New Mobile App from College Students Aims to Boost Delaware Tourism

A new smartphone app aims to help Delaware visitors and residents find fun events and activities right in their area. The Delaware Tourism Office and State parks announced during a news conference Tuesday their new partnership with GeoSwap, a location-based mobile app.

GeoSwap was created by students in the University of Delaware Horn Program in Entrepreneurship. UD students Jason Bamford, Jordan Gonzalez and Keith Doggett said they came up with the idea for the app while in their dorms more than two years ago.

“High-quality, reliable information is essential to making GeoSwap worthwhile for its users,” Bamford said. “By partnering with Visit Delaware and State Parks, we can ensure that here in the state. We have worked to create a viable product, and it’s very gratifying to have these state agencies get behind us and show their support in this way.”

The app engages and encourages users to visit locations and share their experiences by navigating them to fun events and activities in their immediate area, including water parks, beaches, skating rinks, farmers markets, and places for bike riding. Geo pins with the Visit Delaware and State Parks logos were added to the app due to the new partnership. The pins will help visitors and residents identify locations and events.

“This is a great example of higher education, a small business and state government working together,” Delaware Governor John Carney said. “The partnership shows how innovation drives tourism in the state and how entrepreneurship plays an essential role in the new economy in Delaware.”

The partnership is the latest accomplishment for the GeoSwap creators. The app came in first place at Hen Hatch, the University of Delaware’s startup funding competition. It was also a finalist in April at e-Fest, a business plan competition.

“The efforts of these young entrepreneurs are truly impressive,” Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) said. “As Delaware Labor Secretary and now as a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, I’ve seen how educational opportunities, like the ones provided at UD, can enable students to succeed in a competitive economy.”