Tourism has changed a lot in the last few years. Instead of just geographic locations to visit, travelers want meaningful experiences. They’re looking for activities to do that complement the place they’re exploring and they want specific information about it. Put simply, today’s travelers like to live and learn!

Today’s travelers want flexibility and conditions they can adapt to their own interests. They want to get a feel for their destination without waiting in long lines, and they do this by reading stories that places have to offer. They often learn about their destination before setting off on their journey, through the tales millions of people tell when they write reviews of their traveling experiences. Travelers like to hear stories and they like to tell them, too.

Technology is very useful for many travelers. There are more and more advanced tools that help people identify locations and get more contextual information. So, technology can help make traveling a better, more engaging experience. The latest generation of travelers uses entertaining tools to explore.

For these reasons (and just because we like to play games), we’ve created whaiwhai.

Whaiwhai is a game that helps people explore places.

Playing whaiwhai means going on an adventure: you have to look for clues to uncover mysteries, by solving one enigma at a time, one at each location on your itinerary. So the game is a pretext to learn about the original aspects of each place you visit and about all the stories surrounding it. Any place, city or museum can become a playing field for a treasure hunt. The whaiwhai stories, which map out various cities, have become a book collection.

“A place is a place when it exists in our mind, whenever there’s a story to tell about it, a plan to build it, an image that distinguishes it, music to remember it by, or a movie that celebrates it.” – Giulio Mozzi

On June 8th, 2009, Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano officially awarded the WHAIWHAI format the National Prize for Innovation in the tourism category. Receiving this prestigious annual award is a sign that we’ve made a real breakthrough.