ZOOMGUIDE is an app that tells you the story behind the objects you encounter, by simply taking a photo with your smartphone. ZOOMGUIDE’s potential is huge and it was recognised at the Tourism Explorers grand final. The Startup, created by the Técnico alumnus Afonso Cunha, won a €10,000 award and three months of free incubation space at Universidade de Aveiro Incubator.
“This app aims to improve tourist experiences – national or international, and help to disseminate cultural heritage managed by our partner organizations, such as museums, cultural / historical spaces and cities”, explains Afonso Cunha. To this end, ZOOMGUIDE is based on two lines of approach: it develops a research method that allows tourists to access content about a point of interest, in an extremely easy way; and provides digital tools that allow partner organizations to create and manage content, which is then made available to tourists. “These tools are available at no cost, and we deliver part of our revenues to partner organizations”, says the Técnico alumnus.
ZOOMGUIDE is really easy to use: simply take a photo with your smartphone and obtain tailored multimedia content in seconds about what you’re seeing. “There are other features, for example, the possibility of creating a content passport, which allows tourists to relive and share their favorite stories. But the essential thing is what I described in the previous paragraph”, says the entrepreneur.
The idea of creating ZOOMGUIDE arose in December 2019, when Afonso Cunha was visiting Berlin. “I felt that my experience as a tourist could be better if I could easily access relevant information about what I was seeing”, he recalls. After that, the Técnico alumnus asked some friends, family and friends of friends if they felt the same. “I also talked with professionals of museums and cultural spaces, and I realised that I was not the only one thinking like that”, he recalls.
According to Afonso Cunha, winning the Tourism Explorers grand final “is something that keeps us even more motivated to continue this project”. The awards, of course, are also important “once they will help to bear some of the costs related to the servers and other cloud services we use, as well as other start-up costs”, stresses the founder of ZOOMGUIDE.
The app already exists and is available on the startup’s website, “however, ZOOMGUIDE search engine is currently disabled because the content is still being finalized”, explains Afonso Cunha. The next stages of the project include ZOOMGUIDE launch to the public – which should happen in the first quarter of 2021 – but also “the creation of more partnerships with cultural spaces, making our team grow, and continue to develop technology that improves the tourist experience”.
