Hello guys! I'm very glad to have stumbled upon this group as it has been difficult to find online forums with quality content I would love to hear about what you think about this proposition.

So my friend and I are testing an idea which involves connecting travelers and locals in a place. Our vision is to give tourists a more unique and personal travel experience by assigning a local who is knowledgeable about his/her own locale and can therefore answer any or most questions the traveler might have. We believe that any information obtained from the Internet can never rival what YOU know as a local. This is different from traditional tour guiding in that in here, you only communicate with the traveler through digital means, giving tourists (and you as the local guide) freedom to do other things alongside this activity. This is a great opportunity to share your culture and maybe make new friends along the way while earning money on the side. We would love for Cambodia to be one of our test sites.

Who's interested to be a virtual local guide? Let me know in the comments and if you have questions, I would love to hear them

contact the experts at ta

or
why do they need you? anyone is free to ask anything on ANY FORUM

Hello General Mackevili, definitely not a spam but I'm sorry if it came across as one. In fact, this is my first and only post in my far and wide search for a good online forum Genuinely searching for insights!

Spam and bullshit too. A highly knowledgeable expat who has done a ton of reading, study, etc. on Cambodia is far more likely to be a high quality guide than the average local... so too is a trained, tour guide... plus if you just want a local to show you round in Cambodia - find a tuk-tuk driver who can speak a bit of English; he'll give you whatever tourist fantasy you need to hear to feel good about yourself.

phuketrichard wrote:contact the experts at ta

or
why do they need you? anyone is free to ask anything on ANY FORUM

Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking though that TAs are possible competitor since they offer tour guiding services, to which we are an alternative.

You're right about the usefulness of forums as well! They're free and you get numerous advice. They are however more useful when at the planning stage. The concept of having a local assigned to you during the duration of your trip gives you the luxury of real time advice Think having a tour guide but you only communicate through digital means. Do you think this will be of value to tourists, especially at a destination like Cambodia?

TheGrinchSR wrote:Spam and bullshit too. A highly knowledgeable expat who has done a ton of reading, study, etc. on Cambodia is far more likely to be a high quality guide than the average local... so too is a trained, tour guide... plus if you just want a local to show you round in Cambodia - find a tuk-tuk driver who can speak a bit of English; he'll give you whatever tourist fantasy you need to hear to feel good about yourself.

Thanks for the insight. Sorry for the poor choice of words but with a "local", I actually meant both the locals (who are hopefully well versed in English) and expats who already know the locale very well (in this case, Cambodia). Was thinking of catering to independent travelers who may need the extra help in getting around the area, looking for great places to eat, etc provided by the expertise of a local, without having an actual guide with them on the trip. As mentioned, the tourist and local will only communicate through digital means.

ElisPonce wrote:

phuketrichard wrote:contact the experts at ta

or
why do they need you? anyone is free to ask anything on ANY FORUM

Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking though that TAs are possible competitor since they offer tour guiding services, to which we are an alternative.

You're right about the usefulness of forums as well! They're free and you get numerous advice. They are however more useful when at the planning stage. The concept of having a local assigned to you during the duration of your trip gives you the luxury of real time advice Think having a tour guide but you only communicate through digital means. Do you think this will be of value to tourists, especially at a destination like Cambodia?

a local tour guide only via digital
totally worthless idea

General Mackevili wrote:

General Mackevili wrote:This is clearly spam, right? Hmmmmm

ElisPonce wrote:Hello General Mackevili, definitely not a spam but I'm sorry if it came across as one. In fact, this is my first and only post in my far and wide search for a good online forum Genuinely searching for insights!

Haha, apologies! ! ! I was thinking your post was one of those mass messages across the web, which is supposed to get caught by our anti-spam software.

I was shocked to see a human response, LoL.

Welcome, and an interesting idea you have.

Two questions:

1) Where are you guys located?

2) What kind of money can these virtual tour guides make? (Ballpark figures welcome)

We are a team located in various parts of Asia (Philippines, Japan). We're looking into Cambodia as a test city because we find that it's famous yet exotic enough for this idea to be of value to certain tourists. In our previous searches, we have found tourists traveling to Cambodia interested to test this idea and they're willing to pay. Moving to my next point (and your question), the locals will be the ones to set their professional fee for this service, but we can set a minimum fee, maybe equivalent to the minimum daily wage in a country. Remember that their physical presence is not needed! Any thoughts on this?

Do you think Cambodians (esp in the famous tourist locality of Siem Reap) take interest in this? Been thinking of ways on where best to reach them!