SnapCity: One of the five best tourism apps in the world is Portuguese
This Portuguese startup gets you tourists in contact with locals from a certain European city, so they can receive the best tips and suggestions on places they need to see.
You’ve probably been that tourist in some country looking on the internet for the best places to visit, in which bar to have a drink or where to get something to eat. SnapCity, the Portuguese startup, has made this process quite easier and more dynamic, by means of a chat platform which puts tourists in contact with local residents.
SnapCity has got to the market just recently, but it already has more than 12 thousand members from Germany, England, Spain, the Netherlands and, of course, Portugal. The idea is to “instantly connect those who are travelling, or who need information and advice on some location, to those who live in that city and know it better than anyone else”, the founder of the app, André Dias, explained to ECO.
The idea is quite simple: suppose you are in London and want to discover the best places to visit. You log in to SnapCity and ask a question about the place you are visiting (“Where can I eat brunch?” or “Where are the best gardens and parks?”). Then, local Londoners who are available to give you recommendations will come up. By then, you choose one of them and a chat room comes up, and you can speak to them to get the best suggestions.
In order to become one of those locals, you need to register on the platform. At first, the SnapCity team selects a few people who specialize in the matter, such as tourist guides, in order to assure the information that is being shared is trustworthy. From then on, the “job” is open for anyone. Locals are able to receive up to 10 euros of tips in the end of every chat if tourists are happy with the suggestions.
The most innovative tourism project in Portugal
Last year, SnapCity’s team applied to the World SummitAwards (WSA), a world competition for startups, and was the Portuguese winner in the Travel&Culture category, and won fifth place in the world for the same category.
The next step for the company is to go to Vienna to receive the award, where they plan to expose the project to potential investors. André Dias tells ECO the startup is in a decisive stage of negotiations ready for a second round of investments, which could easily go up to 500 thousand euros. “It’s time to take another huge step. One of our goals for 2018 is to quickly become the most relevant service and player in this area”.
