Date :
27/11/2013
Tourism smart-phone or tablet applications (Apps) continue to offer innovative, interactive content every day, helping visitors to make buying decisions based on information at their fingertips. Your business can engage with that potential market through various opportunities, several of which may be low cost or free.
The National Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland collaborated with VisitScotland to produce “Days Out”, an app that helps users find attractions nearby , or anywhere they choose to search. This app can be downloaded free from the iTunes Store. Businesses and destinations can submit an event free to the online version of The List Magazine via its website.
The List distributes event listings to national newspaper groups, TV websites, mobile apps, local councils and more for free and reaches over 1.5 million people every month searching for local events.
Guide Me Tours offer audio-visual guided tour Apps for iphone and Android devices for visitors to museums, art galleries, castles and heritage properties in the UK including Inveraray Castle, and Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.
The company writes the tours on behalf of the venue, creates and records the audio visual guided tour and then works in conjunction with them to market and sell the tours online. The apps are created without cost and income is shared between the app and android stores, the venue and Guide Me Tours. The high percentage of smart phone users within the UK offers significant market potential for venues who are increasingly working with reduced or limited budgets.
Apps can be purchased in-house or globally by local and international visitors, art and museum lovers and more, and allow each location to obtain an income from a global market. New apps include Abbotsford House and Thirlestane Castle.
With the growing use of mobile devices in travel it’s important to consider how your visitors are finding your website. Speed of access is important as consumers want convenience. Responsive design is a common and affordable solution that uses technology to create a single version of a website that auto-adjusts to display properly on most mobile devices. It’s worth getting advice on this and adapting your website accordingly. Sites such as MobiReady can help with advice.
If appropriate, a link on your website could point to an audio description of your attraction, property, or local area. The Scottish Natural Heritage ‘View From The Train’ app is a commercially produced example that accompanies journeys on several scenic railway routes.
Augmented reality, using systems like Google Glass or apps like Layar will soon be widespread, offering opportunities to showcase your business even more widely.
Registering for mobile App sites is easy, as is reading our guide ‘How to Shine Online’.