Travelling into the future using Google apps

Google tour at Veiw Point of the Great Rift Valley Escarpment, Limuru. (Photo: Audrey Cheptoo/Standard)

Internet giant, Google has unveiled applications that make travelling fun and more conducive for smartphone owners.

Google executives from all over the globe gathered in Nairobi recently to take a hoard of journalists from Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria on a tour of Nairobi and the Great Rift Valley as part of their #GoogleInNairobi travel story – a pilot project for Africa.

“We wanted journalists from Sub-Saharan Africa to experience the beauty of Kenya using Google tools, to show you can travel and use your smart phone to help you discover and appreciate a place,” says Google’s Communication Manager for East and Francophone Africa, Dorothy Ooko. Ms Ooko adds that the aim of bringing journalists is to help showcase Kenya’s heritage and beauty in their own countries.

“This will help boost Kenya’s story beyond the negativity that exists,” she says adding that this will help market Kenya’s beaches, safaris and historical sites to tourists.

Our journey begins one early morning in a Nairobi hotel. Breakfast is served, introductions made and applications downloaded. Then we are ushered into safari 4x4s fit for a luxury adventure. The Google app is the perfect travel assistant.

“Once you have the Google app installed on your phone, it helps you plan and manage your travel and will give you just the right information at the right time – before you even ask. All relevant information is generated automatically so you don’t need to scramble around your emails for details,” Ooko adds.

The team had shown us how to use Voice Search. Almost constantly, we talk to our devices, asking questions and running tasks. Granted, the response comes in a somewhat peculiar electronic voice but it is mostly accurate and adjusts well to accents.

“We find that a lot more people are using Voice Search simply because it is convenient. Google has invested plenty of time and resources to making voice interaction with your phone better and easier,” informs Pauls Solomon, the Head of Communications in Africa, Middle East, Israel and Turkey for Google.

Both itinerary and Google maps confirm that we are heading North West towards the winding escarpment into the belly of the Great Rift. Its breathtaking views have us gaping and snapping at the landscape just beyond our reach. Our convoy stops at one of the larger viewpoints on the Limuru section of the escarpment.

At the viewpoint, a gospel trio is shooting a music video. Their energy is fuelled by this multi-coloured audience. They dance with increasing vigour – perhaps in anticipation that their video might go viral. We continue down the escarpment to a most sacred and historical place. ‘Stat crux dum volvitur orbis’ is boldly etched above the door of the Mai Mahiu Catholic Church, fashionably referred to as the ‘Travellers Church’. We discover it is a motto of the Carthusians Monks. ‘The cross is steady while the world turns,’ translates Google.

Built by Italian prisoners of war in 1942, it is the smallest and oldest church in Kenya and among the smallest in the world. We take a million pictures and make leave.

Agri-tourism

We cruise past lush boulevards of tea, occasionally meeting with small town centres. Before long, we arrive at a rustic wooden sign marked ‘KAMBETHU FARM’. Here we are hosted by Fiona Vernon, a tea farmer. She tells us the farm has been in her family since 1920. She welcomes us into her home, feeds and waters us before delving into the fascinating story of tea; from history to production.

Vernon then demonstrates her expertise as we take a walk into the tea fields. At this point, Google Now notifies me that our next destination is Karura Forest, giving distance and time to the location. Before long, we are on the move again.

A Google Maps team challenges us to trek for seven kilometres to the Karura Waterfall and back to the cafe, where we would enjoy sundowners in the rain. “Okay Google, what’s next,” I think to ask. Pre-emptively, my phone beeps and a notification reads: ‘Dinner at Amaica, 1900hrs.’

Boosting tourism

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) and Google are organising talks to see possible areas of collaboration in an effort to boost tourism. KTB Communications Manager, Mutai Ngeno, told Business Beat that the future is bright for tourism and a partnership with the Google could take the sector to the next level. “Kenya is privileged to have a diverse number of things to showcase – our culture, sports, agri-tourism, not to mention our coasts and wildlife,” adds Ngeno.

Google recently launched Street View maps for three locations in Kenya – Samburu National Park, David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and Lewa Conservancy – as a show of support for conservation in Kenya. “Tourist sites all over the world use Street View; it offers complete immersion into a location, without having to go there,” Programme Manager for Google Street View Africa, Evans Arabu, says.

According to Arabu, government approval is needed for more mapping to commence. “Apps like Google Translate, Maps and Street View can actually encourage tourism,” says Ooko, adding that Google is playing its part to develop and improve the economy of the country through promoting tourism.

“It is very exciting to think where technology was five years ago and where it is now. What is even more so is to imagine where we will be in five years – 2020,” says Solomon. By the end of it all photos are safely backed up in a cloud and it is clear that the influence of technology on tourism cannot be ignored.