Roote Trails is an Indonesian mobile travel application with a focus on encouraging sustainable tourism and increasing accessibility to tourist attractions and local businesses. The application’s conception was born from co-founder Anindya Kenyo’s desire to tackle two problems in the domain of tourism—inefficient government promotion and the difficulties that travelers encounter when they seek the relevant information.
So far, the Indonesian government’s promotion campaigns have had limited traction, like the “Ten New Balis” project that was intended to give high-end tourism a boost but neglected tourists with more modest budgets. And, travelers who wish to map out their own itineraries often feel like the information that is available online falls short of their expectations. Roote Trails bridges these gaps by promoting tourism through gamification and user engagement, as well as providing accurate and complete information about destinations.
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The app provides detailed information for tourists to guide them along various routes, trails, and notable locations. It includes text-based and audio content, including trivia—all of which is continuously fed to the user during their journey. Roote Trails hopes to create a meaningful user experience through detailed route guidance and multimedia content.
In general, Roote Trails suggests and maps out itineraries, accommodation, F&B establishments, and other amenities that travelers might need, and includes detailed information about each location. Its array of multimedia content adds an extra dimension to users’ journeys. This form of user engagement is the first of its kind within Indonesia’s tourism sector.
Aside from shaping travel experiences that are meant to be easy to access, Roote Trails has a strong focus on sustainable tourism. Its content encourages travelers to explore nature, like Ranca Upas, a picturesque campsite in Ciwidey, and Nusa Penida, a scuba diving paradise southeast of Bali. By offering this service, Kenyo hopes to cultivate greater interest in ecotourism while deterring the environmental degradation that takes place when new tourist attractions are built from scratch.
So far, Roote Trails has 19 routes in its library, including food tours, sightseeing expeditions, agriculture-themed explorations, or strolls along historical landmarks.
Overall, the team at Roote Trails champions environmental awareness, and have imbued that attitude in the app. At the same time, the multimedia content serves as a means to preserve local history, culture, and heritage through storytelling. Its promotion of local businesses is a boon for homegrown MSMEs. Plus, by encouraging sustainable tourism, Roote Trails is setting itself apart from other travel-focused projects that have been developed in Indonesia.
Roote Trails was among the ten finalists of the second Alibaba Cloud x KrASIA Global Startup Accelerator Indonesia Demo Day that was held on December 21.