Local Expert

Partnership
Programme
2014
Locally informed, globally inspired
Locally informed, globally inspired
Contents
1. My Destination Overview
2. Our USP
3. Market Opportunity
4. Partnership Opportunity
5. Financial Summary
6. What it Costs
7. What You Sell
8. What You Get Back
9. Why Invest in an
Online Media Business?
10. Why Invest in a
Partnership Business?
11. Training and Support
from HQs
12. Next Steps
13. Contact Details
My Destination Overview
My Destination is a global travel resource powered by a
diverse community of local experts on the ground, providing
unrivalled local knowledge and unique local deals. We make
travel experiences more enriched, more enjoyable and quite
simply, better.
Passionate about providing the best value for money, we
work closely with the global players whilst also supporting
local businesses and everyones right to choose what suits
them best. Our local experts produce comprehensive
information with unique travel articles and guides, insider
tips, videos and panoramic virtual tours. Through interactive
features visitors can personalize, share and inspire their
travel experiences.
Established in 2006 by award-winning (and travel-mad)
young entrepreneurs Neil Waller and James Street,
our franchise community of local experts now spans 5
continents, 58 countries and over 120 destinations. We are
headquartered in London, UK.
58 Countries
123 Destinations
20,000
+
Videos & VTs
70,000
+
Business Profles
18,000,000
+
Global Travelers
Our USP
Our local partner acquires the rights to their destination from us and
is then in charge of three tasks - content development, marketing
and sales. In return, we at HQs focus on the development of the
brand, innovation of the product, quality assurance, training and
support. We also focus heavily on ensuring that our websites are
fully search engine optimised to make them easier to be picked up in search results. Our
unique model not only represents signicant cost advantages which can be passed onto
our advertisers which gives us a greater scope for scalability, but it also enables us to
outperform our competitors in three key areas:
Local Relationships - we are based in situ which means we can walk into any business
in any of our destinations and sit down with the manager. Ultimately our franchisees
are able to build relationships with business owners that many big brands are not able
to. This and regular contact with businesses means we are in a position to negotiate
exclusive deals and are always in the loop
Depth & Richness of Content - we are able to collate the most comprehensive, up to
date information with insider tips, videos and panoramic virtual tours. This means our
users get the full picture. In the last year alone we have produced over 2,000 videos/
virtual tours

Marketing Reach - My Destination is being marketed in all of our destinations both

online and (importantly) ofine. With our local partners we have the strength of a
collective marketing department numbering over a hundred. Its a true ground-up
approach to spreading the word about the brand. Also, every business owner our local
partners deal with is a potential travel customer at one of our other destinations.
Our model of local partners allows us to build true
destination guides, which contain a depth and
breadth of content that cant be rivalled.
Articles - Local tips, top tens, culture, sport and
sightseeing
Business Proles - Accommodation, restaurants,
Things to do, nightlife, and much more
Multimedia - Including virtual tours, videos, high
quality images
Events Guide - A calendar covering all thats going on in a destination
Weather - Updated hourly, and with a 5-day forecast
Exclusive Deals - Locally sourced, hand-picked deals and ofers direct from
the businesses
Travel Info - All the necessary information on getting around, keeping safe
and getting to know a destination
Market Opportunity
Millions of travelers start planning their holidays by exploring diferent destinations
via their computers, tablets and mobile apps or even engaging with their social
networks all facing various degrees of satisfaction during the travel planning
process. In todays economy, consumers are cautious about where and how much
they spend and wish for a seamless shopping experience. When every cent counts,
it is crucial for travel professionals to understand travelers behavior to inuence
those with the greatest poten tial and ensure they develop the best strategies for
engaging consumers. The market opportunity is huge and My Destination is uniquely
positioned to lead the way.
The future of online travel will see a shift from a transaction and fullment model
to a complete ecology of technology, content and service, and which covers the
full spectrum of the travel cycle. This will incorporate inspiration, recommendation
and discovery into the online consumer experience. These will be as important as
transactions.
Catering to the substantial group of travelers who do not have a destination in mind
is advantageous as these consumers often spend more money on travel. Attracting
shoppers earlier in the travel planning process allows websites to go higher up the
purchase funnel, potentially broadening their audience and reducing a reliance on
search and referral trafc. A substantial portion of travelers is eager for new ways to
determine where to go and what to buy.
US$2 Trillion industry
3.3 billion travellers internationally in
2014
The Online market for leisure travel
will surpass US$500 Billion in 2014
Mobile/Tablet will grow twice as fast
as the total travel market in 2014
67% of travellers research the
destination online before travelling;
average 4.1 websites per traveller
Each will spend of 21 days selecting
a destination and 17 days choosing
travel components
In 2014 the travel Industries spend
on digital advertising will be around
US$4.5 billion, set to rise to over US$8
billion by 2018
Local businesses are becoming
increasingly attracted to online
promotion
Sources: World Travel & Tourism Council, PhoCusWright, IAB Online Advertising Barometer.
Partnership Opportunity
The My Destination Business Model is very simple. We believe the best
travel content is written by people who know their destinations like the
back of their hand and are there on the ground. Some people love where
they live and want to show it of to the world - the best way to do that
is of course through the web and mobile. Our revenue is predominantly
generated through the advertising income that is received by local
tourism businesses for proles, multimedia and banner advertising. Other
revenue streams which we are looking to exploit include the likes of
online booking systems for hotels, ights, car hire, the ofering of deals
and packages, and through attracting global advertising contracts from
major worldwide travel brands.
Our model allows passionate experts to operate their own online travel
guides with the support of a world class technical and operational
support team. We all benet from huge economies of scale, constant
product and technological innovation, a growing global brand, the
dominant search engine rankings and high trafc numbers that comes
from being a global brand. As a local partner there are 3 key components
to operating a successful My Destination website:
Content: Writing about your destination, businesses, events and keeping
up to date on the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Marketing: Build awareness of your My Destination business through local
networking, developing social media campaigns and promoting your My
Destination website across online search engines

