In the Corona pandemic, Qatari youth hostels maintained their interaction with young people from different groups by offering a variety of activities to support domestic tourism and refine the skills of young people, especially since there are limited events and options under the pandemic.
In this context, Qatar Youth Hostels, under the sponsorship of Power International Holding, Mall of Qatar, Baladna, and Aura Hospitality and Catering Services, launched the “Google Local Guide” program, targeting the age group from 16 and above. Its idea is to enrich the digital tourism content, expand the audience and increase participation levels, which will help in making it an integrated and appropriate option for local and international tourists and visitors to Qatar to attend events and tourist sites. This is done on the Google platform, which is widely used locally and in various countries around the world. It is one of Google’s most recent programs, enabling people to add content on Google Maps.
The program contains 5 levels and a specific working mechanism, which is a comment on an experience (eating in a restaurant, visiting a tourist place, dealing with a service provider) and taking images to add to the facility file on a Google map, as well as modifying information, adding data to a Google map such as the time of work or the correct address and adding coordinates of places on the map. This is an important service because there are places that are known but do not have a presence on the map, as all of these contributions keep on the globally used Google Maps and also appear in the search engine and other Google applications, and this is the secret of the importance of the program, at the end of which the participant will have to collect the highest points Possible to move to the fifth and final level
Several participant awards have also been monitored, including prizes for the top 3 points in the program, a prize for the person who took the most pictures and uploaded them into the program, and a prize for the person who established new sites (locations), and the Google Local Guide program sends periodic emails that evaluate everything that is added. The participant in the program is given points and a level starting from 1 which is the lowest level to 5 which is the highest level.