Available Online at www.ijecse.org ISSN- 2277-1956
A Review of Mobile Applications for Tourism
Ceh-Varela, E.
1, Hernandez-Chan, G.
21 2 Metropolitan Technological University, Mérida, Yucatán, México 12 {eduardo.ceh , gandhi.hernandez }@utmetropolitana.edu.mx
Abstract- Tourists invest a great amount of time searching on Internet when planning for a trip. This is mainly because they are always seeking for new experiences, new locations and new attractions to visit. They try to find information that gives them an idea of the experiences they can find in their holiday destination. Smartphones and tablets have become a necessity in this age of wireless communications allowing travelers to get the information they need without time or location restrictions. This article examines different aspects of mobile applications geared to tourism, the way they are used, and the involved technologies.
Keywords – Mobile applications, Tourism, Context-aware, Augmented Reality, Recommendation Systems
I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of e-business in mobile devices, and the use of Internet, tourism has become one of the most important industries worldwide. Tourists are always seeking for new experiences and attractions. This is why the Internet and information technologies are essential elements in the value chain for the tourism industry. The possibility of finding information rich in multimedia content, doing online transactions when planning a trip, and sharing experiences on social networks, has increased the demand for services in this sector.
Tourists invest a great amount of time searching on Internet when planning for a trip. This information should be able to give tourists an idea of the experiences they can find in their holiday destination. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), that permit to have a clear perception of how the destinations are and what they have to offer, is becoming mandatory on tourism industry. That is why, in order to enjoy new experiences, tourists are looking for technologies that allow them to interact with their environment, and share those experiences with other people. In addition, mobile devices have become a necessity in this age of wireless communications. These mobile devices allow travelers to get real-time information without time or location restrictions.
This study seeks to examine in depth different aspects of mobile applications geared to tourism, the way they are used, and the technologies involved. We tried to answer three main questions as a guide for this review: 1) what technological developments exist in relation to mobile applications in tourism? , 2) what technologies have been used for mobile applications in tourism? , and 3) what is the use that has been given to these applications?
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Information and Communication Technologies
Since many decades ago, Information and Communication Technologies have had an important role for the development of a sustainable tourism industry [1]. The use of ICT has enabled the generation of technological solutions which have led to changes in tourism globally. These changes can be seen in the products offered by companies of tourist services, their processes, and even in the way they compete. It is the duty of tourism enterprises to make use of these technologies to manage a business in an industry that uses large amounts of information and tools to improve their competitiveness. The competitiveness of these companies is mainly determined by their ability to meet the needs of information for all future visitors through ICTs [2, 3].
according to their preferences, are insufficient.
B. Information and Communication Technologies
The term “context-aware” was introduced by Schilit [15], and it refers to any software that adapts itself to its location and the proximity of entities as people or other devices, and takes in consideration changes of those entities at all times. Therefore, a context-aware application is one that takes into consideration the physical and social factors on which a user is involved in a given time. Applications of this type acquire and use information about its context to show relevant information to the user, or to provide appropriate services depending on the settings the user have made. This technology is being increasingly used thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices which have a large number of sensors to gather information about the user's context, such as GPS, accelerometer and compass. Such applications can be passive, displaying information to the user about his context, or can be active, when based on the context the application initiates a service or action [16].
Many of the context-aware applications work as adaptive tourist guide [17-23]. The majority of these applications use GPS to know the tourist location in order to present them suggestions about travel routes, event schedules, attractions or points of interest around their current location. There are also applications that use the tourist personal information and preferences [17, 24-27], as their resting time, interest on special events, even if the tourist is travelling in a group or alone. And finally there are applications that use the information of the time of the day, the weather, and transport schedules to recommend the tourist which are the best activities to do in the tourist site. All of these applications interact with the tourists presenting them interactive maps, images, sounds and videos.
Figure 1. Context-aware Mobile Personal ASSistant (COMPASS) screenshots.
C. Augmented Reality Applications
The use of ICT in tourism enables the offering of new services for tourists. There are many basic tools, as tourist guides, that let tourists to search for relevant information. However, the way how tourists interact and obtain information has changed. Smartphones enhance the real world using virtual elements when the device integrated camera is combined with a geo-positioning system [29, 30].
