Travel technology company based in Cape Town, South Africa
Tourism Radio is a travel technology company based in Cape Town, South Africa, which produces location-based technology used in customized GPS in-car devices and IOS and Android mobile applications. The technology allows the user to take a tour of a city or pre-defined area, with geo-located, pre-recorded audio travel information triggering automatically as the user approaches them. The Tourism Radio in-car device plugs into a standard vehicle cigarette lighter and broadcasts a selection of local and international music along with location-specific travel information about the area the vehicle is driving through. Currently, there are approximately 3,300 of these devices used in South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand and Angola. Distribution of the devices to tourists is done in partnership with local Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) and car/motorhome rental agencies. The iOS and Android applications do not broadcast a selection of music, but use the same geo-location principle to give the user relevant travel information about the area they are in. This includes information about a general area or suburb, as well as information about specific points of interest, such as museums, art galleries, historical attractions, restaurants, nature walks, beaches, etc.
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.
Cape Town is a legislative capital of South Africa, colloquially named the Mother City. It is the legislative capital of South Africa and primate city of the Western Cape province. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Bantu ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European, Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.
Started in Cape Town, South Africa in 2005 by founder and current CEO, Mark Allewell, Tourism Radio was originally created on the concept of touring a city without a tour guide. Allewell used his home town of Cape Town as his starting point, and worked on the development of a GPS device which would play information on points of interest as the user approached them. Months of research and development led to the creation of a bespoke, in-car device. This could play through an ordinary car radio sound system and would play audio information about important sights as they were passed by the vehicle. After a positive local and international response, the company was bought by a German angel investor and expanded operations to Spain and New Zealand. Tourism Radio has since focused on becoming a key player in the digital world by creating mobile apps, with a keen focus on free-to-download audio city guides, for iOS and Android devices. These apps served as a proving ground for Tourism Radio, and led to the development of white label apps for DMOs and corporate entities looking to target the tourism industry. These use Tourism Radio’s technology and are coupled with client-provided content to create company-specific apps.
An angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors usually give support to start-ups at the initial moments and when most investors are not prepared to back them. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies. In the last 50 years the number of angel investors has greatly increased.
Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country mostly located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula. Its territory also includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country (Morocco). Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are also part of Spanish territory. The country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. It has a total land area of 268,000 square kilometres (103,500 sq mi). New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.
Technology
Tourism Radio offers the use of its location-based technology in form of the in-car Tourism Radio devices and its iOS and Android applications. The company has patented its real-world and mobile geo-location technology in New Zealand and Europe, with patents pending in North America and elsewhere. Tourism Radio also features as application software on the Renault R-Link in-car multimedia system. Tourism Radio uses the R-Link's inbuilt GPS system to provide drivers with information about tourist attractions in their vicinity. The Tourism Radio mobile applications for Android and iOS allow the user to download a travel guide and then use it completely offline.
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