YEREVAN, JULY 21, ARMENPRESS. In line with developing tourism sector and IT industry, Armenia is also creating a new app that will enable to digitize the work of tour guides and will allow tourists to easily find the place they want to visit.

In an interview to Armenpress, Memopin startup co-founder Karen Vardazaryan said that domestic tourism, as well as IT industry, are actively developing in Armenia, and the new app involving both could further increase the development opportunities.

He said that the idea arose when he and his friend noticed during a travel that they spend a lot of time for understanding where to go and how. They have started generating and implementing different ideas, and as a result the idea of the startup was born.

“I dreamed of visiting London, the home of rock, mostly for the Pink Floyd rock band. I wanted to go to Amsterdam and Milan for football. The most painful thing is that a person visits there and starts using Google map, in other words, he/she sees standard, non-personal offers. Thus, we started thinking of having a map where you can save any place you want, see how you get to your destination from the nearest hotel, even have an opportunity to save all the places you plan to visit before arriving at the place you want”, he said.

Memopin startup has broad opportunities, with three main functions:

• a platform where “storytellers”, tour guides can practically help independent tourism via blog posts, audio or video options
• it allows hotels, guest houses and restaurants to appear on the platform
• the app could be useful for tourists who are looking for activities, a hotel, a guest house, a restaurant, a museum, etc, in a specific place

Karen Vardazaryan attaches importance to the digitization of the tour guides’ knowledge, experience and useful advice. If a tour guide can serve 10 tourists daily, with digitization of knowledge, he/she could provide them or sell it to 100s of tourists. The platform allows to be branded, get a separate page and a logo.

The co-founder of Memopin said they are working with different bloggers who use their services, and they are automatically advertised at the YouTube channel or other platforms of that particular blogger.

“If a blogger does not have our platform, he /she will use the Google map and will earn some money from that restaurants. But if a blogger uses our app, it’s highly likely that the followers will be more interested in that restaurants, and the blogger will earn much more money. We will ensure the connection between business and a “storyteller”. We must be paid 7-10$ for this service”, he said.

At Memopin, different hotels, restaurants, guest houses and cafes can create their marketing strategy. The platform enables to present yourself and the nearby entertainment places. This service costs 10-15$ per month.

“Very often people visit a hotel, try to understand what interesting museums or restaurants there are in the territory. And they mostly get the answers from the receptionists of the hotel. But in the 21^st century people must not have this problem. And with our app we are trying to give the answers of all the questions that a tourist may have. The map doesn’t require money for this service”, Karen Vardazaryan said.

Currently, they were working on the 6 versions of Memopin, it will soon be available for Android and iOS. Memopin is the main sponsor of Extraordinary Travel Festival. It will take place in October. Karen Vardazaryan said that people will have a chance to get acquainted with the opportunities of the app during this event.

He said that the Tourism Committee approved their idea. Vardazaryan added that their product has great opportunities to enter a global market.

Interview by Karine Terteryan