnRides readymade Showaround app script, that will be an easy and simple process. That can provide you with competitive advantages in the market with multiple unique features.
It can also convert potential customers as it has an attractive design and workflow that is crucial to your customer journey. In a simple sentence, developing an operative tour guide booking app with multiple revenue streams will be easy when you choose SpotnRides.
