Tourism and mobile technology: a study of tourists suggests mobile applications.
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This paper from the University of Glasgow (advertised by
TheFeature) followed tourists on city holidays to Edinburgh and Glasgow. It studies tourist use of documents (maps, timetables, guide books) in various tourist destinations (train stations, hotels, historic places) and also at tourist information centres.
The "problems" encountered by tourists are classified as what to do (time scales, scope), how to do them, when to do them (duration of trip, opening times, distances), finding where things are, and sharing. It notes that tourists solve these problems with technologies such as digital cameras, mobile phones and the web, but the study emphasizes that solving problems is part of the enjoyment of tourism: technologies should therefore support the tourist without being heavy handed.
As an example, consider map use. Tourists are not necessarily looking for optimal solutions. Sometimes tourists will use a map to navigate towards an area, rather than a specific destination, with the expectation that there will be interesting things in the area. With the aid of a guide books, a tourist may just wander to discover clusters of, say, restaurants.
Tourism is often a group activity. In the US 79% of tourism involves two or more individuals. Mobile tourist applications should support the group nature of tourism, an in particular group problem solving. Meeting other tourists is another aspect of the social nature of tourism. Word of mouth advice has a greater value than any guide book.
The study suggests the following applications:
- Tying the locations of group members, so they can see the location of each other.
- Sharing of comments and reviews.
- Paper guides and electronic guides should be lnked, e.g., by barcodes or similar mechanisms.
- Mapping systems should support wandering, rather than direct point-to-point route finding.
- Travelblogs could support the post-visit experience of a trip.
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