Terms

"It was vital to have a way for our community to connect with one another," Katalina begins. "Some users will use the term'my community' to refer to their Instagram follower base; it could be an exchange between the creator and their audience However, it's not really a conversation between one community participant with an additional. We really wanted facilitate members communicating with each other, as that's a form of community-building fundamentally, it's what makes people feel connected with the other."

There was more than just travelers being part of this ECT community. Experts from the industry were joining and actively providing information to others, creating a welcoming and well-informed platform. Katalina and members of the ECT team wanted to officially acknowledge their contributions and show their gratitude for all of the helpful information being shared.

"We tried to bring the experts who are aware of the values we hold dear and are the El Caminos from these countries, more involved with our organization," Katalina starts. "We put together badges and provided them with profile pictures featuring a blue circle on the photo, and a yellow check mark in order to prove that they're experts in destination. When you post a question concerning Greece and Christina replies, you can be sure that this is an expert who spent a decade or more within the country."

Community members asked questions as well as genuine, certified travel experts were talking to each other. The community online was fulfilling its purpose perfectly -- maybe even more than what had been anticipated. Then, the miracle was achieved: lockdowns were lifted. The online ECT community was now transitioning back to an offline world, and it was time for the company to move from survival mode to building for the future. "During the outbreak, we were fire-tested, and we were able to stand up," Katalina explains.

The pandemic , and the resulting world slowdown enabled the ECT staff to think more about the best way to help its female travellers. "We believed that we had done something unique and we had the time or resources to think bigger about our brand that we were creating. We realized just how unique it is, for a travel-related company as a whole," she continues. "As the world began to expand it became apparent that there was much more that we could accomplish by involving our members in the real world. It was possible to serve our community in a way that reflected what they needed from us as they started to venture out to the outside world."

Big ambition

How can El Camino Travel going to give its customers everything they require now that travel is almost returning to routine? "The main goal is to be the pre-eminent all-in-one destination for women who want to dream, plan to book, travel, and then share their travel experiences," Katalina asserts.

ECT began with about 100 people in the month of August and is now at about 700. The ECT team has expanded to six and a half full-time employees. The US the millennial females are the fastest-growing segment within the travel industry. However, Katalina is of the opinion that none of the major operators are catering to this market. "For many of the largest businesses, nobody is in the boardroom saying, 'Hey, women spend lots of money, but they still feel really unsafe when they travel. What are we able to do to improve their experience?" she adds.

Katalina shares that in a recent survey of female travelers, the number one thing that travel businesses are requesting from most (85 percentage) of those who participated was just to be safe when travelling. "These ladies aren't asking for bodyguards" says Katalina "They just want to feel that they've got the information, resources and the connections for making informed choices. This is what helps them feel secure and confident. The solution is in the present with our small-group excursions, which allow guests to immerse themselves fully and not have to sacrifice the quality of their travel adventure because of gender."

Ultimately, Katalina wants El Camino Travel to become the most trusted resource for women who travel. "TripAdvisor and Google focus on quantity over quality. There's many poor-quality data available and we'd like to do the totally different from that," she continues. "It's about knowing there's an online community which I can rely on, in a way which I am not able to lean on any other community, when I go out to discover the world."

Travel concierge

What exactly is it that makes being able to draw on a community show up? Katalina tells me that, when someone posts a query within the ECT forum The community manager steps into the discussion "with that white glove concierge service" and provides all details of threads that could already be in existence. Then, up to five other community members will respond. "Rather than the 200 responses you'd get through the Facebook group for free you'll get better suggestions that are a reflection of our style of traveling," she adds. "People are paying for El Camino because they think"I'm who I am as a traveler. They are more knowledgeable than anybody other'. The goal is to bring people together."

The question is what is the best way to ensure the quality, does ECT has maybe an upper limit for members? "We are asked every time: 'How you going to keep your quality high and maintain the quality?'" Katalina responds, saying "Tech will contribute to that, for sure. The team has already started monitoring data and evaluating our alternatives." She says the team is currently looking at ways to ensure that users aren't bombarded with low high-quality information. The team is already moderating the forum and picks a few topics to be answered, and ceases responses once the number of responses is a set amount.

"At present, one advantage of joining is that you get an extremely well-curated guide to travel every month. It's composed by our expert destination guides So maybe we'll roll up more content that is curated, as people are able to are awestruck by our services," she continues. "We would like to be sure we're able to handle increasing numbers of people, and are able to provide them with the information as well as the connections people are looking for, but without being a victim of what happens as groups grow."

The author explains that the majority members of ECT group members would like to communicate with one another particularly when traveling and lots of them are remote working together at the moment. "You'll get messages saying, 'Hey, who's in Mexico in the coming months? I'm working remotely in Oaxaca and I'm looking forward to seeing you!'" she explains. "We're researching technology that will make it easier for people to find each other when they're traveling to the same places around the same times."

In addition to advances in technology, the main idea to ECT is to take on the post-lockdown landscape and begin selling trips again. The company began selling group travel excursions in June of 2021. today, a major focus of the company is selling these trips, providing memberships and bundling the two together and offering members discounts.

Sharing and not selling

In conclusion, however, and contrary to our expectations, the approach that does not sell travelinstead, simply discussing it in the ECT forum is ultimately helping many of the experts from ECT's travel department to gain the business. "The forum allows people to display their expertise and thought leadership and a lot of members of the El Camino Travel community have been able to gain clients by the responses they provide to inquiries," Kataliana explains.

Katalina quickly realized they had done a wonderful concept and sought ways to grow and formalize the experts' list for destination. "We have asked our group, "Who do you think should be an expert?' they began recommending individuals," she continues. "I interviewed them and explain the forum to them, I would make them feel excited. It's a fresh distribution method that they can use, without any algorithmic hurdles that are used by Facebook and Instagram which gives the opportunity to be in front of their ideal client."

Naturally these experts saw clear benefits. "When you speak to prospective customers for travel, you need demonstrate your knowledge, you have to show why would someone book a trip with you. This forum lets them do that in a very organic, authentic way that isn't slick," she says.

"Travel experts are passionate about discussing travel; we love sharing information. We have another chance to just be really helpful," Katalina muses. The simple act of being helpful is a great strategy to market travel. Since the travel industry is beginning to grow, our ECT team has had the opportunity to go a stage further than just discussing travel. "Since the lockdown was lifted the ECT team has begun to plan trips together with our expert destination specialists. The trips we've taken were to Morocco, to Guatemala, through Greece and Georgia. It's been quite cool!" she smiles.