Don't want to be offensive but your insight is not really insightful.
Why?
Because it goes in totally wrong direction.
Most people don't want to work on stuff or plan the trip - they want to pick up the phone, tell what they want and have it organized. Organizing or even putting your wishes into some forms is work and that is not what people want ... they want to have VACATIONS and not fill in some application forms.
I work in insurance area - my business people would like to make forms so business owners can fill in what they have and what they need in some magic form and that software does the rest. Removing middle people who pick up the phones and moving work of filling in details to the customer.
I see it is not working because business owner wants to call someone, tell him "I have a bakery, I want insurance" and be done with it. Because he is busy making bread, he does not give a damn about your risk compliance process.
Last point is - people also don't want to pay the real price for what it takes to have custom vacations organized - that most people pay for all inclusive in some resort go to swimming pool, have Swedish table and they are happy with it, because they don't have to think about anything and they have all organized.
"All inclusive" is shitty vacation by my standard and I like custom trips but I go into so custom stuff that you don't have database for that because no one is going into those places because of what I wrote earlier.
There is no business in travel planning because it is people who are into custom stuff they want to do themselves (and don't pay) niche or get "all inclusive" and don't care about anything whales. Maybe there are some people somewhere in between but I don't think you are getting money out of them.
>they want to pick up the phone, tell what they want and have it organized.
Only because nothing better has come along. I know plenty of people who basically refuse to make phone calls. Cant order online, they will go to a different restaurant.
>Organizing or even putting your wishes into some forms
Exactly why it needs to be swipes.
Open the App
Invite Friends
Swipe Destinations
Click on destinations to swipe activities. Restaurants. Pretty pictures.
If its more complex than Tinder or TikTok or Pinterest youre right it wont be FUN to use. The whole point is that the act of planning itself should be pleasurable.
People love endless feeds of pretty pictures.
The fact that peoples responses are forms and spreadsheets tells me I havent explained myself well.
It doesnt need to be travel only. I use Yelp and Uber at home, and away from home.
I don't know what is about swipes but those are underused I agree. Does Tinder have some kind of patent on swiping decisions?
What you describe here is in my opinion more interesting. Because that would be more like choosing which "all inclusive" most of people want. If typing is cut to minimum and as you mention there are mostly pretty pictures that one has to swipe left or right it might work.
Not only are swipes underused to build consensus, I dont even believe Tinder is the best example. Baby name apps are. A couple download an app, join a meeting room and swipe. Common names appear on a list.
Now imagine that a restaurant picker could determine whether you never want mexican or dont want mexican today.
Swipes are too often thought of as a binary left/right, when really they are more of a radial menu. Swipe left-up could mean not this time. Swipe left-down means never. Swipe straight up to signify something as to come back to. Swiping is easily 4 to 6 to 8 different outputs of vote. The screen should represent a different color for each one until you let go, so you know which option you are releasing on. Things like Maya have had radial menus forever. If you built true swiping radial menus, you can even have a second later of options once the first has been hovered over for a while.
I would not go into radial menu unless it is some kind of specialist app. I would cut it down to left/right up/down - yes tinder is quite binary and does not have "maybe" as an option.
Still you have to build database of choices which will cost quite some money.
Tinder has this upside that their database of choices is building on its own.
Technically tinder is already more than binary, as upswipe is a different form of positive swipe than right swipe. It works there. Theres really no reason that throwing a picture to one of the four corners cant work.
You've hit the nail on the head, and I find it applies so many more things in life than just travel. It is my general observation that many people, as they progress through their life, reach the stage where they have more disposable income than time. And suddenly, all that tech fascination with self-service becomes extremely annoying.
I have personal examples from "the other side" for the cases you give.
Insurance-wise, I've been procrastinating on getting some of the belongings we have at home insured, because the insurance agent keeps coming back to me with calculations and offers I need to look at. But I have neither time nor patience to deal with it - especially not to study PDFs with tables full of calculations that were explicitly designed to be hard to compare[0]. The only interaction I wanted to have is, "this is where we live, this is the stuff we want insured, tell me how much to pay and where to send the money". They're losing money because they try to give me opportunity to save money[1].
Travel-wise, my wife and I both always looked down on people going on all-inclusives - but we took a chance and went on our first-ever all-inclusive a few years ago. We were immediately sold on the concept. It wasn't even a good all-inclusive - it was the cheapest one we could find, and the resort smelled like goats half the time - but it was the first time we actually rested. The amount of bullshit that goes into vacations is hard to even imagine until you experience being free of it. Even having to make a decision when, where and what to eat on a given day is a hidden source of background anxiety. On an all-inclusive, the only thing you need to worry about is what to do with all the worry-free leisure time you have.
So yeah, I agree with your conclusions. And in particular:
> people who are into custom stuff they want to do themselves (and don't pay) niche or get "all inclusive" and don't care about anything whales
Sometimes, perhaps often, those might be the same people. Personally, my all-inclusive experience convinced me that I should mentally separate the type of travel I want into categories. If I want to explore something niche, I'll continue to plan it myself. If I want to actually rest, I'll reach for the most bullshit-free all-inclusive experience I can get - as close as possible to "wire some money and be told what plane to catch".
(Though calling all-inclusive travelers "whales" is perhaps exaggerated - all-inclusives are ridiculously cheap these days, if you're willing to make compromises on luxury looks and you book far ahead in advance.)
--
[0] - Because, of course, businesses are douchy like that.
[1] - Or, perhaps, to fail at saving money - because, again, businesses are douchy like that.
Why?
Because it goes in totally wrong direction.
Most people don't want to work on stuff or plan the trip - they want to pick up the phone, tell what they want and have it organized. Organizing or even putting your wishes into some forms is work and that is not what people want ... they want to have VACATIONS and not fill in some application forms.
I work in insurance area - my business people would like to make forms so business owners can fill in what they have and what they need in some magic form and that software does the rest. Removing middle people who pick up the phones and moving work of filling in details to the customer.
I see it is not working because business owner wants to call someone, tell him "I have a bakery, I want insurance" and be done with it. Because he is busy making bread, he does not give a damn about your risk compliance process.
Last point is - people also don't want to pay the real price for what it takes to have custom vacations organized - that most people pay for all inclusive in some resort go to swimming pool, have Swedish table and they are happy with it, because they don't have to think about anything and they have all organized.
"All inclusive" is shitty vacation by my standard and I like custom trips but I go into so custom stuff that you don't have database for that because no one is going into those places because of what I wrote earlier.
There is no business in travel planning because it is people who are into custom stuff they want to do themselves (and don't pay) niche or get "all inclusive" and don't care about anything whales. Maybe there are some people somewhere in between but I don't think you are getting money out of them.