Thursday 12 October 2006 by Edward.

You have a mobile web-enabled phone. You also are dying to have a coffee and need to find the closest Tim’s (Tim Horton’s coffee) or Starbucks. No poblem! Go to FindByClick and you can summon up the Great Canadian Coffee Map. I never realized how MANY Tim Horton’s coffee shops there were in Canada until I looked at this map — and I know not all are shown on the map.

Rule 7 “The Rule of Perpendicular Signs” in the book ‘The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism’ by Roger A. Brooks and Maury Forman states that ‘20/20 signage equals $$$.’ When you drive into a new town the most obvious signs you’ll see are the ‘perpendicular’ signs — the signs that best cross your line of vision. The best tourist maps are those that show a single theme, like the coffee map or the Toronto beer map. It’s simple, to the point and clear.

Posted in mobile phone, Maps, DURING the visit | No Comments »

Wednesday 11 October 2006 by Edward.

Tourists who want to keep in shape and need good routes to walk, run or jog when visiting a new destination can go to WalkJogRun. I clicked on Halifax, Nova Scotia, to find several routes. A 5km route was posted downtown, circling the commons (where the Rolling Stones had a recent concert) and the citadel. Start and finish locations were flagged. A table of leg distances, times and turns accompanied the map. My experience with the map revealed an early release with more work required.

Posted in Maps, BEFORE the visit | No Comments »

Tuesday 10 October 2006 by Edward.

Have you ever used a map index at the back of an atlas, to locate a placename, a mountain, river or lake? Well, geoNames is probably the biggest map index. It is global. Click the name ‘London’ in the USA and you’ll get 2,535 places that contain ‘London’. I clicked London, Kentucky, and found out that it is a town of 7,844 people at 382m above sea level, located 37.129 N -84.083 W. Clicking links in the popup window sent me to interesting local information. Nearby is Cumberland Falls, one of two locations in the world that consistently have ‘moonbows’ (rainbows that show at night), the other being in Victoria Falls, Africa.

This is quite an intruiging tourist webtool and probably a useful bookmark.

Posted in Gadget/Idea/Webtool, Maps | No Comments »

Monday 9 October 2006 by Edward.

gChart is a travel-related mashup centred on GoogleMap. Click any location on planet earth and you will get a popup window showing placename, local time, date, telephone calling codes, clicks to local pictures, and to local blogs. I tested gChart by clicking on Halifax, Nova Scotia. Within the popup window was a button to many, many travel websites. It so happens the most useful ones were highly ranked (Halifax International Airport, Tourism Nova Scotia).

Posted in Gadget/Idea/Webtool | No Comments »

Sunday 8 October 2006 by Edward.

Blogcritics.org took three weeks to survey ‘new’ types of online content, unique to the web and made possible by the web. Newpapers and TV programs online don’t make it on the list. These are avenues available to travel-related websites. Here is the start of this media content list. More types are to be added later.

Accidental content sites

IPTV

Personal/Citizen TV

Channel aggregators

Online newspapers

Content re-use

Social bookmarking

User-content TV

Corporate and political TV

New research engines

Live performance

Wikis

Games and virtuality

Classifieds

Adult

Posted in Blogs/Podcast/eInfo | No Comments »

Saturday 7 October 2006 by Edward.

I recently reported that train e-tickets in India could be purchased in cash at iWay cybercafés. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is now working with banks and post offices to make eTicket purchases, by cash or charge card, as easy as withdrawing money or buying a postage stamp. This should make it even more convenient for tourists travelling the country.

Posted in Gadget/Idea/Webtool, DURING the visit | No Comments »

Friday 6 October 2006 by Edward.

Here are some of the basic internet needs for today’s travel customer, according to Travelocity.com founder Terry Jones as reported in the East Valley Tribune.
1 Students are web savvy and are tomorrow’s travel customer. Fish where there are fish.

2 Smaller destinations can compete effectively on the web with the right keywords.

3 Cross-sell to increase your sales and profitablity

4 Target niche markets with podcasts, virtual tours, social networking, and feeds

5 Plan joint web pitches

Posted in Website/Event | No Comments »

Friday 6 October 2006 by Edward.

Scandinavia Airlines is the world’s first airline to use biometric, fingerprint, recording at baggage check-in and boarding. While there exists concern for invasion of privacy, most passengers surveyed believe the security measure will increase airport safety and boarding efficiency.

Posted in Gadget/Idea/Webtool, DURING the visit | No Comments »

Thursday 5 October 2006 by Edward.

A website for women solo travellers has been recently launched. It includes travel tips and tools, product reviews, a forum and blog. The workshop link took me to a meeting on 24 October 2006 at Bellevue Community College, Washington, USA, on ‘For Women Traveling Solo’.

Tourist websites such as this will become more specialised with time, meeting nich-market needs.

Posted in Website/Event, BEFORE the visit | No Comments »

Wednesday 4 October 2006 by Edward.

London’s University of Westminster 499-seat Intermission pub has six touchscreen tables to allow patrons to order drinks directly from the bar. These RFID-enabled tables can also allow users to chat with those at other tables. Some users suggest going further — to have control over music selection, to send requests to the university radio station, to view webcams to see drinks being prepared, to play games, to stream sports videos to the tables, and to order taxis. These media-rich tables were built jointly by Compuware and Escapism Media using a Captive Audience Network system.

Posted in RFID, Gadget/Idea/Webtool, DURING the visit | No Comments »