Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Mobile Guides – a New way to provide travel experiences


World is moving forward towards a more powerful leisure- and entertainment-centred social reality, where economic activity aiming at productization of experiences - so called experience industry - is becoming one of the most significant fields of activity. Being a part of the creative economy, experience industry introduces a totally new concept of productization based on culture, media and tourism stories, as well as on their phenomenal experiencing by means of new interactive technology.
A traveller needs a rendition of routes, events, stories and anecdotes linked to his target destinations. In other words, he needs an interpretation. A well-interpreted piece of information potentially increases the general appreciation of visited places and corroborates phenomenal tourist experience. The informative content related to tourism target destinations should be productized so that 1) it generates certain expectations before a trip; 2) it facilitates and stimulates experiences during a trip and 3) maintains a positive long-lasting impression after the termination of a trip. It signifies that the adequate scope of information should reach a potential traveller (customer) through suitable functional distribution channels before, during and after a trip.  

Geoinformatics and its geographic information applications have opened new possibilities also in the field of tourism activities, especially while collecting, mapping and analysing regional and local precise tourism information. By that we mean GIS (Geographical Information System), which greatly enables search and analysis of regional, sub-regional or municipal phenomena and structures connected to the tourism activities. The tourism information, based on location an attribute data, provides precise regional and local information, which can be used for the content in tailored interactive tourist maps.

Combining destination guiding or guiding services with geographical data can be implemented through adding different communicational features like image, sound, moving picture and internet services. Such combination of data or functionalities from external sources in order to create a new service is known as Mash-up. It implies use and download of customized multi-based destination guiding services directly to the terminal appliances. In the background is fast popularization of phone-connectable GPS-based mobile terminal appliances and self-navigators, which is indispensable for the development of the ubiquitous network society and communications technology.

This is the background why we made our newest mobile guides. The concept and contents have been done in cooperation with Kizhi State Open Air Museum. Download “Joensuu Culture” and “Contemporary Old City” from your mobile market (Apple App Store, Google Play) and experience the combination of new technology and interesting contents of Joensuu and Petrozavodsk!

Timo Rui
Project Manager, Ph.D.
Multimedia services
Karelia University of Applied Sciences
Centre for Creative Industries

Note: Text is also published in “Contemporary Old City – Enhancing Cultural Tourism across the Border” –website (http://www.culturecbc.eu/?p=1313)

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