24 Feb 2016
New Online Travel Company Touriocity Transforming City-Breaks Experience
Tags: city break, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Marrakech, Barcelona, Rome, Escorted Tours, Tours, family travel, solo travel, Luxury Travel, couples travel, Culture Travel, Heritage, #SightseeingTours, Sightseeing, Lisbon, Start-up, Online, bespoke journeys, tailor-made, New York City, London, festivals
A new bespoke tour guide service has launched online, that is changing the tour guide industry and opening up the world of private city tours to everyone.
Touriocity (www.touriocity.com) specialises in offering affordable, private, bespoke tours in 50+ cities across the world; it is the only website that allows customers to create and book their perfect private tour, tailored to their needs, before they leave for their trip.
The company fills a gap in the market: private tours that ordinary individuals and families can afford, and can design themselves in advance, to be a memorable part of their city break or holiday: private tours are usually around 30% more expensive than Touriocity's.
Alex Grant, founder and CEO of Touriocity, says: "I used to work as a tour guide in Rome and so I know how having an expert take you round a city can be a really special experience and a highlight of your trip: a tour can make that city and its history come alive. I wanted to open this up, so that a private tour with an expert is something that everyone, who is 'travel curious', can enjoy, and to respond to the current trend of holidaymakers moving towards more authentic, personalised experiences, and away from group tour options.
"It was also important to me to offer a boutique, online service, so with Touriocity you can take control and design and create your perfect private tour online, before you set off on your travels, so you know you will see the sights you want to see, when you want to see them, with a friendly expert guide."
The beauty of a Touriocity tour, apart from the price, is the fact that they are so flexible: if the customer is not sure what they want to see, Touriocity will suggest a tour of the main sights in the city, or the customer can start with a main sights tour, and tweak it according to their preferences. In many cities Touriocity can offer customers exclusive access to places and sights, and can recommend great places to eat, drink and the best entertainment.
Touriocity employs tour guides who truly are experts in the cities they work. Many have relevant degrees, Masters or PhDs. For example, Giovanni, who is a tour guide in Rome, has a PhD in Archaeology and has personally dug and worked on some of the sights around the city.
Touriocity is based in London's Travel Tech Lab next to City Hall at London Bridge, and is already working with a number of well-established travel partners including Gatwick Airport, LoveHomeSwap and Mr and Mrs Smith, and in advanced discussions with many others, such as Design Hotels.
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THE TOP 5 CITY-BREAKS DESTINATIONS FOR 2016, based on numbers of enquiries to Touriocity.com:
· Berlin
· Rome
· Barcelona
· Marrakech
· Amsterdam
INVITATION TO THE MEDIA
Touriocity would like the press to experience a private Touriocity tour. Please let us know if you are planning a trip and would like a complimentary private tour. The website www.touriocity.com lists 50+ destinations, but the company can organise a tour guide in almost any city in the world, so please let us know if we can help.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Sophie Banks and Angie Cronin
Loudbird PR and Communications
Tel: 07815 147073 and 07970 810302
Notes to Editors:
· Touriocity is a London-based travel tech startup and began trading in March 2014
· The 15-strong team is based at the Traveltech Lab next to London's City Hall. The Lab is a new co-working space, backed by the Mayor of London
· Founder and CEO, Alex Grant, has 7 years' experience running a tour guide company (Roman Empire Tours), from which Touriocity evolved
· Alex began his career in Finance before transferring over to the world of digital startups
· Touriocity is partly funded by the founders of Car Trawler, Scott Dunn, Context Travel & Attractions Tickets Direct
· Touriocity already has business partnerships with Gatwick Airport, LoveHomeSwap, Mr & Mrs Smith, and is in advanced talks with many other travel industry companies, such as Design Hotels
· Touriocity employs tour guides who truly are experts in the cities they work. Many have relevant degrees, Masters or PhDs. For example, Giovanni, who is a tour guide in Rome, has a PhD in Archaeology and has personally dug and worked on some of the sights around the city
· Touriocity is aiming to digitalise and aggregate the world of tour guides. The business strategy is to bring the world of tour guides online and deliver customers direct to tour guides, effectively making this a much more efficient and profitable industry for guides
· By driving down the costs of a private bespoke tour, and offering this unique easy-to-book service direct to their own customers, and also to business partners' customers, Touriocity aims to transform the tour guide industry, providing private tour guides with enough business to enable an on-demand style business model for the tour guide industry. The ultimate goal is to create an industry that can sustain private, bespoke tour guide booking on demand through a Touriocity App.
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