Nomadtours; A startup to revive forgotten subcultures

Among the important reasons for governments to pay attention to tourism are its economic consequences for the growth and development of the country, to the extent that tourism is the biggest factor in their economic growth in some countries. In the nascent startup ecosystem of Iran, many startups have emerged with the aim of developing tourism capacities. This time, we had a chat with one of these startups that has focused on attracting foreign tourists and introducing them to the beautiful and mysterious life of the nomads, and I invite you to read this article.

First, introduce yourself.

My name is Mohammad Malekshahi, a graduate of Electrical Engineering from Sharif University and a master’s degree in Environmental Economics from Tehran University, and I am currently working in Business I am “nomadtours”.

Give us a brief introduction of your business.

“Nomadtours” is the name of a social business that consists of people active in the field of rural development and interested in preserving forgotten subcultures. This group started its activity by focusing on tourism as a tool for local development and during the last year, the Koch tour with the nomads as the first operational example of Ideas has implemented itself.

How did you come up with your business idea?!

Koch tour is very attractive for tourists and on the other hand, it has many benefits for nomadic families. Although from the economic point of view, the nomadic colleagues will earn the majority of the income, but the most important effect of the Koch tour is the increase of self-confidence among this community regarding their lifestyle as a cultural asset. Believing that our lifestyle is so valuable that people from all over the world travel to Iran to experience it will help the nomads who still migrate on foot and have preserved this lifestyle in the most authentic way possible to be encouraged to continue it. The sum of these effects leads to more stability of nomadic life.

Do you have competitors in the market? What, if any, is your competitive advantage over your competitors?

The competitors of nomadtours in the field of nomadic tourism are placed in three categories:

a. Local guides who personally attract customers and conduct tours.

b. Groups that aim to create a platform to connect local guides and tourists.

P. Study groups that organize nomadic tours on a random basis.

T. Agencies that define nomadic tours in their tour portfolio. These tours are generally classic tours of Iran that meet nomads for one or two days.

The table below shows the characteristics of nomadic tours offered in Iran.

Our competitive advantage over Group A: Since these groups are created based on a guide and their own family, they have a very limited tour capacity and are not expandable. In addition, none of them have organized a migration tour with nomads and all three cases are among Qashqai nomads.

Our competitive advantage over Group B: They do not have an operational plan to attract local participation and establish communication among nomads. They do not have a plan to empower nomadic communities to create the capacity to hold tours. Since the number and capacity of groups organizing nomadic tours are very limited, creating a platform without increasing the capacity of the organizers is practically useless.

Our competitive advantage over P group: This group has a similar approach to ours in creating a complementary livelihood through tourism, but they are focused on research and study in this field and do not have a serious approach in commercializing this product.

Our competitive advantage compared to T group: This group offers a tour of nomads without serious focus and expertise in this field and only to complete their showcase. The main characteristics of nomadic tours, i.e. an authentic and real experience of nomadic life, are not present in these tours. From this point of view and from the perspective of the quality of the specific experience provided, this group of competitors is the weakest group. But the danger of this group is having a lot of media and destroying the image of nomadic tours due to their average quality.

The most important competitive advantages of Nomadtours:

• Extensive and deep relationships among nomadic families that have been acquired through considerable time and expense.
• A written program to expand the relationship among nomadic families
• The ability and experience of conducting nomadic tours (the execution of these tours is not possible without strong connections with a large number of nomadic partners.)

Is there a successful foreign example for your business? Are they likely to enter your market?

GAdventeure It is a successful example of an international business that organizes small-scale but deep culture and nature tours. The founder of this institution created this company in 1990 after returning from a backpacking trip to Asia with the aim of creating pristine opportunities for other tourists who are responsible for society, culture and the environment. He designed the structure of the tours in such a way that the tourist can have an original and adventurous experience of living in the style of the local people, while also being useful for the local community, and instead of just getting services from the community, he can create a two-way relationship.

