Tuesday 3 October 2006 by Edward.

Mapping has entered a rennaissance on the internet, and map mashups are feeding the creative juices of map creators. The programmableweb.com is a hotbed of mashups with almost three new map mashups appearing daily. Today, for example, one can find new maps of Starbucks Coffee locations, Golf Courses, Rinks, and “drunkest cities” in the USA. Over the last six months the number of mashups has doubled to over 1,000.
The site lists about 70 mashups on travel. Including, for example:

Hotel Map
20,000 motels and hotels in the USA
UK B&B
UK’s B&B, cheap hotel, and guest house accomodation directory
Broadway shows
A listing of current shows, times, pricing, tickets, direction and parking
GeoWalk
A worldwide travel guide with embedded Wikipedia, Flikr and Google News
MCity
Guide to best underground locations in Melbourne, Australia
Toronto Virtual Tour
A 360 degree photo tour of Toronto landmarks

Posted in Maps, BEFORE the visit | No Comments »

Monday 2 October 2006 by Edward.

Business and Leisure trevellers can now print their own airline boarding passes for 18 major airlines from kiosks placed in all Embassy Suites Hotels, reports Travel Industry Wire.

I went online to the Embassy Suites Hotel Raleigh-Crabtree, North Carolina, to check out their kiosk link. Five options were presented: suite check-in, suite check-out, airline check-in, personalised messaging, and coupons for hotel service. The airline option allowed printout of your boarding pass and display of flight information.

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

Sunday 1 October 2006 by Edward.

Pink Foot Awards for my favourite postings in September 2006.

BEFORE the visit post: Flybe online flight change tool
DURING the visit post: rent-a-GPS
AFTER the visit post: none awarded this month
Favourite tourist tool/idea/web: Vail, Colorado, wheel experience

30SEP2006 A 3-megapixel camera for your keychain

29SEP2006 Kim possible tests cell phone game at Disney

28SEP2006 Tourists can now rent a GPS by the day

27SEP2006 Tourist Brochures leading way to online multimedia

26SEP2006 Enjoy Philadelphia’s Flavorhoods

25SEP2006 Counter Test

24SEP2006 Buy your rail tickets online at the iWay cyber Cafe

23SEP2006 TripConnect: a travel advice network

22SEP2006 Tourism blogging partnership created

21SEP2006 Flybe tool allows on-line flight changes

20SEP2006 The Tourist Experience relaunched in USA Today

19SEP2006 Internet Tourism Partnerships 2.0

18SEP2006 Free WiFi access spreads rapidly

17SEP2006 TurnHere for Tourism on Google Earth

16SEP2006 Tech predictions for the hospitality industry

15SEP2006 Tourists never need be late again for a UK train

14SEP2006 NZlive.com connects New Zealand to the world

13SEP2006 Wirelessly charge your cell phone .. with SplashPower

13SEP2006 Go! Worldspan desktop tools for travel agents

12SEP2006 Tourism tracking with SkyTRX mini-GPS tracker

11SEP2006 Tourism post 9/11

11SEP2006 It’s a dog-eat-dog travel agent world out there

10SEP2006 Tourists find off-season vacations increasingly attractive

09SEP2006 Vail, Colorado, gives tourists a wheel experience

08SEP2006 The world’s largest destination guide: WikiTravel

07SEP2006 Internet’s “word of mouth” tourism tools

06SEP2006 British Airways uses Google Earth

05SEP2006 Galveston.com wins Interactive Media Award

04SEP2006 lastMinute.com uses ResponseTek customer service

03SEP2006 Rest stop WiFi numbers growing in the USA

03SEP2006 Convert “lookers” into “bookers” with BookSure

02SEP2006 Speed your way through travel websites

01SEP2006 Pink Foot Tourist & Tourism Technology Awards. August 2006

Posted in Pink Foot Awards | No Comments »

Saturday 30 September 2006 by Edward.

For US$70.00 you can buy a 3-megapixel camera/video unit that fits on your keychain. I see this as a useful tool for tourists.
Specs:
2560×2048 sill camera mode resolution
320×240 video frame for 100 sec
8Mb DRAM
SD card slot
USB port
powered by one AAA battery
size 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ x 3/4″
weight 1/2 oz

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

Friday 29 September 2006 by Edward.

During a 5-week period in August-September, Disney’s imagineers tested how a cell-phone game, Kim Possible, might enhance the tourist theme park experience, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Everyday about 100 visitors were randomly selected and handed the cell phone mystery game that centred about the UK pavillion. The idea was to solve clues in the game.

Imagineer’s R&D group are testing the concept of adding new technology (such as segways) to the park, but making sure these technologies do not detract from the essential theme park experience. They envisage the technology also being adopted elsewhere at other venues, destinations and activities.

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

Thursday 28 September 2006 by Edward.

You need to locate your destination. A GPS system would really help but you don’t want to buy one. First, it’s expensive. Second, you only need it for a few days.

Boston’s Nav-A-Trip now rents units for US$9.95 per day ($US14.95 per day for travellers to Europe), reports the DailyNewsTranscript. Nav-A-Trip will send units to customers’ homes or hotels. Once done, customers can mail the units back in prepaid boxes.
The GPS units are portable and can be carried while walking around a strange new city — giving directions and pin-pointing features of interest.

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

Wednesday 27 September 2006 by Edward.

Global competition for tourists demands increasingly engaging websites. High quality video clips, such as those I reported from TurnHere, lead the way. Here are some destinations leading the way with multimedia presentations:

Tourism Massachusetts video and slide mix

Aspen, Colrado panoramic photo and map tour

New York City 24-hour video journey

Florida Keys destination videos

The China Experience

Destination Winnipeg

Send me links to some sites that explore the boundaries of multimedia tourism online.

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

Tuesday 26 September 2006 by Edward.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp has launched their “Sound About Philly” iPOD walking tour. Audio tours take you to unusual and unknown places. Current podcasts include: My Philly, History Unplugged, and Philadelphia Flavorhoods. User-created tours are also available, such as Hands-on Fun, and Literary Philly.

What impressed my about Sound About Philly was its integration with GoogleMap. I clicked on the Philadelphia Flavorhoods podcast and was presented with ten tour segments, each displayed on GoogleMap. I love markets so I clicked on the South Philadelphia Italian Market icon, on 9th and Christian Street. “Joe Bubbles”, a long-time resident, introduces us to a cheese shopkeeper, a cookware merchant and an Italian baker (I yearn for good Italian bread!). The audio clips are more of an area presentation rather than a walking tour, such as the Toronto City Surf tour I noted in an earlier blog post. A neat feature is the “add to custom tour” button. You can create your own audio tour the visit Philadelphia.

Posted in Website/Event, Blogs/Podcast/eInfo, DURING the visit, BEFORE the visit | No Comments »

Monday 25 September 2006 by Edward.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sunday 24 September 2006 by Edward.

India’s 3,400 iWay cyber Cafés in 154 cities now offer internet, cash and credit card purchasing of rail tickets through Sify Ltd, reports CXOtoday.com

For both tourist and resident in India an eTicketing service in both cash and credit will meeth the needs of train  travellers.

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