Here is an interesting case study about a different concept of tourism.
Nowadays young travelers are willing to visit cities in a different way, they want to explore the culture and the lifestyle in a more fun but also deeper experience.
Use-it Europe are maps of different cities made by locals for young travelers. They add to the standard tourist information hidden places that only locals can know.
The maps are printed and distributed in hostels, tourist informational points, pubs ecc.. and they are free for everyone. You can also printed out by yourself by downloading the pdf on the website. Recently some cities are developing the application.
The main office is in Ghent (Belgium) in 2005 where a young group of people decide to publish the map. From 2008 they have created Use-it Europe with the purpose to help other cities to enter the community of Use-it and design other maps.
To create a new Use-it map for your city you have to contact them and follow the basic instructions they give on their website, each city can be quite independent, designing their own map and they have to found it by themselves.
Use it is an example of innovation because the maps are made by volunteers and are not commercial so it guarantees that the informations are honest and true. Young and low-budget tourism is a new reality of our society and Use-it represents a service for a new kind of traveler.
Besides Use-it has an impact also on the new generation of European by creating a connection between cities that enhance the feeling of being part of a community. It’s an example of how you can empower local culture and in the same time create a bigger community.
Download the map and have fun visiting a new city!
Find out more :
www.use-it.travel
Here is the map of Milano:
www.use-it.travel/cities/detail/milan/