Travel app is a killer
The Tour Taiwan app was planned by the Tourism Bureau, designed and developed by Chunghwa Telecom, and can be downloaded via either the App Store or Google Play in both Chinese and English versions. Since it was rolled out last June, it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times.
At this early stage, Tour Taiwan only offers information on 800-plus tourist destinations, most of which are big and well known.
Chao Chih-min, a section chief at the Tourism Bureau, says that Tour Taiwan will be integrated in February with a tourism database that they started working on two years ago. Once the two are combined, the app will offer information on over 6,000 sites of interest, including little-known locations throughout Taiwan. The database will be updated as local governments provide new information, which means the app will be a very reliable resource for independent travelers who come to Taiwan.
Regardless of where you may be in Taiwan, all you have to do is open the Tour Taiwan app and you’ll immediately acquire a GPS position fix. With this data in hand, you can easily find information on places near your current location.
A Ms. Nakamura, who traveled on her own in Taiwan late last year, logged onto Tour Taiwan after finishing up a visit to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and found that the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan was located nearby. She hadn’t noticed the museum in her guidebook, but the app explained that it was the first miniatures museum in Asia, and the second oldest in the world. Moreover, it houses the world’s biggest collection.
Ms. Nakamura exclaimed: “I was so happy that I didn’t miss such a nice place!” But she did feel that Tour Taiwan could be made a bit livelier in its presentation.
She said that a tech firm working on contract to the Japan Tourism Agency late last year launched the Hello Kitty Travel App, which features a separate Hello Kitty for each of over 50 different cities. The one for Tokyo holds a basket full of cherry blossoms, while the Hello Kitty for Kyoto is dressed in a kimono. And travelers can make mash-up photos in which they pose together with the Hello Kitty of the city they’re visiting, thus adding to the fun of traveling.
“When foreigners see Hello Kitty, they think of Japan.” And therein lies a key element of tourism marketing in Japan. Hello Kitty is the most eye-catching cultural symbol of Japan, while mobile apps are the soul of a smartphone. Put the two together, and a traveler gets unlimited utility in a very fun package.
The Tourism Bureau has followed up on Tour Taiwan with the launch of the Night Market app, another tool that packages culture to promote tourism.
In recent years the Tourism Bureau has been surveying the spending and travel habits of foreign visitors, and found that night markets are among Taiwan’s most popular tourist destinations.
Night Market is a virtual reality game much like Happy Farming (a big hit in Taiwan) or SimCity, and has been downloaded over 400,000 times to date. Chao explains that players have to read a bit of tourist information before they can get on with the game, which involves setting up street stalls to sell food.
Chao acknowledges that the use of these apps for marketing is still very much in its infancy, and most downloaders live right here in Taiwan. However, after the lunar new year, tourists arriving from overseas will be provided free mobile Internet access bundled together with a Tour Taiwan account.
Mobile apps have emerged as an important tool for improving the traveling experience. Shown here is the Tourism Bureau’s Tour Taiwan app, being used by a traveler to find the way to the National Palace Museum.