The incessant knocking on your door jolts you awake from the death-like slumber you’ve sunk into. You wondered vaguely why your roommate wouldn’t just open the door. Then, the unfamiliar voice reaches your ear, “Sir? Ma’am? Are you awake!?” shouts an all-too-chirpy voice. It’s too early to be that happy. “Yes,” you grumbled. Right. You’ve signed up for a tour group because you were too lazy to plan your itinerary yourself.
Like most things nowadays, I can safely say, “There’s an app for that.”
Tourplus is a travel assistant that will revolutionize the way you travel. Or rather, it will greatly simplify your travel planning and make travelling even more fun. The Malaysian startup app is founded by Rickson Goh while he was studying in Australia Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2012. He formed a team of four during his studies there and started working on an app that aims to automate the whole progress of travelling (including itinerary planning, booking, transportation, currency rate and places of interest) in a mobile application.
Vulcan Post managed to get a hold of the founder of Tourplus in order to get more details on the yet-to-be-released mobile app.
That’s right, the app is currently still in its beta stages, but according to founder Rickson, “We plan to launch the app in Malaysia early next year.” The team plans to release the app in stages, focusing on Malaysia and Southeast Asia in the first year, then rolling out the app internationally in the following years.
Since the app is not live yet, I only have their website and Rickson to get my information. Thankfully, he was more than happy to share what the app can do with our readers.
Missions and Rewards
“Let me tell you about the missions!” Rickson started. “Normally people travel without a clue on what they should be doing. So what we are doing here is giving them a clue on their next destination with a simple task. They’re really very easy tasks, such as taking a selfie with the Statue of Liberty (if you’re in USA) or learning to say ‘hello’ in Malay.”
That sounds like a lot of work. “Yes, it is.” Rickson agreed. “My team and I customized the tasks to be relevant to the places so that the travelers can have a unique and local experience.” He continued, “And that’s not all. We reward them for completing the missions too. Say the app’s mission is for the person to take a selfie with KLCC. Once the traveler has completed the app, they will be rewarded with a lunch voucher from a restaurant near KLCC or maybe even a 50% discount shopping coupon. It’s very interactive and fun!”
Sharing Itinerary
“People normally relate ‘Sharing’ to sharing photos and videos on social networks. For Tourplus, sharing means giving others a glimpse of your experiences from the missions and your itinerary,” Rickson said. “You can easily share your itinerary and your experiences with everyone around the world. And they can use your itinerary as a reference or just adopt the entire itinerary altogether and use it as their own!”
“We’re basically creating a platform for travelers to not only share their experiences, but put the information out there so they can do the same!”
That sounds like an amazing feature that will let the lazy be lazy without the consequence of having nothing to do when they reach their travel destination. Rickson agreed wholeheartedly, “That is definitely our ultimate goal.”
“A person goes travelling without planning anything can just take out his or her phone and instantly plan her entire itinerary within 5 minutes with Tourplus.”
An app that rewards lazyness. I love it.
“Tourplus aims to be an app that will enhance travel experiences. We have ‘Plan’ to automatically plan itineraries, ‘Missions’ to let you enjoy your travel, and ‘Share’ to share your experiences with your family, friends and everyone around the world!”
Overall, this sounds like an amazing app to look out for. You can sign up for the beta version on its page here and like their Facebook page to keep up to date with their progress. I’m definitely voting for this as one of the most anticipated app of 2015.
