Startups El Camino and Regenerative Travel Tap Subscription Model
Photo Caption: A group tour of Oaxaca, Mexico, organized by the startup El Camino Travel. Source: Alí Zárate for El Camino Travel.
Skift Take
A couple more U.S.-based startups — El Camino Travel and Regenerative Travel — have recently announced subscription-based products. What's noteworthy is how they're using subscriptions to build communities.
A dozen or so travel companies have tested subscription-based products and services in the past two years. The goals have been to diversify revenue streams and tap into emerging consumer preferences.
Highlighting the momentum of the subscription travel megatrend, two more U.S.-based startups — El Camino Travel and Regenerative Travel — have recently announced subscription products. Unlike most others, these startups have focused on the potential of subscriptions to build communities of like-minded travelers.
Super-serving Women TravelersEl Camino began nearly seven years ago as a U.S.-based tour operator focusing on the criteria of women travelers.
Its success has led to a partnership with Conde Nast Traveler's Women Who Travel group, which tapped it to organize a series of small group trips to Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba. The demographic has a sweet spot among "elder millennials."
The company recently launched a $100 a year subscription product where the real benefit of membership is joining a community of like-minded women travelers exchanging honest advice. The community then helps the brand sell offline tours, an underexplored lever that the subscription travel model can impact.
El Camino Travel has about 550 paying subscribers. Members can ask questions about tr
