A tourist guide, everywhere, anytime
A newcomer may find a friendly tourist guide absolutely helpful for enjoying a better stay. Such a guide may provide information about sightseeing, cultural events and favourite places in the area. A good guide may probably be intuitive to personal needs and suggest a number of destinations that will fulfil these needs. The WH@M project focused on the development of such an electronic tourist guide available over Internet or mobile phone network. The guide consists of a number of services that can provide numerous kinds of continuously updated information concerning the city, anytime, anywhere in an accurate and timely manner. The Value Added Services (VAS) that have already been implemented concern pre-trip and on-trip planning, transport and accommodation availability, tourist or cultural services and events as well as information about the weather and the traffic. For example, the user can insert into the service its starting point and destination and the system responds with a number of alternative itineraries. In addition, during the trip the system provides information about traffic or weather conditions allowing the user to change his decisions even during transit. The innovative aspects of these services dwell on the fact that the information provided differs between users. The system takes into account the user's profile and preferences and provides only the information that satisfies the user's requirements at that time. Finally, tourist offices or culturally related entities that offer VAS have significant advantages over their competitors since these services present a great opportunity to effectively promote tourist products as well as to satisfy customers and visitors better.
