A new travel website, MissTravel.com, is attracting much press and may have finally solved the “social travel” issue — in its own way.
The site seeks to pair Generous Travelers (i.e. guys with bucks) with Attractive Travelers (women seeking guys with bucks and possibly travel adventures).
The Generous Travelers, who pay a membership fee, are able to communicate on the site with the Attractive Travelers, who use the site for free, and then the Generous Travelers pay for their joint travels or gift the Attractive Travelers frequent flyer miles.
Just call it travel inspiration and turning dreams (or fantasies) into reality.
And, the site stipulates: “Escorts are not allowed.”
And there are also testimonials from Generous Travelers on how they “only travel with beautiful women.”
Here’s a video on how the site works:
There are three types of trip proposals that Generous Travelers can send to Attractive Travelers:
- Travel with me,
- Come to me, and
- Show me your town.
For the latter two trip types, there are plenty of other names for these sorts of excursions. Many, one hears, often take place late at night.
If you are not generous or attractive (or you are a generous woman or an attractive man), and just want to learn more about the site, you can read a FAQ here.
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And how is this different from prostitution?
It seems to make prostitution social and exclusive. Well done.
Dating site at its sexiest worst
Repulsed with this company and very disappointed that you wrote about them. I get the whole freedom-speech part but this is just attracting underage girls to be attacked, abducted and g-d knows what else by sick twisted men who may be wealthy but are mentally unstable. Beyond disgusted that anyone is giving these people publicity.
What a disgrace. Very disappointed with tnooz to report it. This is nothing but an embelished form of prostitution. Are we talking travel news here or adult industry news?
Is this some kind of joke? Seems like an April Fools to me, but about a month late. We go to tnooz for interesting travel items not pointless drivel (and that’s being charitable) like this…
Sorry you all seem to be disappointed in tnooz for covering a new travel dating website. We are pleased that the travel industry is discussing us, as we are sincerely here to help people travel. We are travel-dating website. That seems to be very much in the realm of interesting topics that tnooz should cover. Our goal is to make traveling available to more people, and bring together those who do not want to wander around the globe alone. We also have a social media community that discusses the best places to travel around the world.
Thank you, tnooz, for being an equal opportunity travel blog.
@steve @mark @heddi – sorry to have disappointed you all.
We will always write about some of the things we’re hearing (or are getting attention elsewhere) when there is a travel element to it.
That is the type of editorial decision we take (and have to live by) every day of the week.
Yes, some might argue that this is indeed a particularly seedy approach to social travel and shouldn’t be covered at all, but equally some might also suggest that giving it a platform here and then the industry seeing the groundswell of negative reaction to it in the comments is of equal importance.
Potential partners (which the site will always need) may well think twice if they see an outpouring of vitriol against it here on a leading industry media site from its loyal readers.
But we’re happy to take a knock on the chin for this one if we’ve failed.
Fair enough. I have to admit it WAS interesting or I wouldn’t have bookmarked it from fb to have a proper read later on… Cheers for the response, Steve
if Sex tourism goes social, I guess that will have to be written about, as that will also contain “travel element” to it… mm?
I feel you failed for once, not this one, shouldn’t have gone past you Kevin.. because as much as you may say this brings exposure to this site negative or not, this is exposure for them…. bad taste this one..
Kevin – you SHOULD cover this type of thing. You’re a journalist not a babysitter. How would the people who are complaining ever find out this even exists without the story? They now know who to complain to if they are really are that upset.
@martyn – actually, i am a babysitter quite a lot. Just not at work
.
Course you should, you’re journalists. You should write about wrong uns with all the rest. It’s what a good newspaper/newservice of record does. What shocked me was how long it took Tnooz to publish. Was all over Twitter during Barca vs Chelsea. Slipping!
Yes morally-reprehensible idea aside, the one thing that caught my eye was the map. It’s brilliant. Getting the world on one page is damned hard to do. Course the route plotted on the map is even more mental. Guyana via Texas, with a surface sector in West Africa, ending up in Hanoi. Hmmm I’m not an expert but that seems a bit dodgy to me. Thankfully I can’t see this site lasting…what a map though.
@stuart – Yes, our moral compass appears to have failed almost to the same extent as our ability to write stuff up quickly.
Hi Kevin, interesting and controversial cover. I’m personally not fond of the concept at all – but for business and speaking purposes I’m glag I’m aware of it – which is exactly why I follow Tnooz.
From a design or technical perspective it seems to be quite a piece of work, despite the moral dilema.
Cheers,
Peter
I’m surprised no one has commented on the sexism of the whole thing. The Generous Travelers are all men and the Attractive Travelers are all poor helpless hot babes. Something is wrong with this picture.
I am surprised you did not do your homework. We have many generous female travelers, and attractive male travelers using our site. No one is ‘helpless’, they are coming here of their own accord. This is not some ‘last resort’ website.
