In Your Pocket City Guides were founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, (pictured above) in 1992 and known for their tongue-in-cheek writing style, morphing into a wide network of local publishers of well-written, well-researched, independent city guides in print and digital formats.
Over the past decades the guides have helped open up travel to Central and Eastern Europe, covering lesser known travel destinations including Kaliningrad, Russia and Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. The network has also branched out to the rest of Europe and beyond, publishing guides to Athens, Berlin, Belfast, Vienna, Zurich and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Today the company’s affiliates produce print and online maps and guides to more than 100 destinations in 24 countries from Tallinn to Tbilisi, St. Petersburg to Johannesburg.
Since 1995 the entire contents of the city guides have been available online and for free in PDF format, as well as curated selection available in the City Essentials App, a nifty app for Android/iOS mobile devices, listing the essential places in a Tinder-like swipeable format.
In Your Pocket City Guides were founded in Vilnius, Lithuania by German journalist Matthias Lüfkens and Belgian brothers George, Oliver and Nicolas Ortiz. The Ortiz brothers have recently sold their shares in the holding company UAB IYP to a group of licensees from Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland and the UK. The management team lead by Niko Slavnic in Ljubljana and Razvan Samosca in Bucharest.
“The management buyout opens a new chapter for In Your Pocket,” said Niko Slavnic, “and we look forward to the challenge of greatly expanding our digital footprint, while also maintain the strong brand identity and reputation for quality content that our readers rely on.”
Yuri Barron, the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief was tasked with overseeing the expansion, which will see In Your Pocket City Guides to 100 key European travel destinations within 12 months.
“Our aim is to cover all major cities in Europe by the end of 2019 with reliable, up-to-date content and the best places to stay, eat and simply have fun”, said Yuri Barron, adding: “We’re definitely looking for partners, writers and managers in key European travel destinations.”
“In Your Pocket has succeeded in the digital transformation from print to online”, said Matthias Lüfkens, one of the original founders. “Our guide books cater to every generation from smartphone-toting millennials to older readers who prefer holding on to traditional print guides.”
