The main reason that makes many young people dislike organized trips with travel agencies is that they cannot get the “city experience”, but only concentrate on the most popular – and crowded – city destinations. On the other hand, planning a trip yourself can often be a daunting and time-consuming task. This is where Footsteps, a sightseeing app built by a team of five energetic students, comes in: it offers you a sightseeing route tailored exactly to your taste.
“The idea for Footsteps was born during a holiday trip to Budapest. We came completely unprepared, as students usually do,” said Piotr Sędzik, the CEO of Footsteps. “We started to download mobile travel apps, but none of them provided a satisfactory overview of Budapest. Recommended places were all on the beaten path and weren’t of interest to us at all. Most importantly, none of these apps eliminated the bothersome planning process.”
Footsteps is based on two core modules: personalization and ready-to-use sightseeing routes. When logging in for the first time, the user chooses his areas of interest – he can describe himself as, for example, a hipster, a gourmet or an artist. Then, the app offers him routes that are best suited to his personality and sightseeing style. The routes are planned to give the user a full city experience, letting him “feel” the city rather than focus on a few tourist spots.
One of the biggest advantages of Footsteps is its comprehensiveness: instead of carrying around multiple maps, guidebooks and a list of seeing-worthy places, you can rely on this small app to provide you with all the information you need. Additionally, it takes into account that every tourist needs to rest or to take a bite from time to time. All suggestions regarding restaurants, bars or cafes are smoothly integrated into the sightseeing route.
This startup was founded only in 2015, but has already acquired their first investment during the finals of Starter Rocket acceleration program. Currently, Footsteps operates in seven cities in Poland and has about 650 active users a day. Still, this startup grows pretty quickly – they plan to be present in 40 cities at the end of 2017 and think of entering foreign markets.
If you’re still not convinced, watch their hilarious trailer (unfortunately, only in Polish):
