Kathmandu, July 18, 2016: Expressing a belief that better days are just around the corner and attempting to revive the ailing tourism industry by increasing visitors’ confidence in Nepal,  HoneyGuide, a travel and tech startup based in Kathmandu, has recently launched the mobile app ‘Trekking in Nepal’.
The app currently features the Everest Region, Annapurna Base Camp Region and Ghorepani Poon Hill Region. For those trekking regions, the app intends to keep travelers safe and engaged with some revolutionary features like Deviation alerts, which warns trekkers if they take the wrong path and Avalanche Alerts that can warn them when entering avalanche prone areas. Talking about the outcomes of the app, Abhishek Pande, one of the co-founders says, “You will never be lost again.â€
The application also has a refreshingly innovative feature called Placecards, helping one to create a unique and amazing trek. Placecards, about the cultural artifacts like the prayer wheels, birds like the Danphe or flowers like rhododendron, help explain the significance of these things to the trekker, hence building a connection between the land and the trekkers, ultimately making them into instant experts.
The app has also incorporated the descriptive place-based model for information delivery. Guidebooks tell you where to go, what to see and how to think, hence creating a photocopy of the author’s experiences which is a perspective model. Trekking in Nepal on the other hand simply augments the experiences a trekker has, giving additional information on the stuffs the trekker is interested in, completely redefining the guidebook industry for the Millennials.
Interestingly, all the features like Mountain Finder, Complete Lodge coverage, and detailed lodge info are completely offline, even maps.
Another advantage of the app is that it allows for the rapid change of content in reaction to events like earthquakes and also the possibility of alerting trekkers to impending bad weather. It also has some interesting features like Mountain Finder, Complete Lodge coverage, and detailed lodge info. Most interesting of all, all of that is completely offline, even maps.
The impacts of the product however is not limited to the travel industry. As Ashish Shrestha, another co-founder of HoneyGuide Apps, opines, “The whole thing was designed, built and written by Nepali youths itself. We hope this will inspire all Nepalis to create products that can compete in the world market and instill them with a feeling that Nepalis can themselves make such things.â€
The industry is taking a major turn all over, while we are still at the same place we were in the past. This product aims to change the scenario making the availability of information about trekking destinations on par with foreign nations.
Talking about the concept of making the app, Ashish says the tourism industry is going Hi-tech all over the world. “The industry is taking a major turn all over, while we are still at the same place we were in the past. This product aims to change the scenario making the availability of information about trekking destinations on par with foreign nations,†he mentions. “Earlier, all the trek leaders were foreigners themselves while Nepalese were just working as porters. Now, the scenario has been changed where most of the trek leaders are Nepalis. Through this app, we wish to develop a feeling that Nepalis themselves can do such amazing things.â€
The app is available for Android and iPhones, and trekking regions can be bought as in-app purchases. Prices are based on the number of days in a trek and hence the prices are as follows: Everest Region –USD 14.99, ABC – USD 9.99 and Ghorepani Poon Hill – free for now, will be later priced at USD 3.99.
The app is available on Google Play store at http://tinyurl.com/hh4sub8
Detailed information about the app is available at the HoneyGuide Apps’ website https://honeyguideapps.com.
