Travel Pioneers - TourDust

Launched in January 2009 by the Colclough husband and wife team, Tourdust is a place for travellers to find offbeat destinations and activities. The company’s appeal is in its relative simplicity but obvious potential for growth. It is the latest recipient of a Travolution Travel Pioneers award.

Founders

Tourdust is the result of the combined experience and creative expertise of Ben and Anna Colclough.

Anna held marketing and sales positions at fast moving consumer goods giant Unilever before moving to Market Sentinel as a senior consultant. She advised a number of blue chip clients, including Cadbury, on social media strategy.

Husband Ben left a senior position at credit-card firm American Express to co-found Tourdust.

Prior to this role as international marketing director of premium cards at AMEX, Colclough had a wide-ranging run in the corporate world, including advisory work for LEK Consulting and running an engineering firm.

The company also includes Peter Sweetman, running the technical side of the website.

The site and Tourdust branding were designed by Clearlef, with New Bamboo helping on technical development.

Tourdust was self-funded by the Colcloughs and investment from friends and family.

Strategy

Ben Colclough says Tourdust is the result of “our passion for authentic and independent travel and our belief that finding really inspiring travel product online is so frustratingly painful”.

The approach is straightforward. Provide a varied and interesting selection of tours and holidays – handpicked by the team – across the world and allow the Tourdust community to contribute to content on the site with reviews and suggestions.

Tour operators themselves are also encouraged to manage their own content on the site. The products are simply exposing the opportunities the ‘Long Tail’ of specialist holidays can create from a distribution perspective – a strategy that allows Tourdust to grow by becoming hyperlocal but also horizontally by expanding the range of services from around the world.

Colclough believes there is opportunity for a “dominant player” in the sector as there is currently little consolidation of the supply chain. Further funding would potentially help Tourdust take that position, he says.

History

Long before the site’s launch in January 2009 the Colclough’s were intrepid travellers themselves, eager to find unique travel destinations and share their experiences with their friends.

Throughout the process of creating Tourdust, the duo attempted to weave this philosophy into the fabric of the company, with a particular leaning toward responsible travel.

The idea was conceived in early 2008 and work started on sourcing tour operator partners and building the website in July last year.

The pair recruited the first 200 operators themselves in what Ben Colclough says was “incredibly hard work, but so rewarding”.

It soon became apparent that the original idea of a “social network play” would have to evolve from a “very egalitarian community to a marketplace” for operators.

“We realised that consumers are becoming far less receptive to new social network-based sites, that consumer generated content alone is not always that valuable and, ultimately, we wanted a less risk commercial return for our efforts,” he admits.

In addition, many of the UK-based operators were initially sceptical about the proposition after “being approach by so many dodgy, hard-selling directory sites over the years”.
The site was officially launched in alpha in January 2009 and is currently in beta.

Business model

Tourdust is supported primarily by a commission-fee structure based on booking referrals to its tour operator partners.

An interesting and possible expansion of the model, Ben Colclough suggests, would be to establish commercial partnerships with some of the other travel content sites that exist on the web.

It is hoped the Tourdust platform, which gives niche operators a route to market, can be combined in a programme where sites with strong content – much of it user-generated – create a way of monetising their editorial proposition.

A long-term view would be to forge links with existing location-based and activity-based listing websites.

Comment from John Harding, sales and marketing director at Hotels4u and sponsor of the Travel Pioneers series

"When I was directed to this site, I spent 20 minutes flitting from page to page finding myself drawn in to an array of every type of holiday experience I promised myself when I retired! Each well-defined experience (because it is experiences that are defined, not holidays) had me enthralled and wanting more.

"From moose watching in Sweden to horseback riding in the Wyoming mountains to mouth-watering descriptions of tapas trails in Seville, there was ample information to whet the appetite – and more detailed information to give a realistic and immediate idea of what you are letting yourself in for should you decide to expand your horizons and “go local”.

"What impressed me was that there are a range of experiences that allow even the most discerning traveller to take one or several of the trips on offer to really customise any holiday. Be it a luxury villa vacation in Andalucia (add a tapas trail experience in Seville), a city break in Bucharest (add a Bear and Lynx watching tour ) or a longer holiday dedicated to expanding one’s knowledge of bird life in South Africa if that be your particular fascination. I would have liked to read more customer reviews on each of the experiences  but I guess that it takes time to build up the background business to deliver the customer feedback.

"Congratulations to Ben and Anna Colclough and their team for having the insight and commitment to build up a true kaleidoscope of opportunities and present what amounts to the quintessential ‘Holiday Add-on’ directory. The booking and payment processes are no doubt as easy as the variations are interesting. It should be on every travel agents’ ‘favourites’ list as it presents a golden opportunity to give the customer a real experience of the area they are visiting and get something more from their holiday than they ever envisaged.

"The challenge will come in the constant refreshment of the menu and the maintenance of the odd-ball nature of some of the more esoteric arrangements on offer, but that should not be difficult when the authors are obviously driven by their pursuit of the unusual. This site is what the internet does best in bringing countless opportunities to the attention of holidaymakers with all the research already done. I’m looking forward to a long retirement!"

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