I’m trying to flesh out a one stop solution booking website for car enthusiasts or anyone in general to experience the car culture and motorsports activities in my home country in Malaysia.
Motorsport experiences include: gymkhana, track days, touge, hill climbs, drifting etc.
Special events include: Super GT, MotoGP, TCR. Additionally, we want to provide people with the opportunity to experience the underground car scene.
The main idea of the website is to make these events and experiences accessible to the foreign market. However, as a citizen I’m unable to see things clearly from overseas customers’ POV.
Basically, I’m asking these questions:
What are your grievances when trying to book an overseas automotive experience online?
How do you usually try to solve the issue?
What concerns you have when booking a automotive experience overseas?
I’m very new here so please correct me if I make mistakes.
Thank you
First off, this is a USA based site typically populated with US residents. A trip to SEA is a long one. I would only consider a trip to an F1 race of that distance. For that, I would use a specialty travel service that will book all travel, tickets and accomodations. There are more than a few of those sites.
I probably wouldn’t consider traveling overseas for an automotive experience. I get more than enough car culture locally. I cannot speak for others but there are very few automotive related experiences that I would be willing to leave the country over. Maybe something like Goodwood , Bathurst, or a chance to spend the day at the Nurburgring or something.
It hasn’t come up yet, so I cannot comment on that
Several things, travel restrictions (currently), the reputation of the outfit I would be booking through, communication through the process, etc.
You post a vague idea on a US web site and don’t even say what country you are in . Also how would anyone know what automotive events are worth going to if they don’t know where you are .
Me thinks you are in over your head and there are already many travel agency’s willing to do this.
Sports Car Market magazine which covers the classic car market took the opportunity to be a sponsor of a classic car rally in China, Permits and other logistics turned out to be more than the organizer anticipated, the rally did end up happening but not anywhere near what was promised.
My parents used a travel service called Hebrides Hopscotch for traveling between the Hebrides islands (Scotland) where you give them your planned dates and they put together your transportation and lodging on each island along with the ferry or airline tickets. Rental cars are booked so that you leave the car at the ferry terminal on one island and pick up another car when you get to the next island. More like a local travel agency than a guided tour but they took care of everything.
It would be interesting to visit some of S.E. Asia but I’d still rather go with a group than on my own.
For any clarification, I’m in Malaysia. We are trying to come up with a comprehensive website that compares all the offers/events available (think trivago, but more motorsport based). I guess it is understandable that most are unwilling to travel so far away to a tropical country just to experience car culture lol. However the services aren’t just catered to people who specifically come to Malaysia for said experience, but also for those that will be or are there for holidaying.
Maybe it is my honest mistake and optimism that Malaysia would be interesting enough. Your worries are definitely reasonable, and we are trying to iron out the kinks in our design.
@wolyrobb@VOLVO-V70
About travel agencies, this is what we’re trying to bypass. Some people prefer booking everything in one place A-Z, some people like to come up with their own itinerary. We Asians are a funny bunch (especially younger generation), online makes it easier for comparisons between companies or websites, prices are usually non negotiable and fixed, and the plus point for Gen Z is no awkward f2f interactions.
The issue with rentals is that you can’t/won’t drive on track or for touge. So one of the solutions that we’ve come up with is to provide you with the appropriate car for the duration of the experience.
It’s an interesting idea, currently have too many places I want to go but wouldn’t mind getting to see some of Laos where my dad lived in his early teens (early 1960;s)
