E-Tourism Frontiers believes in encouraging innovation and over 2013 we ran, in conjunction with Visa and South African Tourism our Africa App Quest to to find the best home grown travel technology in Africa. We challenges talented developers across Sub-Saharan Africa to build a homegrown travel app and stand the chance of winning a USD$10,000 cash prize.
“As a proud partner of South African Tourism, Visa is excited to collaborate with the organisation on initiatives such as the Africa App Quest that has the potential to reach out to a wider, global audience and strengthen inbound travel,” said Claire Olverman, Head of Cross-Border Marketing for Visa Sub-Saharan Africa. She added: “We encourage all developers – whether up-and-coming or already established in the industry – to get involved in the Africa App Quest. This is a great way for developers to make a name for themselves in the global travel and tech community.”
The final judging took place at the 6th annual E-Tourism Africa Summit in Cape Town . The four finalists of the competition presented their apps on the final day of the summit and the audience made their decision for the winning app, with a US $10,000 prize. The finalists were Africa Live is a live game sighting map, Activity Bridge – a web based platform to sell tourism activities, Tourism Radio – a device that combines GPS and location based information for self-drive holidays, Pixshare Africa – a photo sharing social media platform for travel businesses.
Africa Live won the Africa App Quest with the most audience votes. Rob Maclean, the Managing Director from Satpack Travel, the company behind Africa Live, said they were proud to have won the Africa App Quest. “We created Africa Live as we saw a strong need in the market place for a platform for people to share their wildlife sightings instantly. With over 70 apps being entered into the competition, we are thrilled to have received the title and this will certainly encourage us to continue seeking opportunities that can assist the growing travel population. However, special thanks must be given to Visa and South African Tourism for recognising the importance of technology in tourism”
You can download the app here.
