Unsure what the difference between a Pikachu or a Snorlax is? Hazy about what a true gym battle entails? And why are so many kids taking up long-distance walking all of a sudden? Bonnie Tai gives you a quick rundown on the new Pokemon GO app and how one travel operator created a tour based upon it.
JUST what is Pokemon GO? It’s a free-to-play location-based mobile game which uses augmented reality technology and is inspired by the hugely popular animated series Pokemon, which first aired in 1996.
In the show, monsters freely roam the land and it’s a Pokemon Trainer’s job to find, capture and train them for battle. Once a Pokemon is caught, your Pokedex (a handheld database which is carried around) will be updated with the new find – with the aim of the game to “catch them all”.
Downloadable via iOS and Google Play, the highly-addictive game has already gathered an estimate of 7.5 million active users in the US alone since it first launched in July – at the same time boosting the value of Pokemon developer Nintendo by billions of dollars.
The game works by utilising your phone’s GPS to place you in real-world locations, where wild Pokemon are hiding and waiting to be caught. But if you think this is a typical video game for couch potatoes – think again! The only way to catch these elusive little creatures is by physically walking to specific points and battling them in person.
Adventure specialists Geckos Adventures saw an opportunity and went for it, last month revealing an all-new world trip dubbed ‘Pokemon: Let’s Go!’. The world tour leads would-be Trainers to different corners of the globe in a bid to be one of the first to collect and catch all the virtual creatures.
“Catch Pikachu at Machu Picchu, spot Snorlax in San Cristobal, get Gabite at the Grey Pyramids of Giza and capture Cloyster at Cambodia’s Angkor war,” reads the Geckos Adventures website.
Group managing director James Thornton told travelBulletin that the new journey was originally inspired by a poll which surveyed 1,500 American holidaymakers on their mobile use while travelling.
“The results were pretty alarming,” remarked Thornton.
“We found that people spend over an hour a day of their holiday trying to find Wi-Fi. Many people even said they would prefer to give up sex than miss Wi-Fi on a trip which is a crazy thing.”
“We all know that technology is changing the world and this is obviously changing the way in which we shop, live and purchase travel,” he explained. “It is also changing the way in which people are experiencing trips themselves, and as tour operators that’s a very important trend that we need to be aware of.”
“So when the Pokemon piece blew up one of our analysts looked at it and said this is going to be huge.”
Thornton said that the game is already prompting people to explore new areas of their own cities in which they wouldn’t normally venture to, “and now we’re able to give people a chance to take the game to new places, while simultaneously opening their eyes to the rest of the world”.
The six-week Pokemon tour combines four of Geckos’ already popular itineraries: Peru at a Glance, A Taste of Galapagos, Egypt Unearthed and Essential Cambodia. The first trip, from Lima to Bangkok, will depart at the end of this month.
