Tribewanted

Launched last week by two young British entrepreneurs, tribewanted is creating a global tribe that will develop a sustainable eco-community on an island in Fiji. In what seems like a hippie dream crossed with an episode of Survivor, tribewanted is looking for 5000 people from around the world to become part of a tribe that will not only exist online, but will also settle, 100 at a time, on ‘Adventure Island’. On the map, Adventure Island is known as Vorovoro, and is being leased to tribewanted by the local tribal chief. There are three types of membership to choose from: Nomads get 1 years membership and 7 nights on the island for GBP 120 / USD 210; Hunters are members for 2 years and can stay for 14 nights (GBP 240 / USD 420); and Warriors are member for 3 years and can stay for 21 nights (GBP 360 / USD 630). When the 5000th member joins, the tribe will be formed and will start to make tribal decisions by voting through the online community at tribewanted.com, on issues such as the name of the tribe, type of infrastructure that will be required, and how to build an island community in an environmentally friendly way. Eco-friendliness is a keystone, and tribewanted has appointed a climate advisor to keep carbon accounts for the tribe’s island life and offset them to make the venture climate neutral. In an interview with Mookychick, founding ‘chief’ Mark James explains: ” I think that there is a growing interest from a generation to do something about their lives, the lives of those around them and to have a positive impact on the environment as they are aware of how generations before have messed up. Adventure Island represents all the passions and cravings of that generation.” As national borders fade, online tribes take shape, populated by people seeking a sense of belonging, of being part of something new. As a social experiment, Tribewanted could be fascinating. And being an entrepreneurial venture, tribewanted will let the world watch: besides its three membership options, the company also offers subscriptions to Tribal TV. For a one-off payment of GBP 10 / USD 18, subscribers will be able to follow the tribe as it creates a new utopia. Or recreates the Lord of the Flies… Creative entrepreneurs can find a host of business opportunities in this idea: initiatives like tribewanted could be a solution to keeping remote places of beauty relatively unscathed by tourism, by offering local landowners an alternative to making way for big resorts. To consumers, it’s a new alternative to mass tourism, and to the solo wayfaring of backpacking. For anyone in the tourism industry, tribewanted should be inspirational as a contemporary, themed version of the vacation timeshare, appealing to a more adventuresome crowd, as well as the ‘make generation’: creative, hands-on people who read Make and ReadyMade magazines, sell hand-made goods on Etsy, and enjoy building and creating. Not to mention the Reality TV crowd (also see our earlier posting on reality holidays in Italy). Time to set up the new Tribe Med?