Couple has success with unique tourism App

Tuhura Limited

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Couple has success with unique tourism App

Like many couples, Aucklanders Gordon and Cathy Duncan came up with a bright idea a few years back while travelling overseas. However unlike most, the baby-boomers advanced their idea the moment they got home, with their start-up business now enjoying significant support and popularity and even greater growth potential.

Ever the independent travellers, the Duncans relied on travel books to help get them through the likes of Europe and Asia.

However they were constantly frustrated that they couldn’t fully appreciate the underlying stories they knew existed in many of the locations they visited.

Then came what Gordon describes as the light bulb moment. What about an App that streamed geo-located video or animated stories to digitally connect visitors to the very place they were standing?

“Words alone cannot convey a place’s colourful culture and the likes of amazing historical events that might have occurred right where you are. And it was when we were overseas we thought surely our digital devices in our pockets could be put to better use to help open our eyes and better connect us to these places,” say Gordon.

Back in Auckland, the couple fronted up to business mentors, The Icehouse, and got the thumbs up and some much-needed support to move their idea to a start-up business. Tuhura Ltd was born.

Tuhura means “to discover” in Maori and underpins the Duncans’ determination to develop an App that would place much emphasis on recapturing the stories of indigenous Maori in a respectful and authentic way.

“Many locations around the world are sites where indigenous people once lived but sadly have been pushed aside by the invasion of tourists and the consequential tourism businesses. We wanted to build a business on a respect for Maori and their position as tangatawhenua and be globally leaders in the area of indigenous representation,” says Gordon.

Tuhura’s App is called Discover NZ Tourism and is free to download on Apple and Android platforms. It currently contains over 650 short geo-located video and animation clips, with many stories also available in Chinese.

“This is all about adding value to the visitor experience and responding to the demand for ‘deep travel’ where people don’t just want the photos, they want the knowledge and the understanding of where they’re at and why it’s an important place,” says Gordon.

Over the past four years, the Duncans’ journey to get their idea into the marketplace has been filled with challenges.

They first tested the concept in face to face interviews with travellers at backpacker hostels and the Auckland International Airport, receiving much encouragement for the development of such a product.

Initially their business case proposed charging people to download the App but that was never going to succeed given how conditioned users are to accessing free Apps. A key part of their revenue instead is derived from the App’s ability to take bookings on behalf of many of New Zealand’s significant tourism operators.

“After we decided to provide the App to users for free, the scary part was to identify how the business could be economically sustainable. It is now clear there are a range of commercial revenue opportunities but rest assured we’re not a discount App aimed at making money by constantly devaluing tourism products. Instead we’re committed to providing best every day prices. We have introduced a deals page which does offer operators and App users the opportunity to respond to slower times.

“Our in-App booking engine now offers many tourism products. There’s also the opportunity to put up location/site based maps that stream video but are only accessible when a person purchases a ticket to visit the site. What’s more we’ll be exploring the possibility of targeted advertising and alerts for local products and services,” says Gordon.

The Duncans have also recently signed an agreement with Blue Bubble taxis in Queenstown and Rotorua which effectively sees each company promoting the other. Another commercial opportunity currently being explored is a possible partnership with a major New Zealand retailer which would enable products to be purchased off the App.

“We’re getting a great response from tourism operators. They pay a relatively small service fee and we get a percentage from bookings made, so if there aren’t any bookings it doesn’t cost hardly anything but in most cases it’s proving well worth their while.”

He says Tuhura has been building relationships with Ngati Whatua, has received encouragement from within Maori tourism leaders, and is working to build partnerships with a range of other Maori iwi and organisations. He says almost universally the kaupapa and aspirations of Tuhura have been warmly supported.

For the Duncans it’s not only about supporting and recognizing Maori, but a big part of their company ethos is to help provide meaningful employment for designers, graphics champions and program coders, marketers here in New Zealander rather than losing them to overseas developers.

Tuhura is also in discussions with several secondary and tertiary educational providers. The idea is that the likes of media or animation students could research and create short video or animated stories that could be included on the App, adding to the rich content as well as provide young Kiwis with a chance to have their work published.

Gordon Duncan says the App has much potential to expand beyond tourism sector and in fact Tuhura has aspirations and plans to take its business case into overseas markets.

However, regardless of future growth and direction, the Duncans remain firmly committed to retaining the core of the business including ownership and intellectual prowess in New Zealand.

Recently the Discover NZ Tourism website www.discovernztourism.com was relaunched and the App’s platform and capability was strengthened.

“We’ve developed a thin App, which basically means it does not take up a lot of space on a phone because it streams content rather than holds the content on the phone.

However the App allows up to 20 clips to be downloaded and temporarily stored for the likes of users going to locations where there is no digital signal.

“Even if there is no signal, people can still pull out their phones and see and hear the digital stories. Users are telling us this mode of story-telling certainly resonates with them more than, pulling out the old travel book. What’s more it is about unleashing information which was once destined to stay on the marae, or locked away in libraries, educational institutions or in the archives,” says Gordon.

Much of the initial content on the App has been sourced and leased from TVNZ Archives, and Gordon says integrity of the information is key. However he says there remains plenty of scope from the likes of tourism operators, community groups, education providers, and Iwi to contribute.

He makes clear however that Tuhura is not about users uploading their own images or experiences, as plenty of sites and social media opportunities enable this.

“Overcoming incredible odds, Maori waka building prowess and exemplary navigational skills brought them to this country centuries ago. We’d like to think that the Discover NZ Tourism App somewhat adds to Aotearoa’s unique spirit and helps visitors and New Zealanders alike to now better navigate our country’s wonderful stories.

“Four years ago our aim for Tuhura was to bring alive an accessible resource of truly rich local stories covering the length and breadth of New Zealand. With 650 clips now available along with 250 tourism different products, we’ve certainly got the resource. Our business challenge now is to just get more and more people to download it. Even though it’s free, that is always harder than it sounds,” says Gordon Duncan.

www.discovernztourism.com

Ends

© Scoop Media