The World Tourism Organization picks Questo as a finalist in its 2nd Tourism Startup Competition

 

Update: We won the Disruptive Hospitality Award 🚀 More details here.

Questo has been selected to take part in the 2nd Tourism Startup Competition organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and backed by leading tourism companies such as Amadeus, Globalia, and Telefonica.

Selected from 1700 applications from over 150 countries, Questo will pitch in the Disruptive Hospitality category. The pitch will be held on the 20th of January in Madrid during FITUR, the International Tourism Fair. 

“Building on the success of the inaugural competition, this new edition continues to identify new companies that will lead the sector’s transformation. The aim and common denominator are to achieve a sustainable and profitable future through technology and innovation.”, the organizers said in their official press release.

In total, 16 innovative tourism startups were selected to pitch at the event, competing for 7 prizes in different categories. The selected startups have been evaluated on 5 criteria: business model, potential impact, scalability, team, and sustainability.  Full details on UNWTO.com

“Being selected as a finalist by the World Tourism Organization is a validation of our work and vision to create exploration games in every city in the world“, said Alex Govoreanu, CEO and Co-founder of Questo.

Questo helps tourists explore cities by solving clues to discover new places and stories about them. Each route (quest) is based on a specific theme, which can be inspired by a movie, a book, a historical fact or just a local legend. In London, for instance, travelers can explore the city as Sherlock Holmes or Isaac Newton, while in Paris they can play as Hemingway or Picasso. Questo is currently present in 50 European cities such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome or Berlin. 

So far, more than 60.000 people have finished a quest while walking more than 200.000 kilometers to discover popular and hidden locations, as well as local stories using Questo. As of today, the app has over 120 available quests created by a growing network of local content creators. They can be purchased in the Questo iOS and Android apps or the Questo website, on TripAdvisor, on GetYourGuide, and on Booking.com, for prices ranging from 8 to 20 Euro. 

Questo is a previous winner of the Booking.com Booster Lab 2018 in Tel Aviv, winner of the People’ Choice Award at Phocuswright Europe 2019, one of the top online travel and technology events for top travel executives, and was selected as one of the Top 25 Hot Travel Startups 2020 according to Phocuswright.