A new website aims to bring down the cost of cruise excursions for families - and its founders are opening up the product to travel agents.
David (19) and Jason (16) Lipowicz set up TeamTourist after experiencing the high price of private tours on cruise holidays, and the difficulty in finding others with which to share the cost.
“We came up with the idea of making a website that allows people to do that automatically,” David Lipowicz told TTG. “They can just book a tour and then other people can join. It removes all the stress of trying to find other people and having to sort everything out with a tour guide.”
The brothers have compiled a directory of tour guides from cruise ports across Europe, which will be expanded to include the US and Caribbean by the summer.
David Lipowicz believes the model offers a number of advantages: “Firstly it’s a lot cheaper than a standard cruise tour and it’s also more personalised. As well as that, if you have a second family join it’s then half the price that it was.”
He added that the trade would be able to earn commission on the product, and that the pair were already in discussions with several agents.
“Our plan is that we will create a special page branded for the travel agent that they can refer people over to and when anyone books through that page the travel agent will get commission on that booking,” Lipowicz said.
Lipowicz is currently in his second year of studying computer science at University College London, while his brother Jason is still at school.
David said that he had not been on the receiving end of any negativity surrounding his relatively young age.
“It’s all been really positive. All the tour guides are all really interested, they don’t mind about my age, it’s the concept that they like.”
