Our Projects

Traveling to natural destinations is becoming increasingly popular. A growing number of tourists spend their holidays going on adventurous hiking trips or riveting “geo-tours” to attractive landscapes. Although local guides and conventional guidebooks provide the traveler with some basic information on the geology and geography of landscapes, the more weighty questions that require a certain scientific know-how remain unanswered. How was this mountain range formed? What exactly is a volcano? Where did this gold come from? How come this valley is so perfectly shaped? Why does this river have different colors? We have the answers and we are eager to share it with the travel society. We therefore propose the creation of a multimedia “geotravel platform” – a written guidebook and related online media - that combines “popularized geoscience” with practical tourist information.

Project 1: Geotravel guidebooks

 

Geotravel Colombia is strongly related to “geotourism”, a fast growing niche in the worldwide tourism sector. In essence, geotourism is a form of conscious travelling that seeks to explain the landscape of a natural tourist destination. It is a type of informative tourism that focuses on the appreciation and explanation of natural landscapes and geological phenomena. Geotourism is related to ecotourism and adventure tourism in the sense that it focuses on nature and sustainability, but different in the sense that it attempts to raise knowledge on the history and formation of so-called “geosites”.

 

We have chosen Colombia to develop the first edition of our passion project for several reasons. First and foremost, Colombia is one of the most geodiverse countries in the world with three distinct mountain ranges, a Caribbean and a Pacific coastline, the Amazon rain forest, several deserts, volcanos and so on. On top of that, the country has one of the highest biodiversity rates per square kilometer in the world. It is a country full of hidden geo-wonders that beg to be discovered by the rapidly growing group of travelers that visit this South American country. Receptive tourism in Colombia is skyrocketing with a pace that lies three times higher than the global average. Furthermore, two of the authors are curently living in Colombia and together we have an invaluable number of contacts at universities and local research institutes throughout the country. This will help us greatly with the research and writing process of the first edition of our book. That said, the concept of Geotravel Colombia is applicable to any other country in Latin America and most other countries in the world. We are certainly not limiting ourselves to Colombia. Hence, in future editions our name and the color of our logo – which currently corresponds with the Colombian flag - can be changed to for example “Geotravel Mexico” or “Geotravel Thailand”. Thus, “Geotravel” is our backbone name. The additional name of the country and the color of our logo may fluctuate.

 

The modern-day tourist is interested in visiting natural sites and wants to learn about these places. We have conducted thorough market research and a competitive analysis and we have found that the existing travel guides, tourism web portals and travel blogs about Colombia do well to inform travelers about the history, culture, customs and main tourist attractions. However, the great majority of these guidebooks focus on traditional tourist destinations such as cities and beaches. They also include some natural destinations, but the geographical and geological context of these places is superficially explained and lacks profundity. We have found that the market needs a refreshing and informative type of guidebook that is linked to new and rising types of tourism, such as ecotourism, adventure tourism, hiking and - above all - geotourism.

 

A huge gap exists between the enormous geodiversity in Colombia on the one hand and the lack of available information about these geosites for travelers on the other. This has lead us to believe that there is a great potential for a book that combines instructive and comprehensive information on Colombia´s geodiversity with practical travel information such as transportation, accommodation, restaurants, nightlife and some background on the history and culture. Colombia is packed with spectacular hidden caves, mountains, colorful rivers, volcanoes, forests, desserts and hot springs, but many of these sites are known only to the local population and a select number of scientists and have yet to be discovered by a wider public.

 

Through our guide we are eager to reveal these innumerable hidden “geo-wonders” in Colombia to our readers. We will add sense to some of the most interesting, stunning and eye-catching natural wonders that this South-American country has to offer by writing “popularized geo-science” in an attractive and compelling way and that includes the use of colorful figures to visualize the things we describe. To serve the widest possible audience, all the information we offer on all our different channels of communication will be offered in English and Spanish.

 

We have made careful and conservative calculations on the size of our target group, which includes both domestic and foreign tourists, professionals in geo-sciences and non-professional ‘geo-enthusiasts’ from around the whole. On a global scale, at least 120.000.000 people will be potentially interested in buying a travel guide focused on geotourism. The worldwide popularity of non-fiction books and documentaries on geographical and geological topics and the popularity of TV channels such as National Geographic and Discovery Channel are a clear sign of a growing interest in the understanding and popularization of geosciences. This further strengthens our belief that Geotravel Colombia has a great potential.

Project 2: App & website

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We will use three different strategies to market and promote Geotravel Colombia. First of all, we will make use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote our brand. On Facebook we will launch narrative videos, images and some texts about the geosites that we visit for our guidebook. This will serve as a teaser for our book and at the same time it will help us to better understand and analyze our readership and the specific interests, questions and demands that they may have. Our second marketing and promotion strategy is the creation of a website where people can find detailed introductions to the geography and geology of Colombia and where our readers can buy separate chapters of our book. We will also keep up a blog on this website and add detailed hiking maps and basic information about the geosites that we visit. If we have added new information on our website, which we plan to do at least twice a week, we will add a link on our Facebook page. Our last and most ambitious project includes the development of an application in which all information of the geosites, interactive maps, and  GPS-guided routes will be available for all our costumers.