A personalised travel safety app is aiming to encourage informed and engaged travel for leisure and corporate travellers.
In 2013, US-based technology company GeoSure launched its first phase of operations, offering hyper-localised safety rankings for neighbourhoods across the globe geared towards solo female travellers.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time, crowd-sourced data from a range of organisations, including the United Nations, World Health Organisation, Interpol and crime statistics, individual neighbourhoods are ranked from one to 100, with one being the safest.
“Safety is central to travel, and we want people to be more confident and inspired about travelling to any part of the world,” said CEO Michael Becker.
He added that the ultimate aim is to enrich travel experiences by providing detailed information on localised safety levels, which vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Travel warnings are an example, where they are often unnecessarily placed on entire countries or regions, with detrimental effects.
He said: “If you put a travel ban or warning on an entire destination, it can have devastating impacts on the tourism economy when there may only be small parts of the country affected, while the rest is fine to visit. This app can help solve this problem.”
Operating on a B2C and B2B level, GeoSure is working with OTAs, TMCs, DMOs, tourism boards and other organisations to offer customers, employees and members hyper-local safety information.
While the app is free to download, GeoSure has also developed a premium, paid-for DoC (duty of care) product for corporates and multinationals. Under this, travel brands and organisations will be able to receive safety solutions and awareness and planning content.
Said Becker: “Hyper-local safety information provides timely, and monetisable, content for platform end-users. “I’m a solo female business traveller, what does the safety around my hotel look like?”, “How is the safety complexion of the neighbourhood where the business meeting is?”
Looking ahead, GeoSure is developing more features for additional travel segments. In September 2018, the second phase was rolled out, focusing on LGBTQ+.
