Terms

"It was vital to us that we have a method for our members to communicate to one another," Katalina begins. "Some individuals will refer to'my community' to refer to their Instagram fans; or perhaps, this is a two-way conversation between the person who created their content and those whom they're interacting with. However, it's not an exchange between one participant with an additional. We really wanted facilitate members communicating with each other, because that's community-building in the core. It's the way people feel connected to each other."

It was not just travellers joining in this ECT community. Experts from the industry were also joining and actively sharing their knowledge with other members, creating an accessible and well-informed platform. Katalina and team members from the ECT Team wanted formal the contributions of these professionals to show their appreciation to everyone who contributed the helpful information to be shared.

"We tried to bring the specialists who know the values we hold dear and, as the El Caminos of those countries and are more involved in the group," Katalina starts. "We created badges for them and provided them with profile images that include an orange circle around their image, with a check mark in yellow to prove they're destination experts. If you ask a question regarding Greece and Christina responds, you'll know she is an expert that spent a considerable amount of duration in Greece."

The members of the community had questions to get answers to, as well as real experienced travel experts were talking to one another. This online community served it's objective well -- maybe much better than expected. The miracle happened: lockdowns were lifted. The internet-based ECT community was returning to its offline community. It was time for the organization to shift from survival to moving to the future. "During the outbreak, we tried to test ourselves against fire and were able to get up from the ground," Katalina explains.

The pandemic , and the resulting global slowing allowed for the ECT group to consider more in ways to help its female traveling. "We felt we were doing something truly special, but we never had enough time, or even the space to think bigger about the brand we had created. We realized just how unique this is as a business of travel in general," she continues. "As the world began to grow, we realized that there was a lot more we could do through involving our guests in the real world. We could serve the community in a manner that reflected the things they wanted from us, as they started to venture into the world beyond."

Big ambition

How is El Camino Travel going to give its clients the service they require, when the world is about to return to normal? "The principal goal is to be the most comprehensive location for women looking to plan, dream to book, travel, and share their travel," Katalina asserts.

ECT began with about 100 members in August 2020 It has now grown to about 700 members, as well. The ECT team has expanded to six and a half full-time staff members. In the US, women of the millennial age have the fastest growth rates in the field of travel However, Katalina is of the opinion that not all major operators are catering to the needs of this segment. "For some of the bigger companies, there's nobody at the top of the chain saying"Hey ladies spend a lot of money however they're feeling very unsafe when they travel. What can we help them improve their experiences?" she adds.

Katalina recalls a recent study of female travelers The top thing they expect from their travel company in most (85 percent) of the respondents is the safety aspect when traveling. "These women do not want bodyguards" Katalina explains "They just want to feel certain that they've got all sufficient information and have the appropriate resources, connections and resources to make informed decisions. This is what helps them feel secure and confident. We're looking at this at present with our small-group travel experiences, as they let travelers fully immerse themselves and not have to sacrifice the experience of traveling experience because of their gender."

The ultimate goal is for Katalina's El Camino Travel to become the leading source for female travelers. "TripAdvisor and Google focus on quantity rather than the quality of their data. We've seen an abundance of low-quality data and we'd like to do something completely different," she continues. "It's about having an entire group of individuals behind me to lean upon, but in a manner that I do not have to rely on anyone else on my quest to discover across the globe."

Travel concierge

How can the capability to connect with communities come into being? Katalina says that when someone asks a question in the ECT forum The community manager responds "with this assistance from a concierge" and shares all the details of threads that could already exist. Then, at least five users of the forum will respond. "Rather than 200 replies one would get from a Facebook page, you'll receive better recommendations that reflect our style of travelling," she adds. "People purchase El Camino due to the belief that"I'm what I am because I has traveled; they're more knowledgeable than anybody else'. We're bringing these people together."

It begs the question how can we maintain the top quality of service, ECT has maybe an higher limit for members? "We receive numerous requests, "How do you going to keep the quality up What can you do to keep it up?" Katalina answers, saying "Tech can help in that certainly. The team has already started collecting data and evaluating the options." The team is exploring solutions to ensure that people aren't bombarded with low information. The team is currently moderating the forum, and selects what questions they'll respond to. It also ends responses after the number of replies is set.

"At the moment, a advantage of joining is receiving an expertly curated traveling guide every month. Guides are compiled by our expert experts in the destination. The site may also release more of our curated content since people trust us," she continues. "We will ensure that we are able to accommodate more people and that we can still provide with the information and connections that they're seeking and without worrying about how we will be affected by the amount of users sign up."

The author states that the majority members of ECT Group members wish to connect with each other in particular when traveling and also when they are not working with each other at present. "You'll receive messages that say"Hello, is anyone currently in Mexico during the next few months? I'm remote working in Oaxaca!'" she explains. "We're researching technology to allow people to get together wherever they go which are close to same times."

Alongside the advancements in technology, the primary strategy that ECT employs ECT is to tackle the post-lockdown world and get the business of selling travel again. The company began offering group trips in June 2021. their primary goal for the organization is on selling these tours, offering membershipsas well as combining both with discounts for the members.

Sharing, not selling

However and in contradiction to what we expected, this method which doesn't offer travel services, rather posting about it in the ECT forum can have helped some of the experts from the ECT in travel to gain clients. "The forum lets people display their expertise and thought leadership and a lot of participants in this community El Camino Travel community have gained customers through the responses to their inquiries," Kataliana explains.

Katalina quickly realized they was a sound concept , and she sought out ways to expand and enhance the expert list of destination experts. "We met with our team members, "Who do we think ought to be our expert? And they began recommending individuals," she continues. "I planned to speak to their representatives and present the forums to them in order in order to encourage them to join. It's a new way of distributing for themthat is without the algorithmic limitations that are used by Facebook and Instagram giving them front-row seat to their ideal public."

They recognized that there were benefits. "When you meet with prospective travel clients, you have demonstrate your expertise by describing what makes someone want to take a trip to your location. This forum lets them show their expertise with a natural, genuine approach that does not come across like a salesperson," she says.

"Travel experts are passionate about discussing travel; we are awestruck by sharing knowledge. We have another chance to assist other people," Katalina muses. It's evident that helping people is a good way to market travel. The industry is beginning to develop, and our ECT team has managed to take it a step further beyond just talking about travelling. "Since the lifting of the lockdown, the ECT team has started to organize trips in conjunction with our experts in destination planning. The team has been on tours to Morocco as well as to Guatemala, to Greece as well as Georgia. It's been quite cool!" she says with a smile.

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