With more people than ever accessing information via their smartphones and tablets, mobile technology offers tourism a great opportunity to market to visitors, and enhance their experience once in the destination.
Some ideas to explore or look out for:
QR Codes
An increasingly popular marketing tactic for the tourism industry, QR codes provide a unique link between the physical world and a limitless supply of digital content. By simply scanning the code, visitors can access a wealth of information, images and films.
The best examples of use are those that help enhance the consumer’s experience, rather than using the technology for the sake of technology. Having them on interpretation panels that help provide visitors with behind the scenes information about the area, or adding it on menus that, when scanned, shows how the food is locally sourced and prepared, can really help tell the story of a destination.
Accommodation providers may like to consider using QR codes to improve a guest’s service experience. QR codes on cards in the rooms, at the reception desk and on message boards can help visitors with tips on where to dine or what to do during their stay, by linking to useful websites.
If you’re thinking about a QR code, check it links to mobile-friendly digital information, in a place that has an internet connection and is not on anything that is difficult to access. Badly used QR codes can make a visitor frustrated and can cause more harm than good. The key to successful uses of QR codes is making sure the information is relevant to the visitor at the time.
An example of this is used on the Digital Discovery Plaques located around the coast at key historical story sites
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Near Field Communication has been gradually gaining traction in the UK. A wide range of smartphones support the technology and, with a growing market for non-iOS phones, this is becoming a large portion of the market.
Near Field Communication technology lets smartphones and other enabled devices communicate with other devices containing an NFC tag. Whether swiping your smartphone at the checkout in a supermarket, waving it over a display at a local museum, or bumping phones with a friend to share photos, near field technology lets you pay, play, and learn easily.
An example of this is used on the Tourist Information Point information maps located around the coast and in town centres
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment, whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.
With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition), the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.
Augmented reality applications can enhance a user's experience when travelling, by providing real time informational displays regarding a location and its features, including comments made by previous visitors of the site. AR applications allow tourists to experience simulations of historical events, places and objects by rendering them into their current view of a landscape. AR applications can also present location information by audio, announcing features of interest at a particular site as they become visible to the user.
For ideas on future digital trends and technology innovation visit the Digital Tourism Think Tank
