Mr Lovell, his childhood friend Mitch Pascoe and university mate Charles Inglis are in the City of Light after their business, Tenderfoot, was selected for the French Tech Ticket program, supported by the French government.

The 25-year-olds will spend 12 months in the Paris&Co Welcome City Lab, the world's first incubator for innovation in tourism, developing Tenderfoot, a digital platform for travellers and accommodation providers.

The experience will put them "in a stronger position to succeed", Mr Lovell said. "It will enable us to fail faster, learn faster, grow faster and scale faster."

Mr Lovell and Mr Inglis were at university in Adelaide when they created Tenderfoot as a way to connect travellers. Mr Lovell conceded they "didn't have a businesses with a strong commercial model. We built an app and hoped for the best".

But along with co-founder Mr Pascoe, an electrician and audio-visual programmer, they moved into travel discovery, launching a new version of Tenderfoot that used social data and personal preferences to tailor travel advice.

They later expanded the digital platform to allow accommodation providers to communicate with guests and share travel information, listing recommendations, experiences and services through a mobile phone app made available on arrival.

"Travellers stay in different places every three or four days, so it's difficult to convince them to download ??? and familiarise themselves with a new app so frequently," Mr Lovell said. "By having one mobile app that allows guests to communicate with and access tips from many properties around the world, we're helping both parties get value from the digital relationship."

Australian millennials spend more travelling overseas each year than any other age group - $11.3 billion according to Westpac's 2016 Travel Finance Report - and want information at their fingertips.

"In an era where there is so much information available, I think the game is changing," Mr Lovell said. "The most successful companies won't just offer people places to choose from, but they'll actually help them choose. It's about understanding that every guest and every traveller is different."

Mark Tulloch and Nathan Ryan also built a business around travellers' growing demand for specialised concierge services. The Australians launched Asia Holiday Retreats as a counterpoint to global booking companies and travel giants such as Airbnb.

While technology gave travellers greater control of their travel planning, it has "also taken away the personalised touch," Mr Tulloch said. "Travellers now want the ability to tailor their travel plans to create unique experiences."

Professor Noel Scott, deputy director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University, said in recent years travellers had become "more interested in memorable experiences. People want to feel that what they're [doing] is a bit more unique, not just the average."

Apps were making travel more dynamic, helping people learn more about their destination and seek out more interesting experiences, he said.

"They're using apps and data on mobile phones while they're away," Professor Scott said. "That means you can have much more detailed knowledge of the destination you're in and can perhaps do different things than just what's prescribed to you in the Lonely Planet guide.

"It's certainly giving them a more individual experience and, arguably, because of that, a richer experience. [They] can find things out as [they] go along."