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North America, Travel Startups, Travel Tech

Roadtrippers: The New Digital Map App for Travellers

Road trippers helps travellers drive to some of the world’s most interesting places through the use of their digital map application.

Today we introduce to you Natalie Akers, Travel Massive Cincinnati chapter leader and marketing manager at Roadtrippers. Natalie helps readers understand the role that Roadtrippers has played in the travel startup scene. 

Founders

Tell us more about Roadtrippers.

Roadtrippers is one of the nation’s fastest-growing travel planning platforms, putting streamlining discovery, booking, and navigation into one engaging and intuitive experience. Co-founders James Fisher and Tatiana Parent founded the free web and mobile app to help travelers discover the world around them in an entirely new way. It is powered by a database of millions of travel locations including diners, national parks, museums, hotels and more.

What inspired your team to create this startup? 

After embarking on many journeys, James and Tatiana became jaded with all the gadgets that “exploring” the road required: GPS, guide books, leaflets, and even sticky-note suggestions from friends. They began to chart and collect the most interesting places out of frustration, categorizing them into niche topics.

In 2011 they pitched their idea and were accepted into the Brandery, an accelerator program out of Cincinnati.

How is your startup disrupting the travel scene today? 

In late summer of 2015 we released the ability for planners to invite facebook friends (or emails) to collaborate on trip itineraries, so instead of scratching down all the recommendations you get for places to visit along your road trip, now people can add those suggestions directly to your itinerary. It’s a game changer in my book.

How did you get your startup off the ground and gaining traction?

Tatiana had established a notable social community and brand voice early on that’s become one of our biggest points of traction. We’re able to give people inspiring content before they even begin to plan trip logistics. This spring we’re transitioning all of our stories about amazing places to a new content format called “trip guides” where this can become an actionable trip itinerary. Users and readers will be able to save itineraries instantly and then hop in the car with our app for turn-by-turn navigation to the places they just read about.

How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

James Fisher likes to say we’re taking on dysfunctional travel planning with a design perspective. Our map is the key. It’s the backbone for every type of “content” we offer. Every action — like searching for diners along your route, checking out a stop that your friend suggested, or publishing your very own travel guide – start and end with the map.

What benefits have you seen from being a part of Travel Massive meet-ups?

Because we help a national and global audience of travelers to plan trips together, one of our challenges is encouraging authentic travel experiences at a large scale. Travel Massive meet-ups have been an important way of reaching out to our local travel community to get a refreshing perspective on the resources travelers and travel professionals truly value. It’s also a great way for our team to get out of the digital weeds and into conversations with the real community members that make our product special.

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Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Roadtrippers on Travel Massive, Twitter and Facebook


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