Startup ‘Cultural Roadmapp’ is reimagining the classic road trip with a hands-free audio tour app that immerses motorists in authentic local culture and history.
In June 2017 Cultural Roadmapp launched its first app, a two-day audio tour of the coast of County Clare, Ireland. It’s the first installment in a four-part series about the cultural heritage of Ireland’s west coast for visitors driving the stunning Wild Atlantic Way (at 1500 miles, it’s now the longest continuous coastal touring route in the world).
Using the latest GPS and geofencing technologies, the app automatically plays mini audio documentaries as you approach a town or landmark.
It is available FREE from the App Store and Google Play Store until September 20, 2018.
Founder, CEO & Creative Director Deborah Schull said: “Cultural Roadmapp is full of experiences you simply cannot get anywhere else. We’ve curated some of the most fascinating cultural information and paired that with local music and compelling stories. Then, we share it all with you as you drive through the region, in real time. It’s magical.”
The audio tour explores culture in its broadest sense including geography, botany, archeology, literature, music, folklore, and even sustainable tourism. It features a little bit of everything—exclusive performances by acclaimed musicians, like singer-songwriter Luka Bloom, and insights by experts ranging from a Trinity College professor of literature to an award-winning walking tour guide of the Burren to the director of a maritime expedition searching for the wreck of the Spanish Armada off Clare’s Spanish Point.
It’s all tied together with enchanting narration voiced by Irish actors. Deborah Schull wrote the script for the Clare app. She’s an award-winning audio tour writer whose credits include the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
Based in New York City, she spent three formative years in Dublin as a teen. Dr. Leah Bernini Cronin is an ethnomusicologist trained at the University of Limerick and fiddle player from Ohio.
“Deborah and I are the perfect professional match: I conduct and record the interviews and collect and curate the musical content. Then Deborah immerses herself in the recordings and field notes and performs additional research. This process of discovery is where the magic happens: gradually, threads of meaning begin to unfurl, connections are made, and the narrative begins to take shape, eventually becoming what you’ll hear as you drive with Cultural Roadmapp,” she said.