A Cross-Continent Adventure Inspired by USE-IT maps and Driven by BlaBlaCar 

Remember the last time you were in Barcelona? You had some tapas, enjoyed the sun, said olé just because you could and ran away from the Ramblas screaming at the sight of the hordes of tourists.

In fact, in cities like Barcelona and Berlin, locals have begun to revolt against mainstream tourism. Yes, they are tired of us all snapping Instagram pictures.

But aren’t we tired of Eiffel Towers and Big Bens, too? 

There's so much more to Europe than Vienna’ssachertorte and sipping ouzo with a view of the Acropolis.

In order to keep tourism sustainable in the long run andget past the clichés, we want to show another continent.One of many buzzing cities you’d never heard of.

Because the beauty of BlaBlaCar travel is that you meet people and share a bit of their world, if only for a ride. USE-IT maps share this philosophy and let you discover little-known cities with local inside knowledge.

By using USE-IT maps as a guide, and BlaBlaCar for rides.

USE-IT publishes city maps, made by locals for young travellers. The initiative comes from locals who want to show the life and soul of their hometown outside of the touristic slime trail. More often than not, the cities aren’t your typical travel destinations.

USE-IT is a non-commercial organisation with a broad European network built on local knowledge.

In other words: it's a treasure trove for those in want of authentic experiences. 

USE-IT spans 40 European cities (and counting) > 2 million maps are printed per year > 100.000 Facebook fans  A 2017 survey showed that 37% have used more thanone map already and 97% intend to use them in othercities.  86% of professionals confirm that USE-IT supportslocal economy instead of tourist hotspots

• BlaBlaCar provides the rides. • USE-IT provides destinations, contacts and the right stories. • Two travel birds write content and shoot video.

Let us talk you through it.

JILL MATHIEU Professional journalist, storyteller and copywriter.

Whenever she's not attempting to learn Hiragana script inJapan or looking for bears in Canada, Jill lends a helping pento brands such as VICE, Red Bull, Pizza Hut, Levis, BNPParibas, Luminus...

KORNEEL DESMET Video strategist & marketeer.

After successfully launching different video & marketingcompanies, Korneel decided to trade his office gig for thereal thing. Now, he travels full time to create new contentfor brave brands. If he's not in an airport, he's probablyenjoying the outdoors on a bike.

In each city, we interview real people and show the real city. In Calais (France), we could speak to the sex shop owner who also plays bagpipes in a metal band and ask him what life is like in this least-popular city. In Ghent (Belgium), we only meet people along the ring road and do not see the cathedral. In Ostrava (Czech Republic), we walk the slag heaps that loom over the city. In Prato (Italy), we only eat Chinese (large community related to its textile industry). And so on.

No nonsense about a crappy pizzeria that paid to bementioned, this content is about honest-to-godexperiences. That means the good, the bad, and the ugly.No over-stylised pictures, just honest stories about thepeople we meet and the places we encounter. The localslead the way and we dive head-first into European culture. 

In between all stops, the BlaBlaCar trip is a part of thestory: who did we travel with? What's their story? What didwe learn about our destination? Did we learn any lifelessons while we were at it?

The USE-IT maps will lead our way, as will the authors ofthese maps. The network's trustees will show us aroundtown, take us into their homes and feed us local fare anddrink. 

The travel birds provide content in the shape of bite- sized, social-first content. Snappy video, Facebook updates, interviews with users, blog posts per city, ...

Millennials and generation Y, in the form of readers and viewers between 18 and 35.

This category cares about travel, but also about their wallet. Being fed on ads day in day out,they've developed a keen ability to look past them. They prefer it when you give it to themstraight.

This audience consumes media straight from their phones and laptops, hence the need for asocial-first strategy.

USE-IT Provides local contacts and ideas and spreads the message, but does not explicitly brand the blog.

BlaBlaCar Provides the rides, funds the trip and is visually present on the blog.

Both share the blog with their respective fan bases for further reach.

What's on offer?

• video interviews with BlaBlaCar drivers • social-sized video snippets • video documentaries per city • more in-depth, written travel logs with inspiring imagery • lots of possibilities for content formats, both writtenand video: handy vocabulary lists, tips on how to act like alocal, how to pick up a date in Rouen/Brno/Ferrara..., topten local tips per city, etc