Help me find innovative ways to intergrate technology and travel!

May 25, 2006 11:47 AM

Question for the hive: What techy ideas do you think would work well for the tourism industry?

...specifically, heritage tourism. A RSS feed for a specific topic like gardens in Georgia? A series of podcasts? or something like a series of voice mails (basically) that you call at certain points along a music trail to hear samples and commentary?

I am looking for easy for the consumer to process ideas that won't be too awfully difficult for attractions and sites to implement. I have to give a talk for tourism professionals next week on upcoming trends and ways to intergrate technology into their product development. As always, thanks!

posted by stormygrey to technology (9 answers total)

I think it depends on what type of "tourists" you're marketing towards - the travel-agent-using, group package travel industry, or the student/independent/budget tourist. Do you know which? Or are you looking for general travel stuff that applies to all types?
posted by nitsuj at 11:55 AM on May 25, 2006

Podcast guided tours seem like a really neat idea to me, and I've seen them before but admittedly not tried one.

Something utilizing google local for helping a tour out and annotating things along the way might be good.

If you could be a little more specific as to what you're trying to achieve, it might be easier to come up with more ideas.. but at least that's a start?
posted by twiggy at 11:57 AM on May 25, 2006

Well, I am focusing on two main areas:

First, people in their 20-30's, who are in a double income home, highly educated, usually plan for their trips in less than a week (usually using the internet) and are usually travelling for 2-3 days rather than a full week. This demographic is much more tolerant of obviously techy devices.

The second demographic is baby boomers who are probalby not retired yet, but looking toward it, like techonology on its surface, but it has to be very easy to use, and generally like to stay in more b and b type places and relax more than "go, go, go"

I am not considering the group tour market at this point.
posted by stormygrey at 12:00 PM on May 25, 2006

I am purposefully not being specific to let the hive mind go crazy. What would YOU like to see as far as your travel is concerned?
posted by stormygrey at 12:01 PM on May 25, 2006

TurnHere.com might be of interest, or at least the theory behind it.
posted by nitsuj at 12:03 PM on May 25, 2006

Also, Springwise's Tourism and Travel Industry category has some really cool, unique, new ideas in the industry.

Check out all of them here.
posted by nitsuj at 12:08 PM on May 25, 2006

whoa, turnhere.com is awesome.
posted by stormygrey at 12:28 PM on May 25, 2006

With the probability of a Wireless World on the horizon, a number of technotravel options become possible. I think my dream vacation would include a service that found my location through a connection to my laptop (or on-board wireless computer) and popped up suggestions for restaurants, hotels, and tourist destinations that are coming up on the road. It would be especially neat if it were customizable so that as you travelled more it would know your preferences better. It could even be a little Wiki, designed to let users add destinations and comments. I'm a big fan of hitting the highway with no destination in mind, so this sort of thing would be ideal for me.
posted by yogurtisgenocide at 2:22 PM on May 25, 2006

Thanks for all the great advice. I just received my orders. So for all that needed clarity, I just got it (somewhat)

COMPONENT 8
E-TOURISM AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Component Summary -
This component will stress the importance of understanding the relationship between Internet Technology and Tourism within the new and emerging global marketplace. The component includes investigation of the elements of development and layout of tourism specific web sites and resources available to sites and attractions for developing new or improved websites.

Component content will include:
* Evaluation of tourism web sites relevant to complexity and efficiency for the intended visitor
* Evaluation of the relationship between IT and tourism and future potential developments in this area.
* Investigation of emerging mobile technologies and tourism
posted by stormygrey at 4:14 PM on May 25, 2006