Globetrotters say goodbye to guidebooks

When trav­eling some­where new, most tourists get attrac­tion rec­om­men­da­tions from guide­books or dis­cus­sion boards. Unfor­tu­nately, these one-​​trip-​​fits-​​all sug­ges­tions don’t offer trav­elers the oppor­tu­nity to cus­tomize their itin­er­aries based on their inter­ests. Besides that, dated books and sites often direct trav­elers to restau­rants, museums and other attrac­tions that have already closed.

These are among the issues Fox­Trotter is hoping to overcome.

Fox­Trotter is a mobile app devel­oped by Charif Tabet, AMD’15, Karl Bachian, SSH’11, and Cosimo Vio­lati, SSH’12. With the free app, now avail­able in the App Store and Google Play, trav­elers can get per­son­al­ized rec­om­men­da­tions from locals and other trav­elers at their destination.

“Whether they’re looking for activ­i­ties, accom­mo­da­tion, restau­rants or even people to tag along on their trips, Fox­Trotter users are in con­trol of their own trip from start to finish,” Bachian said.

Fox­Trotter users can input a range of per­son­al­ized info into their app, including age, lan­guages spoken, upcoming and past trips and other inter­ests. The app uses this infor­ma­tion to match tourists with other vis­i­tors and locals. Once the user finds someone that he or she would like to con­nect with, the trav­eler can access that person’s pro­file and even con­nect one-​​on-​​one via live chat to help start the itinerary-​​making process.

Bachian imag­ined Fox­Trotter ear­lier this year when he was plan­ning his first trip to Taipei, Taiwan. “I had done my research online and jotted down a few loca­tions that I wanted to visit. But even though I planned my trip around these ‘trusted’ web­sites, my local friend sug­gested better alter­na­tives,” he explained. “This made me realize that the best way to get the most out of travel is to get in touch with someone in the know.”

Tabet, for his part, has been tasked with media out­reach and social media com­mu­ni­ca­tions. The archi­tec­ture stu­dent worked on the graphic designs for the app and has drawn on his co-​​op expe­ri­ences at Hashim Sarkis Stu­dios in Cam­bridge, Mass­. On co-​​op, Tabet, a busi­ness minor, was able to build up both his archi­tec­tural and busi­ness expe­ri­ence through direct inter­ac­tion with clients through con­sul­ta­tions and site visits. These expe­ri­ences, he said, sparked a desire to invest in some­thing that would teach him a career lesson—whether that be through suc­cess or failure.

“When the app oppor­tu­nity came up, it was a no-​​brainer,” Tabet recalled. “The fact that next year I would grad­uate and be able to say that I’ve had a com­pany for over a year even though I was an under­grad in college—not a lot of people can say that.”