Travel Factor

BY IKKA C. DE GUZMAN
Gear up and go

Cyberspace might have brought them together, but it was the wild outdoors that made them a team. Michelle Tan, Leia Nagal, Ayeen Cruz, Reg Mamaril and Jasper Santos all lead double-lives as information technology professionals by day, and adventure daredevils by night.

All are in their 20s, all have a degree in computer science, and all have a stake in the popular sports and adventure outfitter, Travel Factor. "Leia, Mareen and I started out as online buddies, sharing local travel tips in different blogs and fora, back in 2005," says Michelle Tan.

Hours of endless chatting and web posting ended in an e-group, which led to a more active exchange of travel ideas, and finally, by the summer of 2006, an outing in Coron.

"Our common problem was, we all wanted to travel but we found it difficult to organize a trip among our own friends," he adds. On their first trip together, the group hit it off right away and towards the end of the year, simply because of their shared love for traveling, Travel Factor was born.

The company, introduced to the public through the "Surfvivor" series — regular weekend surfing trips to La Union — has since then organized white-water rafting, snorkeling, scuba diving, climbing/trekking, and even photography tours to off-track destinations in Cagayan de Oro, Camiguin, El Nido, Ilocos, Mindoro Occidental.

"More than a regular business, Travel Factor has allowed us to meet fellow independent travelers, who started out as our clients," says Ms. Nagal.

For their start-up capital, each member contributed around P20,000 which took care of the business registration process and the company’s supplies and materials.

Since we all have day jobs, we do all the planning and the meetings online, save for a formal quarterly meeting that we schedule and attend, adds Ms. Nagal.

The company operates mainly through its Multiply site, thetravelfactor.org, and coordinates with clients mainly through phone calls, online messenger and e-mail. "We usually meet them for the first time in our designated meeting place somewhere in Manila, where we fetch them on the way to our destination."

The trip package is normally inclusive of transportation, accommodation and guide/instructor fees. "We hire vans and even buses and boats for transportation, but for trips involving air travel, normally through the budget airline Cebu Pacific, we give our clients the itinerary and they purchase their plane tickets themselves."

Contacts with reputable resorts, adventure sports instructors, tour guides and van/boat operators had been critical in the company’s first year.

"Before we organize a trip to a particular trip, one of us has to go there and check it out first, so everything in our itinerary is from first-hand experience," Ms. Nagal says.

Typically, at least two members of the company are present in each trip, but for clients with their own agenda in mind, Travel Factor also arranges tailor-made trips for small groups of travelers. "Unlike typical travel agencies, where you’re basically on your own after they book you, we make sure we’re there for them until the end of the trip. This is done through constant monitoring, from taking off at the beginning to touching down at the end. We call them constantly, we tell them who to talk to, what to expect, and if something goes wrong in the middle of the trip, we can modify their itinerary for them."

Suggestions from clients, from hotels and restaurants to new activities, allow the team to continuously modify and expand their itineraries. As for their cheap and friendly prices, "we compute and re-compute until we come up with the most reasonable budget: We study the costing and continuously search for cheaper but high quality alternatives," Ms. Nagal says.

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