Travelling is exciting. Yet venturing into a strange place can be pretty intimidating. And hence, even before booking that flight, you do a fair bit of research, which today is accomplished by scrolling on a handheld device.
Finding the best restaurants, hotel stays and planning your itinerary, can be pretty exhausting. But if you are visiting Goa, tune into this application that lets you explore the best of the State.
As college students pursuing computer science in Goa, Nilkanth Shirodkar and Radhaprasad Borkar were learning to develop mobile applications as part of their curriculum.
Like most youngsters they had a passion for travel as well, but faced difficulties getting around. And that’s when their shared passion for travel and technology sprung the idea for ‘Goa App’.
“We started in 2016. Initially, it was a simple application that would just show the places around. As time passed we started adding more features to it,” says Nilkanth Shirodkar, Goa App founder.
Today the application developed by the duo let’s one explore the beauty of the State. From offering the best places to visit, planning itineraries, renting vehicles, booking holiday packages and thrilling adventure activities, Goa App is a one-stop solution to all that a tourist needs to know about Goa.
“We’ve partnered with activity dealers across the State in Calangute, Baga, Margao etc, like those offering sight-seeing tours, those with scuba diving services and have even tied up with casinos,” explains Shirodkar on the app’s impact of empowering local businesses in Goa.
With a seamless interface, one can simply get onto the Goa App and freely access places to visit that are categorised into beaches, forts, religious, waterfalls and avail information on them.
“Only if a payment is involved, that is if you are booking an activity or any rental, you need to log in with your mobile number,” says Shirodkar, adding that once the payment is done, users receive a QR code and a ticket via WhatsApp on the registered number.
Simply get onto the Goa App and freely access places to visit that are categorised into beaches, forts, religious, waterfalls and avail information on them.
While the rentals section allows one to pick their ride, that is taxi services limited to Goa’s airports for now, the events section lets one make a note of the upcoming events like for instance the Cashew Fest happening this week and the decennial exposition of St Francis Xavier taking place later this year.
What’s more? The application also has dining options offering users coupons where they stand a chance to get a 10 to 15 per cent offer at some restaurants.
“We’ve already started research work. The plan is to improve generic searches and add Artificial Intelligence to the application thus making it more user friendly,” says Shirodkar about the future plans of the application.
The Goa App garnered recognition being represented at the recently held G20 event. Apart from partnering with Goa Tourism and Goa IT Cell, they have got funding from Goa IT Startup.
Adding to their contribution list, the duo is also giving upcoming engineers the opportunity to work and learn and offering internships across Goa like at the Goa Engineering College (GEC), Agnel Institute of technology & Design (ATID), Shree Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology (RIT).
Recounting those earlier hustling days, Shirodkar says, “Having no place to sit (office space to work), I remember the two of us used to spend the full day at Central Library working on the app. Sometimes, we used to go to the gaddo, where we used to only get tea, sit and work.”
Sometimes you win and other times you learn, at the end, it’s all about giving it your best shot. Initially, with no financial support or investors on board, the duo could afford this application solely because the two happened to be developers allowing them to sustain their dream with the support they found in each other.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://goa.app
Application available on Google Play Store