Introducing U.
Mission:
To transform the way young people travel (and older people think about young people travelling)
Vision:
To take a stand – it is OK to travel, to party, and to be young. To be the world’s leading creator of sustainable and transformative travel experiences that helps young people become the best versions of themselves.
How:
U.- Creates transformational travel experiences that meet the market (see ideal product)
- Bridges the gap between travel and education
- Works alongside local partners to create these experiences and brings them in a manageable and viable way to the customers – we can commercialise and facilitate amazing community based projects economically sustainable
- Makes such experiences affordable by including more
- Is less apologetic – more extreme – more authentic – we put our words into actions, say the uncomfortable,
- Reduces the say-do gap
- Reviews, validates, reassesses everything we do continually – to always be better
How is U. changing the world?
It is not about us – it’s about U. We are not changing the world. You, today’s youth – tomorrow’s leaders, will change the world. We only provide the framework for you to:
- Become the best version of themselves;
- Build their CVs;
- Become more open-minded; and
- Close the gap between intent and outcomes
But, we are changing the youth tourism industry
- By working with incredible local partners to develop our trips and experiences and bring them to market
- By treating social and environmental impact as a primary means of success for our business such that we prioritise it even in cases where it may not drive profitability
- For example small group size puts planet, people and experience over profit
- Selecting local partners over established international companies even if buying power is less (and so costs higher)
We strive everyday to create incredible trips for our travellers. Trips that actually create defining moments in their lives. A ideal trip must:
- Contain party and risk-taking elements that young people look for, and remember for their whole lives – examples are:
- Full moon parties
- Staying up all night to see the sunrise
- Have serendipitous moments that go completely off script – examples are:
- Skinny dipping in a mountain lake
- Sleeping out on a beach
- Be affordable and value for money. In particular:
- Remove hidden costs that are so prevalent in competitor products
- Include more activities that are must-do so that those who do not have large budgets are not left out while others go and do optional extras
- Always have a free activity that is equally experiential when a paid optional experience is offered
- Be transparent with costs
- Be multi-national such that the travellers meet and interact with people from many different countries, languages, religions, cultures and colours.
- Have above 75% of the customers spend go directly into locally owned and operated businesses in the areas we travel
- Contain challenges and experiences that the customer would absolutely never do in their everyday lives
- Bungy jump, sky-dive, canyoning – adrenalin activities
- Extended fitness challenges – like full-day hikes, bike trips
- Educate, challenge and open the customers eyes through at least one significant learning experience. Examples include:
- Make them aware of the human implications on:
- Under the sea (coral, sea-turtles, over-fishing, cyanide poisoning)
- Animal tourism
- Poverty
- At least one day dedicated to Action and Service
- Make the customer get actively involved through things like rubbish clean-ups, redrafting coral, rehabilitating abused animals
- Make them aware of the human implications on:
It is easy to argue the world is at a tipping point. We either make drastic changes to the way we live and consume such that the planet can continue to support humans or we potentially destroy our eco-system – the results of which could be catastrophic.
When it comes to travel we could of course take the Greta Thunberg approach of “say no to travel”.
But, is this actually breeding open-minded respectful individuals. How in fact, do really understand the impact of climate change on coral reefs, or the radical weather events causing flooding and cyclones around the world, the extinction of so many species, if you spend your life living in Copenhagen in a bubble thinking you are saving the planet. In our opinion, you become isolated and inward looking not actually taking a global responsibility. By seeing firsthand what’s at stake in the climate crisis young travellers can also see what is possible when they step out of their own lives.
Beyond just the planet is the knowledge of other cultures, religions and races. Learnings by interaction, osmosis, engagement and experiences that you can bring back to your everyday work, school, family and friends to make little incremental improvements in the way we live and think and act to bring about a better world. These we call U.Ripples.
Essentially, “travel creates better human beings”.
More importantly, “(the right sort of) travel creates better human beings”. U. Is putting “the right sort of” in that sentence. By recognising firstly the truth that young people need to be young and have fun. More than ever they are under immense pressure to succeed in schooling, relationships, wealth-accumulation and employment. U. creates trips that focus on the fact that it is OK to be young, to party, to have (safe) sex on the beach – to do the things your parents did growing up. So first and foremost, U. creates trips that 18-25 year olds want to do.
UNCOMFORTABLE describes the U. approach. We say things which many find uncomfortable – sex on the beach, party, take time out, Greta is not right about travel.
