July 1, By Bill Parry
With hundreds of thousands of visitors coming to the borough for two world-class sports events this summer, the Queens Chamber of Commerce rolled out a new free mobile phone app on Wednesday. With 1500 downloads in the first two days, “This Is Queens” has created quite a buzz.
Ben Gutman, the founder and CEO of Digital Natives Group, the Long Island City firm that designed the app, said, “We sped things up in mid spring to make sure we had it ready in time for the All Star [baseball] game at Citi Field and the US Open later in the summer.”
The app has been designed to provide its users with information on local restaurants, hotels and attractions—as well as discounts at a particular time.
“It’s gotten 5 star reviews from users so far…nothing but positive feedback,” Gutman said. The Queens Chamber of Commerce received a $100,000 state tourism grant for the project.
The All Star baseball game takes place at Citi Field on July 16th. Meanwhile, the US Open is likely to draw more than 700,000 fans to the US Tennis Center in Flushing-Corona Park from Aug. 26 through Sept. 9.
“We have two of the biggest airports in the country,” said Eric Adams of the QCC. “Visitors tend to hop into cabs and head right to Manhattan. These two events will draw them to the borough, and this app should help to keep them here.”
Adams, the Digital Media and Membership Associate at the Chamber, explained how to get the free ‘This Is Queens’ app. “Go to thisisqueens.com on a mobile device and it will push you to the native app store,” he said.
