Problem Statement

Travelling is not a genuine or sustainable discovery experience anymore, with travellers struggling to find personalised, authentic experiences that resonate with their interests and values, and local communities bearing the burden of over-tourism, and losing their identity in the process.

The Paradox of Authentic Travel

The desire to experience the world authentically has never been greater. Yet, the reality of travel often fails to meet expectations: mass tourism, superficial encounters, and overwhelmed communities.

Travellers seek “hidden gems”, but in the online world it’s a short step from best-kept secret to viral hotspot, and the risk with sharing such discoveries is to make mass tourism even worse.

This paradox creates a dilemma: how to explore meaningfully without contributing to the very problem you’re trying to avoid?

I envision a mobile travel app that connects travellers and locals for authentic experiences.

Our aim is to offer a tool that connects travellers and locals in ways that foster sustainable authentic experiences and genuine connections, without contributing to mass tourism or causing harm to either side – avoiding overwhelmed local communities and steering travellers away from typical tourist traps.

The platforms leverages an interest-based matching algorithm to connect travellers with locals. This approach ensures that each connection is meaningful, built around shared passions and values rather than reciprocal exploitation. This model fosters sustainable tourism through a balanced exchange that respects local resources and protects the uniqueness of each experience.

We focus on promoting 1:1 local-traveller interactions to maximise personalisation while minimising the viral-effect potential backfire, as publicly sharing such unique recommendations can unintentionally fuel over-tourism, which is exactly what we want to prevent.

We use a point-based system called “Travel Stamps” to ensure balanced exchanges between users.

You earn Travel Stamps as a Local by accepting meet-up requests and spend them as a Traveller to send requests.

To make interactions smoother and more engaging, the platform offers several modes of connection. Each activity has a set Travel Stamp value.

The inspiration for visual design was taken from all classic travel elements, such as passports and identity cards, travel diaries, postcards, passport stamps… And vintage tech.

The idea is to merge the retro look-and-feel of travel symbols with a modern, minimalistic design as a bridge between old-school genuine adventure and innovative, user-friendly tools.