Why travel solo when you can trip pool?
PROJECT engineer Aloysius Liow went on a graduation trip to Taiwan five years ago with five women he did not know. The 30-year-old met them for the first time only two hours before their flight.
Mr Liow's roommate had pulled him in as a travel buddy for the eight-day trip. The five women were people his roommate knew from church. Through an idea similar to car pooling, trip pooling involves getting people who do not know one another to go on a holiday together.
The "trip poolers" are gathered from websites and forums, or through recommendations by friends.
The trips that these travellers take up are getting popular with working adults aged 21 to 35 in Singapore, according to Ms Eunice Tan, the creator of the Singapore Travel Buddies Group on Facebook, which has a total of 450 fans.
The 27-year-old engineer organises four such trips a year, up from just two five years ago. "Singaporeans love to travel but they don't want to take up standard tour packages," said Ms Tan.
And, if they are not holidaying with their families, many would prefer not to travel alone, she added. Their friends may not be able to join them for a trip because of the difficulty of matching the dates of their annual leave.
"Finding strangers to accompany you on your trip probably serves as a solution," she said. Travelling with strangers instead of going solo also helps save money, said fans of such arrangements.
Ms Tan, who has been on 20 such trips, said that the cost of land tour packages, accommodation and transport can be split among the travellers the larger the group, the less each individual pays.
-News courtesy of Omy-
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