COD: Toozla - an audio guide to the world

I love seeing all of the innovation going on in the travel and tourism sector. On my most recent trip to Australia, for example, I used iPad based city guides instead of books, and was delighted with the convenience.

Well, a Russian start-up called Toozla has an even more fascinating and intriguing way to learn and explore new places. The Toozla platforms uses geolocation to pair wikipedia, tourist book, expert, and user generated entries to specific GPS locations. If you're standing outside the Hermitage, for example, you can start your Toozla mobile app and get a narration of the history and facts of this important landmark.

But it's not just Russian landmarks, not by a longshot. Toozla's reach is international with more and more cities getting online. And the breadth of information sources that power Toozla provides huge opportunities for exploration of eateries, restaurants, out of the way spots etc. With the delightful to Toozla benefit of geo-loco ads. Here's a vid from their website that simulates the experience:



to give you a sense of the range of info Toozla has or is planning to include in its mobile travel service, take a look at this list from their web site:

•National ministries of tourism.
•Local tourist boards.
•City tourist information centers.
•Individuals, companies and organisations who have professional content that they want to share with a wide audience.
•Producers of audio guides.
•Publishers of hard and soft-copy guides.
•Travel websites.
•Internet booking agencies.
•Tour operators (both incoming and outgoing).
•Travel agencies.
•All travellers worldwide.
•Museums.
•Restaurants.
•Hotels and other accommodation.
•Shops.
•Any business/service with local operations.
•Big FMCG brands.
•International hotel chains.
•Car rental companies.
•Travel equipment companies.
•Mobile operators.

How cool is that. I'd liken it to an approachable AR layer on major markets around the world.




Want restaurant tips for the immediate area you find yourself in? Toozla can do it. Want to know who that statue represents, but see only a Cyrillic plaque? Toozla will tell you.

I love this concept. The key challenge will be to make this potentially enormous amount of information useful but not overwhelming. No one wants a pop up 10% off from every patisserie in Vienna. No one wants a 10% off coupon from every tea shop in the lake District. But when you want one, you definitely want one. Toozla's approach to this challenge is to organize the bits of info into topical channels that help the user get to the sort of information they want -- historical or commercial, for example -- more quickly.

The use of Wikipedia combined with the private sources of information I think is great because it means that lots of destinations that may be off the beaten path will also be powered by Toozla independent travel experience.

A great concept and I wish them all the luck in th world.