2014 in review: Local knowledge gets big reach with travellers

SINGAPORE — Technology has definitely made the world a much smaller place. Perhaps, we feel that most when travelling with tools such as Google Translate, while social media apps like Instagram and Spottly lead us to fantastic places only insiders know about. Armed with a smartphone, travellers are, more than ever, diving deep into a location for the ultimate local experience.

Instagram’s immense popularity has given travellers and travel brands — from Starwood hotels and Emirates to Tourism and Events Queensland — the ability to showcase their offerings like never before, making it easier to engage travellers eager to chime in with their contributions, comments, suggestions and insights.

In fact, Tourism and Events Queensland created the world’s largest Instameet in October. Travellers and Queenslanders Instagrammed more than 6,000 images for the event, cementing the future significance of Instameets in travel.

What’s more powerful are Instagram’s functions of geotagging (which allows you to see photos of a location) and hashtagging. Search #bkkcafe and you’ll know where to hang out in Bangkok without opening a guidebook or asking your hotel concierge.

The travel industry also heeded the demand to go local: Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 airport has Brit cred written all over it. New restaurants there include The Gorgeous Kitchen, featuring an all-female British chef line-up, and Heston Blumenthal’s The Perfectionists’ Cafe that serves The Extraordinary Fish and Chips. Longtime British department store John Lewis has also opened its first airport outlet to join fellow Brit brand Ted Baker there.

Hotel Indigo, Intercontinental Hotel Group’s boutique brand, chose beloved heritage district Joo Chiat to be the site for its first foray into Singapore and the Traders hotel brand from Shangri-La group was rebranded as Hotel Jen this year to cater to millennial travellers demanding more unique experiences.

But no company came closer to changing the way we travelled this year than Airbnb. A disrupter in every sense of the word, Airbnb has made it possible, easy and, yes, so very desirable to stay in someone’s home when you reach your destination. It began six years ago, but truly exploded big time this year: Inc Magazine named Airbnb 2014’s company of the year. More than 10 million travellers — and counting — stayed at an Airbnb listing in this year; the company unveiled a new logo (which resulted in it being the butt of jokes on the Internet), released a magazine called Pineapple and wants us to “Belong Anywhere” even when we’re in unknown territory.

Airbnb also organised meet-ups to help travellers connect in different cities and started initiatives in selected cities, such as Neighbourhoods on its website, for wanderers to get to know the local ’hood. Coupled with its rise were ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft that allow you to get to your destination without hassle — a boon in term of getting around a new city.

Speaking of start-ups enhancing the local experience, new start-up Cook With A Local in Copenhagen offered a platform that went beyond eating with locals. It allows locals to host food-related sessions from cooking to whisky appreciation for travellers, allowing them to connect through food. It’s still in the beta version, but expect to see more cities added to the website. Findery finally launched its app this year with lots of crowd-sourced content contributed by travellers and locals who leave “notes”, memories and stories of places they visited.

And lastly, even though Brazil may be a long flight from Singapore (20 hours and four minutes without transit, according to Travelmath), the country was very much on travellers’ minds as the host of the FIFA World Cup, while South American neighbour Peru gained prominence as the new foodie destination for gastro-tourists. Speaking of food, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore launched SGTravelKaki — in an app form of course, since we app-solutely can’t travel without them these days — in July, a handy guide for food-crazy Singaporeans to find out the dos and don’ts of bringing back food items from overseas. Serene Lim