5 New Travel Startups That Try to Meet a Traveler’s Every Need

This week’s travel startups are not essential to the travel experience, but rather meet the specific, or unnecessary, needs of certain consumers — whether it be their religion or their addiction to technology that defines them.

>> Irhal is an Arabic and English travel app aimed at Muslim travelers with 90+ city guides. The guides are aimed at travelers coming from the Middle East and include information on prayer timing, mosque locations, and halal food restaurants.

SkiftTake: Niche travel guides that provide accurate and detailed information is a great sector to go into, because what it lacks in universality is made up for with customer loyalty.

>> TripinView collects hundreds of hours of helicopter video and photos, which have been geotagged to interactive maps, giving collectors the opportunity to explore coastal destinations including Greece, France, Malta and Spain. Users can save their favorite destinations and nearby points of interest.

SkiftTake: Helicopter photos are not often pushed as standalone travel content. Unfortunately for TripinView, Google Street View is already a primary resource for this.

>> TodayTix is an app for buying last-minute theater tickets. The app, created by Broadway producers and ticketing veterans, gives visitors access to discounted and full-price tickets for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.

SkiftTake: Anyone who has ever stood in line for discounted Broadway tickets will appreciate this app, however, price and availability will play the ultimate role in determining the app’s success.

>> Cruiseable is website and app for searching, planning and booking cruise vacations. Users can read through travel guides, filter through high-quality photos submitted by cruises and tourism organization, and book cruises directly through the site.

SkiftTake: Cruising remains one of the last travel sectors to move online in a large way giving Cruiseable the chance to capture underserved consumers. It also puts the site in a great position to parter with cruise lines that want to reach a broader online audience.

>> Eviate is a startup that aims to improve baggage tracking and delivery. It has partnered with KLM as its first client to create a track-and-trace device that tells airlines and the passengers where a bag is at any given time. It also tells the bag owner when it lands on the luggage carousal and whether it’s been opened during the journey.

SkiftTake: Consumers today have come to expect information at their fingertips so any service that provides just that is in a great position to grow.

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