Crowdsourcing Lifts Off For Air Travel

Photo: Air Canada

In an effort to connect with younger travelers, Air Canada recently launched a website that allows Canadian citizens to raise funding for their travel plans through crowdsourcing.

On the site, called Embarq, travelers upload photos or video stories about who they are, where they want to travel, and how much the trip will cost; Air Canada sends them gift cards in the amount they collect. The monies can be used for airfare and fees such as seat selection, change fees and upgrades, but not for other travel expenses.

“The youth traveler segment is expected to increase 47% by 2020, and so we started asking ourselves how we could make it easier for aspiring world explorers to travel with Air Canada,” Isabelle Arthur, an Air Canada spokeswoman, told TMR. “We conducted research that revealed that Millennials have more audacious travel ambitions than ever before and want to seize the world, but lack the funds to make their dreams a reality.”

At the same time, Arthur said, Air Canada observed “a growing trend toward gifting more meaningfully, especially around milestones,” and the rise of crowdfunding platforms that “has made it fairly commonplace for people to help make one another’s dreams into reality.”

The site is only visible to Canadian residents. As of July 22, 942 profiles had been created, asking for travel around the globe. Toronto, London, Paris, Vancouver and Tokyo are the most popular destinations.

Air Canada also thought it was a great way to use the e-gift card. “We are the only airline that we are aware of offering a platform that combines social commerce and eGift cards,” Arthur said.

While travel is sometimes listed as a goal for users of crowdsourcing sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter, industry observers believe this is the first crowdsourcing website exclusively for leisure travelers.