T H E F I R S T M O B I L E A P P L I C AT I O N A N D A U D I O - G U I D E T H R O U G H S E R B I A
THE PHONE AS A TOURIST GUIDE
Millions of travelers – both domestic and foreign – go along the Serbian roads yearly. Thanks to the innovative project of the creation of the audio-guide-accompanied mobile application, from now on travelers are enabled to hear in English and in Serbian the recommendations for visiting some of about 150 selected destinations. The interesting thing is that, by means of GPS coordinates, the audio records are “activated” when near the given destination, so an opinion has been formed that many will “divert” from their planned route and want to see some new, inspiring places. The mobile application has been created through the partnership cooperation of the Tourism Organization of Serbia and the Regional Development Agency Zlatibor within the framework of the Private Sector Development Program, funded by the Swiss Government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Vesna Raca-Radisavljević is the person who led the project on behalf of the Tourism Organization of Serbia. We asked her to briefly explain what the contents of the project are and what is expected from its implementation. “Together with the audio records that are the live, animating part of the application, the guide is ‘replete’ with a series of information about our towns/cities, spas, tourism centers, cultural-historical heritage, natural attractions, accommodation, wineries, degustation centers of traditional products and tourist info-centers, which tourists pass by. Once the tourist selects a destination and loads the route via a Google or Apple map, the application can work in the offline regime, only using the GPS connection. Actually, the Audio Guide Through Serbia simulates the tourist guide’s role, and through the visual and audio records, it motivates passengers to visit some of the tourism attractions and spend more time in Serbia. We believe that, together with the existing tourist signalization, the application will significantly contribute to an increase in turnover from tourism. This is our first big endeavor in the field of transit tourism; we’re also developing the instruments that will help us to monitor the results, add to and upgrade the application.” “It’s also significant that we’ve covered the whole of the Serbian territory and split the contents into ten main destinations, so that immediately, and literally from each one of the border crossings, travelers are provided with the information about Serbia’s tourist offer, which is a great step forward in the development of Serbian transit tourism,” concludes our collocutor. BelGuest Photo by: TOS
The Audio Guide Through Serbia is available for the Android and the IOS operating systems on mobile phones. The Internet connection is only needed when downloading the application from the Apple or Play Shop.
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Winter/Spring - Zima/Proleće 2017 BelGuest