Tourism app firm on hunt for more staff

A tourism start-up hascombined quick response codes and treasure hunts to create 10 jobs in Cork.

Keyquests, launched in Fota Wildlife Park, provides an app that works as an interactive treasure trail allowing tourists to unlock ‘quests’ along the way to avail of highly targeted location-based offers.

The start-up, which has received funding from South and East Cork Area Development and a number of private investors, has already created six full-time jobs, and recruitment for a further four roles is on-going. The roles are spread across programming, sales, and marketing.

Founder of Keyquests, Gillen Joyce said: “The concept behind Keyquests came to me when looking through holiday photo albums last year.

“Photos tell one story, but technology allows us now to tell our own unique stories and to create and share our experiences online.

“The premise behind Keyquests is simple; while many holiday makers know where they want to go and what they want to see, many more don’t.

“At Keyquests we aim to take the stress away from planning your travel itinerary, recommending routes to follow, providing attractive offers and incentives along the way, and enabling holiday makers to create, design and choose their own quest or travel itinerary.”

The app is unique in that it combines entertainment, pictures, blogging, and social networking with real- time, location-based marketing for tourism and leisure businesses.

The company is currently working with the OPW to include 32 public heritage sites on Keyquests. It already boasts attractions such as Dublin Castle, House of Waterford Crystal, Fota Wildlife Park, and Trabolgan, and has experienced a surge in downloads from the App Store and Android Marketplace.