At the end of a grueling year at school, a vacation is what most children look forward to. However, the planning and execution of the vacation is usually done by parents, and as adults, they might sometimes overlook just how child-friendly the places they plan to visit is.
When 12-year-old Bella Tipping from Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, returned from a vacation to the U.S. with her parents, she wanted to share her experience. She followed her mother, Bernadette, to the computer and tried to log into TripAdvisor, the travel planning and review site. However, she was not allowed to register since she was under-age. Disappointed that she couldn’t voice her views about the hotels and the places she visited, Bella decided to fill this gap in the online space by creating her own travel review website for kids.
The birth of Kidzcationz
Bella wanted to create a site where children could provide honest feedback about different things related to travel and vacation giving them a more significant role in the family vacation decision-making process.
But before she could dive right into the project, her mother asked her to come up with a business plan to ensure the idea had merit. Firm on her idea of creating a travel review site, Bella sat down and wrote the entire business plan explaining what the website was about, how it was going to work, her target audience, and her exit strategy. Moved by her commitment and dedication, her parents decided to help her in her journey towards making her dream a reality.
Bella sat with her parents and chalked out the finer details of the website for nearly a year. She came up with a name, found a web designer and made decisions on the look and feel of the website. Bella was clear that the site was going to cater to children under 18, but could be accessed by anyone.
With help from her mother, Bella also managed to get affiliated with an international travel booking site.
She travelled extensively across Australia with her parents to collect data for her parents to collect data for her reviews on the site.
Kidzcationz was formally launched in late 2015.
Safety first
To ensure kid’s identities are safe, the site uses avatars for reviewers’ profiles. It has safety features that ensure children cannot share photographs or contact information with anyone else using the site.
A successful kidpreneur
Today, Kidzcationz is a successful platform with thousands of reviewers from around the world. The site also made Bella find a place for herself in the ‘Fortune 18 Under 18’ list of entrepreneurs 2016.
What makes her special?
Bella saw an opportunity and made the best use of it. Her commitment and dedication to fulfill her dream led to the birth of Kidzcationz, and her establishing herself as a successful entrepreneur.
Picture Credit : Google