WorldInsider

Group Members

• Carine Abi Akar
• Michalis Rossides
• Adriana Vasquez
• TA: (TA's name)

Problem Statement

There is so much of information online for travelers. Advice about deals, locations, hotels, activities and restaurants can be found in abundance for future travelers. Very active and prominent websites also include review and ranking systems that allow users to leave feedback regarding their vacations. Yet, it seems that most users, when planning a trip or vacation, spend hours if not days reading through reviews from multiple sources and searching for different recommendations. In addition, users usually seek advice from their friends, people that they know that have had experiences in the same places that our users wish to travel to. This activity is also very time consuming but helps get rid of a lot of unnecessary bloat that travel websites seem to accumulate.

Travelers love to seek local advice. They love to experience the hidden secrets of a destination and it is difficult to find sources of information on a wide scale for cultural authenticity. It is also difficult to trust a review online: generally, reviews are time consuming to write and the users only write about their experiences in extreme circumstance (a great vacation or an awful experience). Readers do not know the identity of the reviewer and are always hesitant to believe a recommendation that they have come across. Travel websites do not have a filter of standards, a personal filter that removes information that individual users find irrelevant.

With WorldInsider, we are providing an interactive website that allows friends to share travel experiences. How is this different? Our pool of users all know each other and understand individual standards. Two users that share the same interests and travel standards can connect over the website and share their genuine unbiased knowledge. Users can be provided with an insider’s perspective on locations and adventures specific to the region of interest from visitors or from nationals. This could include information regarding must-eat-at restaurants, trendy bars, breathtaking beaches, best value-for-dollar hotels, nature filled mountains, unusual and cultutral specific activities, local traditions and festivals, shopping sales, and famous natural blossoming. Our website will allow users to share and provide true local secrets, the true individuality of cities and countries.

How will this be achieved? A user will create a profile on our website and ‘Add Cities’ that he/she have been to. The user will, then, rank the best things to see, do, eat and experience in a concise and clear manner. They will also be able to provide their opinions, recommendations and pictures for future travelers that describe the best features of a location. Our travelers will then be able to connect with their friends that have also created profiles. Their shared network will contain a shared dynamic map of cities and countries that they have experienced, collectively. All a user has to do is select their city/country of interest and they will have access to a compiled list of personal reviews written by people they trust.