The ecotourism company VaiViver was born from Cecilia Fortunatti and Mayumi Kurimori’s ardour for touring. The corporate’s journeys are usually not solely in regards to the locations – they’re additionally about connecting individuals with nature, historical past, and the native communities of Brazil.

VaiViver arranges journeys to Brazil’s pure wonders virtually each weekend all 12 months lengthy. Its mission is to encourage individuals to find Brazil’s pure and cultural range.

Ceci and Mayu consider it’s necessary to instantly set up a web based presence to unfold your message and optimize enterprise development. They created VaiViver’s web site utilizing WordPress. With the combo of Hostinger’s companies, Tutorials, and Buyer Success group, they’ve been operating the location with out fuss.

From Campus to In all places

Ceci and Mayu have been engineering college students on the College of São Paulo. They dreamt of touring the world.

The 2 finest associates had all the time cherished exploring new locations. It was solely pure they’d quickly know each nook and cranny round their campus and past. They went on adventures whereas juggling all examine obligations, which galvanized their friends on the college. 

At some point, the pair determined to share their touring expertise with some associates. They organized a collective journey, sharing the prices among the many contributors, and simply had enjoyable collectively.

It turned out that individuals cherished the way in which Ceci and Mayu organized such a special, participating, and inexpensive tour. The phrase unfold, and there have been increasingly more individuals excited about such journeys. That was when the duo observed a enterprise alternative.

Ceci and Mayu established VaiViver in 2016, with an preliminary capital of 14 reais (round 2,7 USD). The cash was for promotional posters and cups of sizzling chocolate as the primary journey’s complimentary drink.

Connecting Folks With Nature, Historical past, and Native Communities

There’s one fundamental motive why Ceci and Mayu concentrate on ecotourism. The concept of connecting vacationers with nature and native communities deeply resonates with them – and it makes the journeys themselves imply a lot extra.

“It’s an honor to work with native communities, just like the Brazilian natives Quilombolas, and present the worth these individuals have for society and tradition preservation. We’re glad we are able to join vacationers with these communities. They’re necessary components of Brazilian historical past,” says Mayu.

Throughout VaiViver’s journeys, vacationers uncover a brand new vacation spot, be taught the tradition and historical past of native communities, and talk about subjects like tips on how to protect the forests. Mayu explains it as “an eye-opening expertise.”

“Ecotourism transforms life on each side. Vacationers can reconnect with tradition and historical past whereas bringing revenue to the communities. It ends in a really optimistic impression general,” she provides.

They’re particularly happy with VaiViver’s Chapadas do Brasil Mission. With it, the company invitations vacationers to discover the majestic landscapes of the chapadas, Brazilian flat-topped tablelands, and get to know the tradition and livelihoods of the indigenous individuals residing there.

Because it seeks to take care of the concord between individuals and nature, VaiViver additionally applies sustainable journey practices. It offsets 100% of carbon emissions generated by its journeys by participating in partnerships with social and environmental tasks.

Taking Root On-line

As soon as Ceci and Mayu began the enterprise, they realized they wanted to construct a stable digital presence as quickly as attainable. They knew it was important for a model to have an internet site to assist unfold the phrase.

Ceci and Mayu additionally observed that many tourism corporations don’t have a correct web site. This made them certain that creating an internet site would make VaiViver stand out from the competitors. 

Due to suggestions from associates, Ceci and Mayu found WordPress, the proper content material administration system for his or her objectives. They discovered about Hostinger in a weblog submit – it got here extremely really helpful. In 2017, the pair started constructing the VaiViver web site themselves on Hostinger’s internet hosting. 

“Hostinger’s Buyer Success group is so useful. I additionally learn blogs and Hostinger Tutorials. This made constructing the location simple. We loved it. It was a superb studying expertise,” Ceci elaborates.

Along with attracting an viewers, the web site additionally helped Ceci and Mayu streamline their enterprise processes to facilitate the corporate’s development. Earlier than, VaiViver’s reserving course of was painstakingly guide. Purchasers would guide through Google Types – this concerned back-and-forth messaging and guide cost checking.

Since VaiViver built-in the web reserving perform within the web site, they will rapidly examine orders and funds through the WordPress dashboard. This made enterprise operations far more manageable.

100% of VaiViver’s gross sales are actually dealt with through the web site.

“We don’t have any bodily gross sales channels. We’ve all the time lived digitally,” says Mayu. “Now, we’re current all through Brazil. Moreover, we are able to stay wherever we would like, journey anyplace. That’s the magic of operating a web based enterprise.”

Conquering the Troublesome Path

To get the place they’re now, Ceci and Mayu needed to overcome numerous challenges on their business trip.

Considered one of them was when VaiViver’s web site went down throughout Black Friday. The corporate wished to benefit from this purchasing season, so it launched a promo marketing campaign. At the moment, the corporate was nonetheless on Hostinger’s entry-level plan.

Ceci and Mayu didn’t count on the marketing campaign would entice such an awesome quantity of site visitors. They realized that the downtime was attributable to inadequate sources. Because it’s attainable to improve Hostinger plans anytime, they did simply that, permitting the location to deal with the elevated masses.

One other hurdle to beat was the lockdown – a troublesome time for everybody, the tourism business particularly. Ceci and Mayu needed to inform their native companions the tough fact that they weren’t making any gross sales.

Nevertheless, they persevered and, after seven barren months, the economic system began to get well, and the gross sales picked again up.

“Between 2020-2021 we made round 1 million reais, whereas between 2021-2022 we reached 2,3 million reais by means of our web site,” Ceci says proudly. “We think about this a hit, particularly contemplating our small scale.”

She additionally acknowledges that VaiViver was capable of double its annual income as a result of her group now has a greater understanding of tips on how to enhance gross sales and optimize the web site. Their efforts contain making use of search engine marketing practices and different digital advertising and marketing methods.

“Our advice for anybody who needs to begin a enterprise is to get on-line as quickly as attainable. Create an internet site, and make it simple for individuals to seek out you on-line. It is going to assist your work, improve the enterprise’s visibility within the public eye, and assist develop the model,” Ceci sums up.

Past the Horizon

Now, the corporate is staffed by 7 inner group members and eight guides. However what are VaiViver’s plans for the longer term?

For 2023, Ceci and Mayu intention to develop VaiViver’s income by 30% in comparison with the earlier 12 months. 

They’re assured the corporate can attain that objective due to a rising demand for ecotourism companies. On high of that, VaiViver has a really lively social media presence and a completely informative web site. It incorporates all the required details about journey packages and offers a user-friendly reserving course of.

Ceci and Mayu are additionally preparing for the introduction of VaiViver’s new companies. “We have already got on-line bodily conditioning coaching to arrange for path journeys. In 2023, our focus will likely be to broaden personalised companies to extra clients, additionally masking the company sector”, elaborates Ceci. 

The conditioning coaching was born from the concept ecotourism ought to be for everybody. As such journeys normally contain lengthy hikes, Ceci and Mayu need to make them extra gratifying, even for individuals unfamiliar with nature exploration.

“We wish to see vacationers faces gentle up as soon as they put their ft on Brazilian soil,” says the pair. “The glow of their eyes after the journey – that’s what fuels us. The cash is a pleasant consequence.”

In actual fact, the title of the enterprise, ‘VaiViver,’ is Portuguese for ‘go stay.’ And Ceci and Mayu are doing simply that, encouraging everybody to stay their lives and passions to the fullest.