I am Anika, I am 27 years old, I am from Germany, and just the second before I wanted to submit, I decided to change the content of my application for the Connect Live 2020. I was originally planning on sending you a fancy video showing several amazing travel places that I have visited over the past few years but then the Corona Virus hit us - literally the whole world. We are stuck at home, the economy is seemingly going down and we are all scared as we do not know where this is going. There has not been any other topic since mid-February 2020 but please bear with me although it might be annoying.
I am a travel addict, I love to see other places and get to know people from different cultures. However, the more I traveled, the less I realized how beautiful my home country is. Not only that Germany is a beautiful country but also that even the little town I am from has amazing places to see, great people, to get to know and events to visit. Every day that I am “stuck” here, I am appreciating this place more and I realize how important it is to support local stores, companies, and restaurants instead of longing for the distance.
So, what does the Local Guides program have to do with this? I am passionate about the hospitality industry, so I know the impact that reviews have on the success of a business today. I dedicated myself to use the Local Guide to point out the positive things about the places that I have visited. I have rarely written any bad reviews but instead tried to make a review more than a simple star-rating. This means, I only rate if I can tell a story of why I am giving this review. I am still growing into this, but now that I am sharing my impressions of the places myself, I pay more attention to other people’s ratings. I search places on Google and check out their ratings – preferably of Local Guides as I know they put much effort into rating them. Thereby, I totally ignore ratings with no content as I realized that we do not all have the same values. The restaurant which only received 2 stars because of loud music would be the perfect place for me to spend the whole day at.
Local Guide helps to support consumers and companies in finding the perfect match while offering visitors the chance to share their opinion about it. This again helps consumers to know in advance if the place suits while the company gets feedback and suggestions for improvement. No matter if it is a diner finding a restaurant, a family finding a swimming pool or a rock-climber finding a challenging place to boulder – there is the perfect place for you.
One thing is clear for me: As soon as we are allowed to go out again, I will make sure to check out all the cool places to visit in Germany.
This is my best friend and me, shortly before primary school (around 1997), when graduating (2012) and during a holiday (2019). We have been friends even before Kindergarten, see each other regularly and still live 20 min apart.
This is a friend and me are at “Canstatter Wasen” in Stuttgart (the second biggest Folkfest and equivalent of Oktoberfest in Munich). This year, I will be there 8 years in a row.
