Social network-based travel systems and methods

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a processor, one or more of past, present, future, and planned locations of travellers within a social network, together with associated temporal data;
• generating, by a or the processor, a Gantt chart visualisation of travel activity and/or locations of all the travellers within the social network across a specific time period;
• and
• displaying the Gantt chart visualisation on a user device;
• wherein each traveller is represented by a line of the Gantt chart and the time-varying travel activity and/or locations of the traveller are represented by markers on the line.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, at a processor, a planned trip itinerary of a user comprising one or more trip segments;
• computing, by the processor, costs for each trip segment comprising one or more user-shortlisted transportation, accommodation, and sightseeing components, wherein the user-shortlisted costs reflect real-time prices;
• computing, by the processor, total cost for the entire trip comprising the sum of trip segment costs;
• generating, by the processor, a timeline visualisation of the planned trip itinerary comprising trip segment costs and total trip cost;
• and
• displaying the timeline visualisation on a user device, wherein the timeline visualization further comprises a user interface control to book one or more user-shortlisted transportation, accommodation, and sightseeing components;
• and
• wherein selecting the user interface control redirects the user to a booking webpage for each of the relevant transportation, accommodation, and sightseeing components.