The Augmented Reality (AR) technology allows the addition of virtual elements to a real environment in real time [31, 32]. Many tourism applications apply AR, as virtual guides that provide information about museums, monuments, or restaurants. They can also be used to deliver multimedia content to a work of art, or interactive games to disclose a historical fact. According to a study conducted in 2014 [33], 41% of respondents find useful to use mobile AR applications in tourism, 61% of these find them user-friendly applications. In a report issued by Statista [34], mentioned that in 2013 the market of AR for mobile devices was of 60 million users, and this number is expected to increase to 200 million users by 2018.
The majority of these applications are focused on displaying information related to tourist’s points of interest. Some of these use the GPS and the compass to know the tourist location and orientation [30, 35-39]. As it can be seen in figure 2, the RAMCAT application is an AR mobile app based on the tourist ́s context. It displays information about museums, accommodation information, places of cultural activities, among others [39].
Figure 2. RAMCAT application that uses AR to show different points of Interest.
D. Tourism ́s Recommendation Systems
Thanks to the proliferation of ICT, tourists can learn in detail about their tourist sites of interest, and the activities that can be performed on them. The consulted information can come from several sources, such as from the same suppliers of tourist services, as from other tourists who use the same applications.
However, due to the enormous amount of information that can be found, discriminate and evaluate such information can be a task that involves a lot of time and effort. For this reason, are needed applications for tourists that facilitate the organization of information concerning a tourist site, and that this information is presented to them depending on their objectives and their travel restrictions. Thus every tourist could have a trip to suit their requirements.
Systems that offer suggestions to tourists, indicating them the products or services of their interest depending on their preferences, and thus facilitating decision-making, are called recommendation systems [41, 42]. These systems help tourists to plan their travel, activities, or accommodation. So they try to emulate travel agencies, providing travel tips to help tourists to make the best decision. Such systems usually are based on pre-defined filters, and try to take into account many factors such as personal interests, the holiday periods, tour schedules, or favorite attractions. Some authors also consider important that the information provided for these systems matches the context of the tourist such as the weather, the time of the day, or the rate at which the tourist moves. [13, 43]. Other systems compare the profile of each tourist with others similar tourists, to determine the information to recommend. These recommendation systems can build the tourist's profile explicitly, asking them for their preferences, or implicitly, by obtaining the information by other means. Gavalas et al. [44] define three categories if recommendation systems: User Constrains-based Recommender Systems (UCRS), Location-Aware Recommender Systems (LARS), and Context-Aware Recommender Systems (CARS).
Applications that use this technology make use of artificial intelligence algorithms in order to present to the tourists the best recommendation for their interests [25, 30, 38, 42, 45-50]. The algorithms employed consider the tourist profile, restrictions, personal interests, costs of the desired activity, the attraction schedule, and even the preference of the group if they were travel in company of other people.
Figure 3. Mobile application that recommends sights and routes for tourists.
III. CONCLUSION
In summary, this document presented ICT elements that are keys to make them a driving element of the tourism industry. Thanks to the explosion in the use of mobile devices, especially smartphones, there is much interest in developing applications oriented to tourists. The possibility to access information in real time, in context, and with a high sensory component, has transformed significantly the tourism industry.
At present, we have necessary technology to support applications that allow tourists to enjoy valuable experiences, and that facilitate access to dynamic and adaptable information according to the context. Elements such as geo-positioning, dynamic multimedia content, context and user environment, ability to interact with the various elements and actors of the tourism destination, the possibility to plan personalized itineraries, socialize the experiences and give feedback to the industry with those same experiences, are areas of opportunity with great potential for development.
However there are technologies that have not been fully exploited, and which have great potential for the tourism industry. It is needed more integration of social networks, development of technologies for positioning users inside buildings, group profiles, the use of artificial intelligence, among others. We must also consider the limitations on Internet, or Wi-Fi connectivity. In most cities, or tourist sites with any technological tool for tourists, it is offered free Internet connectivity, although it has also been seen that there are some developments that are used offline. The opportunities that offer mobile applications and services on the Internet open the possibilities for companies involved in technology development for the global tourism industry.
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