Until 2008, the name of J Adventure was GAP, which had two meanings at the same time, one was a combination of three words “Adventure, great and peopleAnd the other is filling the gap between regular tours and backpacking tours. In fact, the main idea is that backpacking tours offer the opportunity to immerse yourself in culture and nature, and JAdventure provides this opportunity for other tourists as well. This organization now has more than 2,000 employees in 26 regional offices in the world, and more than 200,000 tourists have used its tour services. One of the most important features of JAdventures tours is the small number of tourists in each tour and the provision of accommodation and food services by local people.

In general, the following principles have proven to be effective in organizing tours that help preserve cultures:

1. Conducting tours with a small number of tourists

2. Emphasis on involving the local community in the tourism development process

3. Attention to economic, social and environmental sustainability

4. Providing the tour as an opportunity for cultural exchange and not as a service to be purchased

Explain a little about the team members.

Mohammad Malik Shahi/researcher and rural development facilitator

Mohammad was born in 1369 in Kerman province, and his origin and establishment goes back to the nomads of the Afshar clan. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology and a master’s degree in economics from Tehran University. He has been a journalist for “Duniya Ekhtaz” for two years and has three years of professional work experience in the field of rural development and facilitation of local communities at the Policy Research Institute of Sharif University.

Mohammad has never abandoned nature tourism and in one of these trips, he turns the idea of ​​nomadtours into action with the help of his friends. The regions of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari, Turkmen Sahara, Balochistan, Azerbaijan and Kerman have relative dominance.

Sara Shokohi/content production expert: Sarah has a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in English literature, and since she is interested in mountains and nature tourism, she joined us on one of the Koch tours with the nomads to help build relationships between female tourists and nomadic women, after that program in the team Content production started its cooperation with Nomedtours and gradually increased its cooperation.

Mohammad Khalowi/ expert IT and site manager: Mohammad is a PhD student in computer science at Amirkabir University. He specializes in smart marketing.

Hamidreza Jafar Salehi/ tour leader and travel planning expert: Hamidreza is a bachelor’s student at Sharif University. He has a tour leader certificate and is one of the strongest tour leaders of Nomadtours. Hamidreza also has experience as a secretary in the Sharif Student Group.

How long did it take you to get to the initial version of the product?

In about 5 months, we organized the first Koch tour with German tourists.

Have you had a fundraising and acceleration process? Do you intend to attract capital?

Yes. We have obtained a 200 million loan that can be converted into shares, and we will soon attract the first round of capital.

What marketing methods do you consider to enter the market?

marketing strategy Nomadtours is divided into two general sections:

1. B2B: In this section, Nomedtours cooperates with related businesses. These collaborations are included in the form of sales of Nomadtours tours, definition of joint cooperation for the introduction of tours, joint cooperation for the introduction of nomadic culture, etc. Examples of this type of cooperation are as follows:

Among the solutions mentioned, items A and T have been implemented, and items B, P, and C are under negotiation.

2. B2C: In this section, the main focus is on attracting the target audience directly. For this purpose, our main goal is to direct users to the NomadTours website as a window to get to know and also directly purchase tours. Our most important tool in this department is content production (text, photos and videos). The function of this content is to attract users, educate them and engage their minds.

Social networks play a key role in this sector. Our communication channels in this area:

Among other direct marketing solutions, we can mention email marketing and influencer marketing. All direct marketing methods aimed at increasing brand awareness and increasing volume Oral introduction is a brand Considering the functional differences and audiences of the mentioned channels, each of them requires its own strategy.

Along with the website, Nomedtours is active in all the mentioned channels and has even managed to attract customers through these channels.

In general, it is expected that since NomadTours has chosen its starting point on an unrivaled product and an unsaturated market, entering the market and becoming known will be realized at a much faster speed than other tourism agencies.

Have you envisioned other services to be provided on this created platform?

Yes, along the way, the intention to establish Shared workspace And we have a holding of companies active in the field of tourism and groups active in the field of subculture preservation.

If you were to go this route again, what would you do sooner?

We were doing content production and marketing more seriously and we were running a crowdsourcing campaign earlier.

And the last word?

My advice to new entrepreneurs is to look for executive and operational tasks and putting their words into practice rather than writing a business plan. Of course, planning is necessary, but I am worried about the current trend where people are more interested in attracting capital than implementing the work.