Sales: Building relationships with businesses and selling them proles
and adverts on the website which increases their exposure and ultimately
increases their sales. This is all done with our support which we ofer in
every facet of the business but if you are able to put together a team to
cover both sales and content efectively in your destination then you can
make a great success of the business.
What it Costs What You Get Back
What You Sell
Unlike traditional franchise based businesses, My Destinations Local Expert Partnership
Programme does not require new partners to make an initial investment. Our partners
still enjoy all the benets associated with owning and operating a franchise business but
without the huge upfront investment which can put untold pressure on new franchise
owners, especially during the important start-up phase. Instead, when you acquire the
rights to your My Destination website you simply pay down a 3,000 prepayment of
monthly management/support fees (which are set at a minimum level of 300 per
month) and HQs will then draw-down on this credit over the rst 10 months of your
tenure. After 10 months we simply invoice you each month for the management/support
fees and whatever advertising income your site generates from day one, you keep! By
not having an initial investment to worry about partners can focus their attention on
building a great My Destination website so they can start attracting advertisers from the
day they launch, without the constant nancial pressure.
Below is a basic plan for what we feel is realistically achievable within 24 months from
launch:
Each destination website has an average of 8 advertising categories within the
business directory
The objective would be that 30 paying advertisers are attracted to each category
Total number of 240 paying clients per destination
Target to sign up 10 businesses a month at an average cost of just 30 a month
Based on the above scenario, a destination, from the sale of dedicated proles can
have an established and recurring monthly income of 7,200* within just 24 months of
launching the website. The aim should also be to up-sell multi-media services to a third
of these customers which should further increase this income. *It is of course important
to note that the level of advertising income generated is closely associated to the level of
sales resources applied to the business.
As your business starts producing a recurring cash-ow and a growing user base, this will
help you to build the equity value of your business which youll be able to realise in the
future should you wish to sell your business. If you decide to sell HQs can also help you to
look for a buyer.
Your prot is derived from 2 main income streams:
Selling dedicated proles in the business directory This is the paid for value added
advertising service, which stands out from the free listings in the directory and delivers
a cost-efective and high-impact marketing solution for local businesses.
Multi-media services You are trained to take high-quality virtual-tours, videos and
professional photographs for businesses. These help the business proles to stand out
but can also be something that the business uses on their own website or for their own
marketing purposes. Our advantage is that we are able to provide these multi-media
services at a signicantly reduced cost due to our huge economies of scale.
Why Invest in an
Online Media Business?
Training and Support from HQ
Global internet usage continues to grow with much of the worlds population spending
considerably more time online than any other activities. The number of Internet users
has now reached almost 5 billion, equivalent to the entire world population in 1987. This
compares with 1.7 billion users in 2010 and only 360 million in 2000. This coupled with
more and more businesses worldwide allocating more of their annual budgets to online
marketing campaigns, makes an online media business a great opportunity to build a
scalable business within a growth sector.
The key advantage to operating an online business versus a traditional bricks and mortar
business, is the signicant cost savings that can be made compared to say a shop front
that is burdened from day one with high rents and rates. An online business also has the
advantage of being open for business 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year!
From day one training is given in all aspects of the business. Firstly you are guided
through our admin system which allows you to operate almost every aspect of the
website yourself. This has been built to be very user friendly and no previous technical
experience is at all necessary. If you need further training or reminders on how to do
things then no problem our team are there to help. We also have support not just in the
day to day operating of the website but in sales, social media and content. Essentially
our team acts as your team and because we all share the cost of these resources we all
benet from the economies of scale.
Why Invest in a Partnership
with My Destination?
Below are just a few of the many reasons why it pays to
become a My Destination local partner:
Leverage a proven methodology as there is no need to re-invent the wheel
Training and development support Access a wealth of experience and know-how
Access to IT, design, editorial and marketing support No need to employ staf
during the start-up period
Benet from the brand equity of a globally recognised network thats already been
in operation for several years
For more details contact:
Raj Tanna
Head of Partnership Development
Email: raj.tanna@mydestination.com
Tel: +44(0) 7799 627762
Skype: kdtanna1
Next Steps
If you are ready to explore the My Destination Partnership Programme further then
our partner recruitment programme enables each candidate to conduct a thorough
due-diligence to enable them to feel condent that the My Destination Partnership
Programme opportunity is the right choice for them.
Our partnership recruitment programme includes the following steps:
An opportunity to have an initial discovery call to gain an overview of the business
model
An opportunity to review several training videos produced by the My Destination
team
An opportunity to review several documents including the partnership memorandum,
income vs. cost model, operations guide and partnership agreement
An opportunity to speak with several members of the My Destination team from HQs
and also some of our existing partners
An opportunity to speak with James or Neil, our co-founders to learn about the future
direction of My Destination
Being a My Destination Local Partner is an exciting prospect Being your own boss and
running your own local media business that represents a destination you are passionate
about. Why not grasp the opportunity now and get in touch with us to arrange a
discovery call?
Annual Franchise Conference, Dubai 2011
Locally informed, globally inspired
18a Pindock Mews,
Little Venice,
W9 2PY, London,
United Kingdom