<article>Vietnam based tech startup <a style="color: #000080" href="http://echoes.xyz/">Echoes</a>, that provides tourists with a platform to &#8220;make soundmaps and listen to them&#8221; will participate in May, in a Singapore forum for the most promising startups.</article>

Vietnam based tech startup <a style="color: #000080" href="http://echoes.xyz/">Echoes</a>, that provides tourists with a platform to &#8220;make soundmaps and listen to them&#8221; will participate in May, in a Singapore forum for the most promising startups.
Launched by Josh Kopecek, Echoes is a &#8216;Soundwalk&#8217; project that offered a unique service of locative audio and 3D sound tours; changing the concept of conventional tours. Tourists simply download the app to their mobile phone and, with headphones, enjoy soundtracks designed specifically for each location of the city, integrated with GPS.
Currently the company has app that provides tours for Hanoi and Copenhagen. It has so far raised $11,500 from crowd-funding and the Danish Embassy in Vietnam.
As planned, for each $5,000 funding above the original budget, the company would add a city to the itinerary.
Josh said this is the first time Southeast Asia has seen such a project; and his goal is to make it a global project, reaching every city around the world.
The startup was nominated by three judges &#8211; Quan Nguyen from <a style="color: #000080" href="http://www.inspireventures.com/">Inspire Ventures</a>, Ben Liu from <a style="color: #000080" href="https://angel.co/kamia">Kamia</a> in Taipei and Ronnie Wee from <a style="color: #000080" href="https://www.incuvestasia.com/">IncuVest</a> &#8211;, for <a style="color: #000080" href="https://www.techinasia.com/">Tech in Asia</a>’s Singapore forum in May, that is searching for the most promising startups in the region.
The soundtracks for Echoes services are anything, from tourist information to music that reflects the image of the locations. For the first stage of developing content, the startup gives music and field recordings.
Josh describes his idea as truly transforming “the physical space into a canvas for sound creators to paint on”. So basically, users of Echoes services have the opportunities to experience new places through sounds without really travelling.
Currently, Echoes is collaborating in two artists, Luong Hue Trinh in Hanoi and Hans Sydow in Denmark, for the content.
Based in Hanoi, with a doctoral degree in music and IT, Josh has bootstrapped the business since 2013. According to him, the app has a huge potential as it acquires users-  largely the tourists.
In 2014, Vietnam welcomed 7.87 million foreign visitors, bringing in the country a total tourism turnover of VND230 trillion ($10.8 billion), increasing 15 per cent year-on-year. Vietnam aims to attract 8.5 million more visitors this year. Data in February signaled an increase of 7.9 per cent in the number of foreign tourists over January, reaching 756,000 people.
At the same time, authorities in the tourism industry are making more efforts to promote Vietnam as a top destination for international tourists. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism is in Berlin, Germany, for the International Tourism Bourse 2015. There will be two more major events with India and some Nordic countries in March and April.
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<a style="color: #ff0000" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/seed-funding-rare-vozikis-3639/">Why seed funding is rare in Vietnam: Vozikis</a>
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Echoes, which lets tourists "make soundmaps and listen to them" will participate in a Singapore fourm for the most promising startup

Vietnam's tech startup Echoes plans to soundmap more cities

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Vietnam's tech startup Echoes plans to soundmap more cities

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