We also support travelers seeking same sex relationships. All those who want to travel our welcome, no discrimination.
-MissTravel.com
All:
Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere did some research (honestly!) and signed up to see what happened…
Here is his account: http://everything-everywhere.com/2012/04/27/miss-travel-where-gold-diggers-and-travelers-can-meet/
Regarding the criticism that we shouldn’t have covered the launch of MissTravel.com: Our mission as journalists is to cover the travel business as it exists — not cherry-picking this business or that based on how we feel about the specific business.
Should we not cover TripAdvisor if some people disagree with its review process?
Should we ignore Expedia or Google if sometimes they have a heavy hand?
Our mission is to write about travel tech, i.e. online travel, as it exists and let the chips fall where they may.
No regrets.
What a lively discussion! It seems that every one has their own definitions of ‘attractive’, and though our marketing does promote beauty, we have never provided a definition of what that is. There is a reason for that. Everyone is attractive in their own way, and we are not here to make people feel badly about themselves for not fitting into a category.
The purpose of this site is simple: to bring together people who want to travel, and also happen to be single. There are worldly travelers, business men, and wealthy individuals who have enough money to go around, but maybe haven’t found the right person yet. And then there are people all over the world who dream of far off places, that they would never be able to afford to go to on their own. They dream of being whisked off to Paris on a private jet, or riding an elephant in Thailand (as seen on the Bachelor). But these dreams are so unattainable, because travel is a luxury they can not afford.
But on MissTravel, there are people who can afford to do these things, but what is the fun of doing them alone? How do you meet someone who truly wants to travel in a bar, or somewhere else, when you are working long hours and traveling all the time? There was truly a need for our website to bring these people together. We are NOT an escort site, we do NOT allow prostitution to occur. And honestly, there are so many easier routes to those two services, there is no reason why someone would use our site for that purpose. We go to great lengths to prevent insincere users, as well as fraudulent and suspicious activity.
It’s a dating site. Plain and simple.
-MissTravel.com
MissTravel –
Are these encounters just “a date”? If so, then all the Bangkok bar girls are just going on dates too – and the wealthy foreigners who buy them drinks and give them money are just being generous and giving them an opportunity that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Romance and travel are great – when you are traveling and meet someone. It’s different to offer romance in exchange for travel or to qualify a date based on someone’s ability to give you a free ride. That’s an exchange – and where an exchange is concerned, and one’s physical attributes are part of the exchange, it becomes prostitution, whether there’s sex or not. I can hardly imagine a “date” that begins with one person (who’s hot) having arrived in a foreign place where someone who has money is their host.
It’s sexist. It’s elitist. It’s dangerous. It’s even worse than what we consider prostitution because it basically serves the same function but somehow makes it seem acceptable. Great – let’s tell our daughters and sisters that we have a great new way for them to travel!
Come on guys, don’t you have any sense of equality and dignity? If a woman wants to travel but can’t afford it, why not encourage her to go volunteer. Go woofing. Be an au pair. Here’s some tips: http://www.traveldudes.org/travel-tips/18-ways-travel-free-or-next-nothing/15777
You might argue that this happens all the time in real life and that you aren’t creating the context that makes this possible. Fine – but do you have to promote it and try and capitalize on it? Humans are full of undesirable, shallow traits – but the big challenge is to try and rise above them, not exploit them.
Can’t you build a business that’s part of the solution and not part of the problem?
Clearly our site is not for you. You are reading way too much into generosity. We are fulfilling a need that previously had not been met. NO WHERE on our site are their promises of sex or any sort of thing. It’s a destination date, and it’s not for everyone. Like I said before, there are people who do not meet people to travel with naturally, as apparently you do so effortlessly. That is why our site exists. End of story. You don’t have to join if you are not interested.
I’m not a proponent or opponent of the site, nor will I engage in the moral debate, though it’s a fascinating one on an intellectual level.
However, I would like to make the simple observations that Bangkok bar girls do have a healthy clientele, wealthier women seem likely to be “generous travelers” as well as men, there’s a reason Ashley Madison has something like 20 million subscribers (and a travel component), and both the travel and porn industries are among the biggest online industries in the world. I’m not suggesting travel and porn are related, but they’re among the biggest.
It seems to me a very targeted way to tap into very fundamental characteristics of human nature, whether any one of us “approves” of it or not.
Might be a good business, might not, but as we can see it’s generated more comments than anything about Expedia and its hotel inventory, right?
Hey Jonathan: Expedia and its hotel inventory is a sexy issue to me:)
Dennis – maybe Expedia can send you a “Come to Me” as an Attractive Traveler, then
Clearly the site is targeted at ‘gold digging’ females and for them to imply that it is a meeting/dating site for travelers is ridiculous.. quote MissTravel: “The purpose of this site is simple: to bring together people who want to travel, and also happen to be single.” – what a joke.
