Every city has its tourist sites, traditional restaurants to eat at, and classic tourist activities, which are usually cool and also crowded. It is where everyone goes and to have a general view of the city.
But no one knows the best places in town than a local. They are familiar with all the typical places to go and also the most awesome ones that you will not find in your tour guide plan. So there is no way to have a unique and killer trip plan without the suggestions from those who live and experience a particular destination every day.
This is one of our main inspirations. To value the most genuine characteristics of each location, its people, culture, and individuality. There is always something unique to see everywhere and we want to bring that to every traveler in the world.
That is why we have our Catt family, to help you create the perfect trip plan based on your interests, profile, and all that your destination has to offer. We work to empower you with the best and coolest team so you can have the best traveling experience ever.
But, who are these Catts and how do we select them? We took the time to sit down with our co-founder and CEO, Lizia Santos, so she can explain in her own words the process to find the perfect Catt for you.
Who are our Catts and how do we find them?
Catts are knowledgeable socially-validated Catts, which is a fancy way of saying that they’re locals who love posting about their cities and their trips. We have a team dedicated to search and find these amazing locals, and they do it through hashtag searches, social media engagement, and marketing campaigns.
We also get lots of organic signups of people who learn about being a Catt from friends, through some content they’ve seen on the web talking about us or through me when I have the opportunity to speak about Citycatt at different events.
How do we choose Catts?
There are a couple of requirements for people who seek to be Catts.
- They have to be socially validated, which means they have to be verified through a social account in which they keep active and high-engagement profiles. We currently validate Catts who have active accounts on: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Blogs.
- Our Catts also have to be considered micro-influencers, with a minimum following of 350. We analyze the engagement of profiles because it’s important that the Catt is dedicated to nurturing a community through their social profiles. This is a clear indication to us that they’re caring, engaged, and focused on providing value to their followers, all very important qualities that we want to see in them since we’re looking to provide excellent customer service and personalized experiences to all travelers.
- We analyze the content of the accounts and expect to see a reasonable amount of posts illustrating outings in their surroundings and/or trips. We’ll never dictate or interfere in our Catt’s content, however, it’s by seeing these kinds of posts that their knowledge of their cities is validated, and travelers come to trust them. So, it’s important that there’s a consistency of posts with this kind of content.
How is the onboarding process?
- Signup on beacatt.citycatt.com.
- In 24h-48h days we give a response back letting the applicant know if they qualify.
- The Catt is invited to the onboarding class in the Catt Academy: Be a Catt 101.
- Once they complete the training, Catts participate in an online onboarding call where they meet other new Catts and are greeted by our Catt Recruitment Team.
- Catts are welcomed into our platform, private community of Catts on Instagram and start meowing everybody with their knowledge and love for their cities!
After the onboarding
- The recently launched Catt Academy will always bring learning opportunities so Catts can grow their social media accounts with amazing content, backed by the industry’s latest updates, best customer service, and community building practices, as well as exclusive knowledge brought by partners on things like professional photography and videography.
- Catts will have the opportunity of being a part of this exclusive local community of passionate locals who are dedicated to growing sustainable tourism in their cities, strengthening local businesses, and showcasing the uniqueness of their communities.
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Now that you know how we find, select, and initiate every Catt into our family, we would like to invite you to apply and join us at Citycatt. We are constantly looking for talented passionate locals who simply can’t wait to share with travelers their favourite hidden gems.
If you know somebody who fits into this profile, feel free to refer them to us. You can find us on social media on social media and we will be more than happy to reply your message.
However, if your goal is to travel across the country, then you have a friend in us. On our website, you can access our trip planner and add all your ideas with things to do, see, eat, and experience at your next destination.
You can invite other family members or friends and have them include their own suggestions to enrich your itinerary and make sure everybody is on the same page with the schedule.
At any moment, you can hire one of your Catts — if your destination already offers one — and ask them to either create a plan from scratch for you or to tweak a little bit what you already have.
At the end of the day, our goal is to ensure your trip is better than the previous one and an inspiration for the next one. There are infinite combinations of activities, places to stay, and recipes to try. It is all about what your heart truly wants to do.
If you need more inspiration, you can check out our posts and all of our tips to have an awesome plan at How to Plan a Trip: Easy Step by Step Guide, as well as other ideas on our blog.
See you on your next trip and stay tuned for our next publiCATTions!
Photos: unsplash.com