Case study

Reimagining Urban Tourism With iVie

Travel
Woman looking at iVie app on cell phone.

Challenge

The Vienna Tourist Board wanted to create a unique and complete city guide for people visiting and living in Vienna. The aspiration was that the guide would become a staple of city tourism, while offering its visitors a comprehensive and user-friendly experience.

Outcome

With our support, the board was able to develop iVie, an award-winning application for Android and iOS, offering tourists a range of features including audio guides and city walks.

Woman tourist stands near St. Stephen's Cathedral on Stefansplatz in Vienna.

One app for a thousand different experiences

The Tourist Board sought support in designing and developing iVie, which aimed to help visitors and residents alike to enjoy and (re)discover the city of Vienna  at their own pace and based on personal interest, be it music, history, arts or parties and other activities. 
 
We provided expertise from the point of conception through design and development of iVie. Our teams developed a comprehensive set of features, ranging from audio tours to guided city walks, imagining it as the best companion to have at hand and offering a collection of experiences as vibrant as the city’s atmosphere. 
 
Both a digital travel guide and a city guide, we created a cultural and chic urban experience companion. iVie shows more than just the way to major sightseeing, cultural, musical, historical objectives, it also offers curious anecdotes about different locations, insider tips and loads of special stories sprinkled around all over Vienna, waiting to be discovered and shared with the app user via push notifications. 
 
Tourists can listen and learn as they walk through thematic tours, plan ahead and navigate using the map. They can also save favourite locations and add new places that maybe iVie didn’t know about. 
 
iVie also encompasses the Vienna City Card – which offers full mobility, and countless discounts in museums, concerts, shopping, and restaurants.

An accelerated, streamlined partnership

Our team based in Berlin was able to draw on its prior experience with tourist guides and our extensive experience in mobile development. Close-to-client location and regular visits helped streamline and deliver the project in nine months, from idea to production, to delivery. 

The benefits

Through our partnership, the Vienna Tourist Board was able to create a digital city guide that embodies Vienna’s vibrant and modern spirit whilst offering a world full of urban tourism experiences accessible to anyone with a smartphone. 
 
iVie has also won Gold at the Berlin based Annual Multimedia Awards for shining a new light over beautiful and historic sightseeing locations. 
 
The Vienna Tourist Board was awarded Gold in the category "Best Website, App & E-Commerce" for iVie at the webAD of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Austria (IAB).

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A long-lasting cooperation

Europa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany providing amazing experiences for millions of visitors. Over the last couple of years, we’ve had the opportunity to support their teams in giving their visitors a wonderful time through a variety of exciting tech projects.

Two entire worlds in one app

In 2019, with the Rulantica water world opening its doors next to Europa-Park, we have created a renewed mobile app with comprehensive features for a very special leisure experience. Within the app, users can find all information on both parks as well as on the hotels and shows. We have integrated comprehensive information on the attractions, editorial news, and even a dedicated radio channel.

 

Thanks to geofencing, the app offers different functions depending on the visitor’s location, like a detailed map for navigation in the parks, including a display of waiting times and push notifications. Besides the app itself, we have also developed the back end and the content API, which is used by numerous Europa-Park departments.

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Embracing the new normal

Like the entire industry, Europa-Park was hit hard by the Covid-19 restrictions. While its top priority was to protect the health and well-being of its guests and employees, as one of the biggest employers in the region it was looking forward to reopening its doors as soon as possible.


We have worked at full speed to develop two innovative tools that allow our customer to meet the high safety standards in times of the coronavirus: an autonomous social distancing app using a gamification approach and a virtual queuing feature for the existing Europa-Park mobile app.


Together, we developed digital tools with which the park can open again for its visitors even under increased hygienic conditions. Besides various other on-site measures, with these two tools, the Europa-Park team could feel at ease when they opened their gates again.

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