The program “Local Guides” came into my life very much suddenly. As I recall, three to four year ago, I took a few photos at one of the hotels located in Budapest which hit about 10 thousand views in a fairly short amount of time. Then, I began to actively add materials to the website.
Thinking about what the local guides program really means to me, I came to the thought, first of all that it is to help people who are looking for information regarding specific locations, places to explore, and things to do. That helps to make people’s lives a little easier.
The program also helps small businesses, contributing to their success and popularity (by allowing people to know a little bit more about their products and services), which in turn helps strengthening the local economy.
Every time, with great pleasure, with the aim to provide a detailed review for an establishment, let’s say, a restaurant, I try to carefully analyze their menu; the quality of their service and food; I talk with the server and staff in search of something special that I could recommend in my reviews.
Important to me is my own inspiration. Being in this program means to be inspired every day to take new photos of interesting places, talk with the owners of institutions to find out facts about their places and what led them to success, that would help me answering to users’ questions and comments about the place.
Doing this really makes me happy. Every time I take my phone in my hands to take another photo, my boyfriend and all my friends smile giving me their priceless smile.Taking pictures of places, locations, buildings, food has become a habit for me. It happens automatically.
I don’t have the opportunity to travel very often outside my city, so I explore my own city, reading the notes and stories from other local guides. This is really informative and interesting.
In my free time, I walk a lot in my area, looking at places that don’t have enough information (for example, for people with disabilities, parking lots and toilets availability etc.) and add this information. For me it’s like playing a quest (quick-witted game)
Every month, I wait for a letter from Google with statistics about my actions, which makes me more excited and eager to add more information to Google maps.
Being in the program for me means making friends from all around the world (getting to know their customs, behaviour, and traditions), discovering new places every day, being useful to society, improving my photography skills, writing reviews, communicating with people, becoming a local celebrity!