Secondly, by including more activities and experiences in a U.Trip we are addressing one of the most under discussed elements in tourism. When operators offer super low costs trips filled with optional add-ons they actually create a poor experience for those customers with limited budgets. Because of the say-do gap customers often elect to skip activities such as conservation projects or cultural interaction to make their budgets extend to adrenalin or party-oriented activities. By being more transparent with costs and including more activities – particular those directly related to the company ethos – U. is creating an all-round better experience for the customer.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly U. works with local partners, and on our own, to create the transformational experiences which underpin the companies ethos and provide the education and life-changing moments. Experiences such as two-day immersion in coral conservation in Bali, volunteering in an Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand, home stays throughout the world, and touring with rescued sex-traffic’ed survivors in Nepal. These experiences challenge and open the eyes of the customers, create a juxtaposition to the party carefree-lifestyle of the young traveller, and at the same time are deeply rewarding.
When was U. founded: Trinus Reiser was founded in 2018 based on a passion to create exceptional experiences that are alternatives to the obvious, but no less breathtaking in their cultural or scenic diversity. The goal has always been to make a difference – to create such amazing travel experiences that have our customers telling their children and their children’s children about how cool travelling was when they were young.
In 2020 Trinus Resjer was split into two brands with the establishment of U. being focussed exclusively on the creation and operation of these amazing journeys. Trinus Rejser continues as our travel agency brand taking care of everything from flights to insurance, hostels, and partner products.
Why U? Because it is not about us – it is about you, our amazing customers. While U. was inspired by our own lifetime of roaming our plant and experiencing the changing face of travel and tourism over the years. Our core beliefs are unapologetically simple and direct – we truly believe that “travel creates better human beings”. We are NOT creating these trips for ourselves, but exclusively with our travellers in mind, such that you experience and connect with other cultures to become better, more life educated, more understanding, more respectful and more tolerant human beings.
Where does U. operate? U. currently offers U.Trips of between 8 and 24 days in 14 different countries. Trips can be combined for longer trips. We never stop working on new trips and new destinations.
If we don’t currently have a trip to somewhere you want to go then contact us and we would absolutely work with you to create something amazing.
Who is U. for? Anyone with an open-mind and an open-heart. Currently, 100% of our customers are from Northern Europe and a few from North America. A central goal for 2023 is to increase the number of customers coming from the Southern hemisphere – particularly New Zealand and Australia.
U. does not discriminate on age. As long as the customer is 18 or over (the legal age for drinking in many of the countries we travel to – as we go to environments where there is alcohol available) then they are welcome to travel with U. 99% of the customers are 18-25 years old and we are very clear to everyone that this the majority of our customers and that the experiences are tailored to be perfect for them. However, U. does not discriminate on age – or any other factor. (Note: we have had young Muslim females travel with us and while we openly say it is OK to be young and party we are inclusive and respectful of all cultures and it has worked perfectly in all situations).
U.Wall of fame(ly)
The best part about building our amazing experiences is we travel to our destinations – we suss them out, we validate our local partners credentials, we ensure your money goes directly to the local community (this means supporting local projects, eating at local restaurants and using local accommodation), we check safety records, and we physically visit the activities and hotels and hostels you stay at.
We even make loads of travel mistakes – lost our luggage, missed our trains (Dan), drunk a little bit too much goon (Lasse), and slept on the beach (everyone) or even a bar (Amalie). When one of your U.Crew recommends a destination or activity they know what they are talking about.
Below you can see many of our previous and current team members of the U.Crew.
Dan
Lasse
Rohini
Sean
Amalie
Mukul
Keir
Ane
Nayara
Andreas
Olga
Anna
Maria
Philip
Gabriella
Elisa
André
Cecilie
Amanda
Giorgia
Kenneth
Drude
Yulin
Katrin
Signa
Vanessa
Celina
Rusul
Loris
Ditte
Soukayna
Karolina
We are driven:
- To make a difference
- To feel pride in what we do
- Because we actually truly believe it
- To stop competing on price and compete more on why
- Because the student and youth travel industry is poorly served – same people doing the same shit (see Crossing the chasm to creating a sustainable tourism industry model)
- Because environmental sustainability should be on of the the biggest concerns facing young people
- To make sustainability also about cultural, diversity, sexual, individual
- To fight travel shame