A German startup which has developed a mobile app for cultural tourism is looking for service agreements

Annotation

A German startup has developed a mobile app which helps tourists discover cities in new, more spontaneous ways. The app runs in the background and signals the user when a point of interest is nearby and identifies and describes relevant spots visited. The company pursues a business model, where the cities generate revenue and regain control over the information accessible. It is looking especially for tourism offices of cities with rich tangible cultural heritage for services agreements.

Offer description

This innovative German startup was founded in 2014. The founder made it through the Founder Institute program of Berlin in summer 2014, was selected for SpeedUp! Europe program 2015. The company consists of cultural tourism lovers that are convinced of the role of Tourism Offices in tourism. For them, travelling and getting to know other cultures enriches ones knowledge and oneself as human. In particular, cultural tourism leads to mutual understanding, respect and tolerance. With that vision the companies' mission is to provide the technology which helps tourists get the best of their visits and help local institutions promote and maintain their city's cultural heritage. The idea to develop an app for cultural tourism was born out of the frustrations described by cultural tourists of which the top mentioned are: - discovering that they have missed interesting spot (>50%) - missing information when a spot is found (80%) In order to solve these problems, the company has developed an app which alerts the user when a point of interest (POI) is nearby and provides information in-situ without a click. Tourists only need the phone in their pockets and while walking around in the city with or without a plan, and when a POI is “around the block”, the app alerts them through vibration, sound or voice. This is especially interesting for discovering secret places which is a growing trend to avoid mainstream touristic paths. Moreover, the app provides information coming directly from the Tourism Office (TO), the one source tourists trust most. Hence, information is neither crowd-sourced (tripadvisor, etc., often poor, partial or just plain wrong) nor fed by commercial "experts" (lonely-planet, etc., who usually haven't even visited the city and stuff in a lot of commercial content). To provide this service, the company partners with the TOs. The company takes care of the technology and operational costs, and the TO keeps control of the information provided and acts as main point of promotion. Instead of charging the TO for the development and service, the company shares part of revenues with it. The design of the app has specific implications for the TO of the visited city: - the app does not compete with other existing materials (like maps or guides), it rather complements them. - the app is a chance for TOs to keep control of the information provided; otherwise global companies with own commercial interests will become the actual “Tourism Office”, deciding what is relevant for the tourist. - the TO does not need to worry about the technical development and the associated costs, but only about what it knows best, it's city's cultural heritage. Since they already have the information about the POI's it's use for the app is quick and easy. The business model is as follows. Tourists pay for the app (price may vary in each city, 3€-5€ per visit). Here the TO plays a key role aigan: on average about 50% of the visitors go to the TO's website and 10% go to the physical office on destination (numbers may differ substantially among different cities). Therefore, the TO is the best point of sales and promotion for the app and for that reason it is fair that it receives part of the revenue, to add up to an usually constrained budget. More detailed information about revenue possibilities can be handed out on request. Moreover, there are additional advantages for the city, through the network of cities that offer the app: - promote each other, for example through localized ads. - exchange best practices regarding the app as well as other matters - trigger other specific partnerships such as those to apply to EU funded projects In order to bring the app to more and more cities, the company is now searching for tourism offices of cities with rich tangible cultural heritage for services agreements.

Innovations and advantages

The deployment of this project in the partner cities will: - improve the cultural experience of tourists during their visits - help cities control the information available (vs. external companies) - provide a source of income for the participating tourism institution - promote internationally each partner city The company offers a business model which is sustainable for everyone: - Tourists enjoy the city more and are willing to pay for that - Cities provide new services to their tourists and generate income to maintain and promote their heritage - the app improves city tourism and generates revenue in order to develop new features Besides first features of the app, which address the top current frustrations among cultural tourists, there are many others on queue: - automatic routing from user's current position, which saves them time and helps balance tourists traffic across the city - connecting with other city visitors who are nearby, facilitating social discovery - recording of routes taken and geolocalized media so the user can keep a mapped version of their photoalbum - sharing routes and media through social media, a promotion of the city - gathering of statistics (BigData) about tourists localization, useful to plan city's development strategies.

Technology keywords

01004002 Applications for Tourism
01006001 Audiovisual Equipment and Communication

Market application codes

02007007 Applications software
07001007 Other leisure and recreational products and services

Intellectual property rights

Secret Know-how

Profile date

16.03.2019