New App Offers Visitors A Local Perspective
Last week, Bermudians Alison Swan and William West launched ‘Winnow,’ a travel app designed to provide visitors to Bermuda with a more authentic experience.
In collaboration with various providers on the island, Winnow offers visitors the opportunity to view Bermuda from a new and varied perspective. Available experiences range from sunset paddle board yoga, culinary and cultural tours, free-diving through the reefs, private surf lessons, beekeeping, adventuring through Bermuda’s off-trail treasures and more.
Spencer Fields offers ‘Beekeeping 101′ through Winnow:
Mr. West told Bernews: “When you go somewhere and you have a local with you and you have someone who really knows the country they are able to draw together the connections and the interesting elements of a country and make it a much more meaningful visit.
“We knew that where were a lot of really interesting providers in Bermuda, people with incredible experiences who didn’t have the infrastructure to get to their audience. And as such, had a lot of barriers to their market, even though they had really interesting stuff.”
This is where Winnow comes in, providing the infrastructure for Bermudian providers to connect with a larger audience, and for visitors to find exciting and meaningful local experiences.
However, Ms. Swan added: “It’s not just off-the-shelf experiences, not things that you obviously do when you come. Most of the things that you can find on our site are non-comparable. They are not the sort of things that you find when you google the top-10 things to do in Bermuda
Ian Bridges’ ‘An Absolute Bermuda Adventure:’
“It might be a different take on it, a re-cut of it, or a modernized version of it. But it’s coming from real people who know this market – we are the ones who want to give you these experiences, and no one knows it better than us as locals. Who are you going to trust more? The people who have lived it, or the person who has come to see it for a weekend?”
In addition to being able to browse and book experiences directly on the app, the app has an ‘Inspire’ feature, which the team describes as a “deeper editorial.” As such, the app is more than just a listing site or a booking agent: “We’re where editorial, e-commerce and experience meet,” Mr. West said.
On the Inspire section, one can find stunning visuals of Bermuda and read various perspectives on the island. For instance, the section includes an interview with Jack Ward, marine biologist and president of the Bermuda Environmental Consultancy, in which he provides insider tips for experiencing the island’s natural habitat at its best.
“Where we differ is all of our content is bookable,” Ms. Swan noted. “Now, when you read something, you can read our editorial and actually say ‘I want to do that’ and instead of having to search it and go to another site and find that provider, and call them and see if they’re available, that whole process of being inspired, researching, planning and scheduling your holiday can all be done now in one spot.”
Kristin White offers an ‘Insiders St. Georges Tour’ bookable through the app:
All interested providers on the island are encouraged to get in touch. “We’re very collaborative with our providers,” Mr. West told Bernews. “We sit down and have conversations, and look to see how their products can fit. For example, we have four different fishermen on the site, and they all represent a different type of fishing and a different perspective. We make sure every experience on Winnow represents its own take on Bermuda.
“Anyone who looks at the site will see that it is there to represent the diversity of Bermuda. It’s not a luxury site, but there are luxury things on it. It’s not a tour site, but there are tours on it.
“It’s not targeted at an age or price range. Invariably there’s an element that is suitable for millennials, but we have family experiences, things that are calmer for older people, and for people who want to go free diving.
“We are working to make sure that anyone coming on can find at least one thing they want to do and can afford to do.”
Experience Bermuda’s art and learn about its history through an ‘Archival Immersion’ tour of Masterworks:
The Winnow team has also received the support of the Bermuda Tourism Authority: “The BTA has done a phenomenal job in recutting how we present ourselves, and we’re so happy to be aligned with them moving forward,” Mr. West said.
The Winnow app is available to download for free exclusively on iTunes.
For more information contact Winnow at experiences@winnow.life or visit www.winnow.life.
All photographs provided by Winnow.
Read More About
Category: All, Business, News, technology
When will the Android app be ready?
This is a great idea….
I get C U L I N A R Y requests all the time……our visitors do not understand why we have so many Italian restaurants. Most times I explain that we make and eat local/traditional dishes at home.
Visitors want to eat “local” food because in most other deeply cultured places the people there are often telling you to try some dish that the country is famous for or asking if you’ve had it already.
Many people who live here say that we don’t have unique foods BUT the WAY we eat certain foods is definitely unique to us.