Taking the whole escort/prostitution factor out lets look at the facts:
1. The site is called MissTravel – both the homepage and video only show attractive females and wealthy men. – A dating site you would imagine to cater to both sexes.
2. The ‘generous traveler’ has to pay for everything including any contact that is made by an ‘attractive traveler’ on the site.
3. The founder Brandon Wade also runs these sites SeekingArrangement.com (The elite sugar daddy site), SeekingMillionaire.com (Find wealthy men and beautiful women) and WhatsYourPrice.com (Bid for first dates).
There is clearly a market for a travel dating site but this is far from that. My message to Brandon – stick to your sleaze and stay out of travel.
could say ” exactly” .. and yes ” EXACTLY’
Stay out!..
.. TNOOZ folks there are other more pressing and exciting matters of interests and discussion in the industry, so do not waste journalistic freedom on such articles. Take a stand, as you are leading the way in this industry and my personal thought is that you should be a little more responsible as a leading travel site.
@josh – sorry you’re disappointed.
However, I think we’ve outlined why we covered this in my own and Dennis’s comments above.
We can’t (and do not strive to) please everyone.
Without being self-righteous… and far from allowing you or Tnooz to please me.. here goes…
So having attained a level of authority and following, you now would like to simply use it whichever way you wish to and respond to comments such as mine and or others’ where there is a level of disagreement with a response as ” …can’t (do not strive to) please everyone’? really Kevin? is that all you could come up with? me or all of those who are commenting or following stories or news at Tnooz are not here for personal reasons, are we? and are we here to be pleased or pandered to.. mm…?
Let me see, I come to this site often, and I have noticed this arrogant tone in your responses to comments where folks have criticized you and you have responded in a negatively/defensive tone and not taking any ethical journalistic responsibility or correcting or even accepting any sort of error on your part in the storyline… your response, attitude is : .”TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT this is how it is and we will blow air under any and every skirt? as long as its news and if that means creating a buzz by writing up on dubious sites pretending to be travel oriented in spite of knowing well the player/s behind it, you stand by it. May as well start writing up on numerous dating sites cropping up, they all have some sort of travel angle to it as that seems to be your base criteria.
And like Dennis Schaal says .. let the chips fall where they may.. nice..
@josh – hey, thx again for the comment.
Apologies for the brevity of my original response – it was almost 10pm and I didn’t have the time for anything of more substance.
while “can’t (do not strive to) please everyone” might feel like a bit of a brush off, it is actually the reality of news gathering and editorial decision making, perhaps outlined to some in a slightly flippant manner.
Media brands cannot assume everything they write will be 1) of interest 2) accepted by the entire readership, so we don’t agonise over every story in the hope that it will strike a positive chord with everyone.
If this wasn’t the case, we would never write another story about a development or deal signed by a GDS, for example, simply because there are plenty of people in the industry who dislike that form of distribution and its perceived stranglehold on the industry.
And they probably raise their eyes to the sky every time they see such a story on Tnooz.
We knew this story would polarise opinions, but many of our stories do – we suspect that is why we have grown quickly and have that “authority” (thx for the kind word, we’re actually far too humble to say it ourselves), because we’re not afraid to step in to areas where others have shied away from.
As a result, we do not feel the need to apologise or, as you say, take any journalistic responsibility for this story. It is an interesting tale, in terms of the approach (very trip planning-esque design, for example, rather than a spammy affiliate link-laden effort common with other dating sites) was getting coverage in the mainstream tech media
It is worth reminding that we will ALWAYS come clean and correct inaccurate content.
But we live and die by our coverage every single day, and if READERS think we have poor judgement over a story, then we have to accept that we cannot please everyone all the time.
This is nothing new and any editor or reporter worth their salt will have the same attitude, as difficult as it is to accept that on occasion people might not personally feel as if their needs are being catered for.
Finally, if you feel that our response to criticism is often defensive, then I will simply say that I generally try and respond to comments in the tone in which they were posted. That’s a personal thing, and not a policy. Our reporters all have different styles.
I am happy to accept that on occasions my tone is flippant/arrogant – so apologies if it offends SOME people.
However, it also worth pointing out that while we have – and are keen to continue – a policy of including anonymous comments on Tnooz (http://www.tnooz.com/2012/03/14/talking-travel-tech-blog/a-quick-word-about-anonymous-comments/), I find it disappointing when readers decide to criticise us as individuals or as a brand without identifying who they are.
It’s not A Thing – it would just be easier to have a reasoned debate/argument with a reader if we had some idea of who they are!
Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful response and clearly showing that you care. I hope this response has done enough to repair your faith in our approach and tactics.
All:
We’ve written a bit about our decision to cover this story here: http://www.tnooz.com/2012/05/01/talking-travel-tech-blog/a-quick-word-about-that-misstravel-story/
Isn’t this what WAYN have been trying (and largely failing) to do for the past 5 or 6 years?