• The Whatizis monument visual recognition application has just been launched in Rennnes.

  • It allows visitors or residents to discover the secrets of downtown monuments through short audio clips.

  • After Rennes, the application will be launched at the end of July in Paris.

Forget the long and boring guided tours.

In the all-digital era, the tourism sector has no choice but to reinvent itself to seduce and attract ever more connected travellers.

In Rennes, a new mobile application has just been launched ten days ago to promote the city's heritage.

It is called Whatizis and presents itself as a kind of Shazam of monuments.

Once the application has been downloaded, visitors can begin their stroll through the city center and take photos of the monuments and works of art they come across on their way.

The magic of artificial intelligence then begins.

Instantly recognizing the monuments taken in the photo, Whatizis then tells you their story through short audio clips and a few anecdotes.

Free, the application was developed by a guide-lecturer who used his own experience to launch his start-up, hosted for a year and a half at Station F in Paris.

"There is always a moment in a trip when you wonder what monument is in front of you," says Olivier d'Avesnes.

Grafted into the hand of travellers, the smartphone of course makes it possible to obtain information.

But the experience did not thrill the founder of Whatizis.

“You have to lower your head to read on your smartphone and you no longer look at the monument,” he regrets.

The application launched in Paris at the end of July

Using audio, its application allows visitors to learn while continuing to observe the monument in question.

A fairly simple and fun approach to discovering the city that seduced Destination Rennes, the office responsible for promoting the Breton capital.

“This makes it possible to reach other audiences, people passing through in particular who do not have much time to visit, but also inhabitants who do not necessarily know everything about their city”, indicates Cécile Vautier, in charge of creating tourist offers. .

Launched in preview in Rennes, a few weeks before Paris where it will be available at the end of July, the application currently lists 55 monuments in the Breton capital.

The great classics of course such as the Saint-Georges swimming pool, the Couvent des Jacobins or the Parliament of Brittany.

But also some lesser-known treasures such as the splendid Ti Kozh house, the Racapé-de-la-Feuillée hotel at the bottom of the Lices or the Chrysalide fountain, located on Place Rallier du Baty.

“We had to make choices by trying to vary the proposals, specifies Cécile Vautier.

We thus find monuments but also sculptures, works of art, fountains and street art”.

After the summer, Destination Rennes will take stock of this experiment.

If the objective of 10,000 downloads is reached, Whatizis will then be enriched with the other monuments located in the southern part of the city.

After Paris, the application should also be launched soon in other French cities and certain European capitals.

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