The Problem
Solo traveling can get lonely and certain traveling experiences are more conducive to groups. Even if traveling to a new place alone, there are certain experiences that can make you feel lonely, be a financial burden, or make you feel unsafe such as eating, nightlife, wine tours, hikes, etc.
Motivation
Many people travel solo for different reasons that can include the ease in planning for oneself, personal preference, or even personal interests that are just not shared among friends. However, there are many concerns as mentioned above, including loneliness (especially when involving more social travel activities), expense, and safety. We must improve the solo traveler’s experience if we want people to continue to learn and have exposure to new places and their respective cultures! Gained exposure allows all of us to have a broader understanding of those who are different from them, and improves global communication that can benefit many social, political, and institutional practices. There are already applications that have the ability to connect complete strangers in a social way such as dating apps or even Facebook groups. And Airbnb is an example of connecting strangers in the context of traveling. However, I think that there should be a specific platform that can combine aspects of these applications and tackle the problems associated with solo traveling.
Idea
My proposed solution is an app where solo travelers can register for certain activities that are known to be the most popular/recommended based on stats from a platform like yelp or the creators’ prior knowledge. The app can tell these people where to meet for the travel experience and a group of solo travelers who are interested in the same experience will have the opportunity to meet each other. I do think that there can also be an element of social communication on the platform, such as messaging, between these solo travelers before these events via a format similar to Groupme or WhatsApp based on what experiences they register for and the time frame in which they are traveling to a particular place. This app has the capability of increasing the amount of travel throughout the world as well as the amount of global awareness through experiential and cultural learning!