Live Vibe Coding: Building a Travel Savings App + Passport to Space — Tourism Tech Built Live

By Will Melton · April 18, 2026 · 1:08:16 read

Category: Business & Economy

Show: Live Vibe Coding With Will Melton

Two apps. One stream. Both going from zero to deployed, live, today. This is what vibe coding looks like in practice — no polished demos, no rehearsed walkthroughs. You're watching real decisions get

Two apps. One stream. Both going from zero to deployed, live, today.

This is what vibe coding looks like in practice — no polished demos, no rehearsed walkthroughs. You're watching real decisions get made in real time, using AI-assisted development tools to ship full-stack applications faster than most teams spec a feature ticket. Every week on the 52 Apps in 52 Weeks challenge, we pick up the tools, point them at a real problem, and build.

Today we have two.

🧳 APP 1: THE TRAVEL SAVINGS PLATFORM

The idea is straightforward: travelers are terrible at discovering local deals at their destination, and merchants are terrible at reaching people who are already planning to visit. There's a gap between "I'm going to Charleston in six weeks" and "here are the restaurants, shops, and experiences that want my business before I even land." This app closes that gap.

Here's how it works. Travelers sign up, set their destination, define their travel window, and build out a trip budget. From that point forward, merchants at the destination — restaurants, boutiques, tour operators, coffee shops — can see the incoming demand and extend targeted discounts to travelers who've already committed to visiting their area. The traveler gets real savings before they book a single reservation. The merchant fills seats, tables, and storefronts during times they can plan for.

Nobody's doing this well right now. Most travel savings apps are coupon aggregators. This is demand-signal-driven merchant outreach — which is a fundamentally different model. We're building the MVP live today in Lovable: traveler onboarding, trip planning flows, budget-setting, merchant dashboard, and the discount extension system.

🚀 APP 2: PASSPORT TO SPACE

Space tourism is no longer science fiction. It's a market. Tickets have been sold. People have gone. More will go. But if you're someone who's seriously thinking about it — not dreaming, seriously thinking — there's almost nowhere to go for structured, intelligent information. How much does it actually cost? What do you need to do to physically prepare? Who are the operators? What's the realistic timeline?

Passport to Space is a space tourism intelligence and media platform built specifically for that audience. Not space nerds. Not casual enthusiasts. People who want to go to space and want to understand what that actually requires. We're building a media site with real editorial structure — cost breakdowns by operator and experience tier, preparation guides, a news layer that tracks what's happening in the commercial space tourism market, and features that help you map out a realistic personal roadmap to orbit.

This one gets built in Lovable today as well — content architecture, navigation, the intelligence tools, and a design that matches the ambition of what space tourism actually is.

🛠️ THE BUILD STACK

Everything gets built in Lovable — the fastest AI-native full-stack app builder available right now. Supabase handles the backend, auth, and database. We're using Claude for any complex logic that needs to be wired server-side. This is the same stack powering every app in the 52 Apps challenge.

If you've been thinking about building your own app but don't know where to start — this stream is the most useful hour you'll spend this week. Watch the workflow, ask questions in the chat, and take the process back to your own idea.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES

Try Lovable yourself — get 10 free credits with my referral link: https://lovable.dev/invite/S8XSI99

More on the 52 Apps challenge + everything Will is building: https://studio.willmelton.com Xponent21

AI Search Visibility & Content Strategy: https://xponent21.com

Drop your questions in the live chat. Whether you're watching live or catching the replay, this build is worth your time.