Spotted by Locals
| Spotted by Locals | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Travel Guides |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam |
| Destinations | 33 Travel guides |
| http://www.SpottedbyLocals.com | |
 Sanne & Bart van Poll, founders of Spotted by Locals |
Spotted by Locals is a publisher of a series of Travel guides on European cities. In each of the (currently) 33 cities, 4 to 6 local authors ("Spotters"), share information about their favorite spots in the city where they live, and update this information.
Spotted by Locals is a cityblog network that is edited by people who live in the city they write about and speak the local language. All Spotters are selected by founders Sanne & Bart van Poll [1][2].
Spotted by Locals is aimed at travelers who want local information about a city, and avoid the typical tourist spots.
Tips provided on the cityblogs can be browsed online, and are also available as iPhone applications and via the augmented reality application Layar [3]. Visitors can also download a monthly updated PDF cityguide(at a charge of Euro 3.99) for each city, which includes the updated versions of articles with an index and maps.
Access to travel information from locals is gaining popularity amongst travelers and travel organizations like Lonely Planet [4]. In 2010 Spotted by Locals was one of the co-founders of LocalTravelMovement.com [5], a not-for-profit responsible travel website and discussion platform aiming to unite companies who commit to operating with Local Travel values [6] founded. In 3 months, 60 organizations became a "Local Travel Movement" partner.
The Spotted by Locals concept has received coverage on BBC World [7], and in newspapers and magazines like The Guardian[2], the Sueddeutsche Zeitung [8], Le Monde [9] and National Geographic Traveler[10].
[edit] History
| Mar 2008 | Spotted by Locals was founded by Sanne & Bart van Poll, a married couple of avid travelers from Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| Apr 2008: | Founders start a 6 month trip to 21 cities in Europe, to select the first 120 Spotters |
| Nov 2008: | Winner of Mashable Open Web Awards[11] in the category "Travel" |
| Feb 2009: | Winner of Lonely Planet Travel Blog Award[12] in the "Best Group authored Travel blog" category |
| Jun 2009: | Winner of Travel Mole "Best Travel Blog" award[13] |
| Nov 2009: | Adds one of the first multi-national Layar augmented reality applications |
| Feb 2010: | A monthly updated PDF cityguide with all up-to-date tips is offered for download on each of the cityblogs |
| Oct 2010: | Winner of Guardian newspaper "Best Travel Website" Award[14] |
| Dec 2010: | Launch of 33rd cityblog |
| Feb 2011: | Launch of 33 IPhone applications |
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[edit] Notes
- ^ The Sunday Times - The best travel guides on the web, April 3 2009
- ^ a b The Guardian - Spotted online: local guides to Europe's cities, 18 March 2009
- ^ Spotted by Locals on Layar
- ^ Lonely Planet Travel Blog - Get Lost, Go local
- ^ Local Travel Movement
- ^ Local Travel Movement - Local Travel Values
- ^ Best of the web - BBC World, 19 February 2010
- ^ Reiseblog Spotted by Locals - Lieblingsplätze der Insider, 17 September 2009
- ^ Une site anti-piège à touristes - Le Monde, 14 April 2009
- ^ Worh Bookmarking - Spotted by Locals, National Geographic Traveler, March 2009
- ^ Mashable Open Web Awards
- ^ Lonely Planet Travel Blog Award
- ^ Travel Mole "Best Travel Blog" award
- ^ Guardian and Observer "Best Travel Website" award
