A new ‘audio trail’ has been launched allowing visitors to follow in the footsteps of Robin Hood.   The audio tour is available on a CD and can also be downloaded.   The project has been developed by Experience Nottinghamshire.

RoadTour is an innovative service which has just been launched.  RoadTour “delivers audio-visual guides directly into your car via your Satnav or GPS enabled mobile phone, automatically telling you about interesting locations as you approach them.”  You can watch a demonstration here.

The A1 Audio Tour has been introduced by Islington Council and it provides commentary on Islington’s A1 road from Archway to Goswell Road.  The files can be downloaded for free here and the ‘tour’ provides information on historic buildings, interesting facts and stories from local residents.

The Interactive Media Group reported that we spent some £7 billion on online travel booking during 2006.

An interesting interview with Matthew Finch who oversees the online marketing initiatives for Warner Breaks.  The interview focuses on silver surfers and Warner Breaks.

Over 100 million europeans accessed a travel site in March 2007. comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, announced the results of a study of the European online travel industry, revealing that 108.6 million Europeans – or half of the total European online population aged 15 and older – visited a travel related site during March 2007, an increase in traffic of 6 percent versus March 2006.

According to comScore, Expedia Inc. led the European travel category with 18.5 million European unique visitors aged 15 and older during March. The second most-visited European travel site was ViaMichelin, with 13.5 million European unique visitors, followed by the TUI Group’s 12.5 million European unique visitors. “Half of the European online population visited a travel site in March – it is clearly one of the most popular activities on the Internet,” commented Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.

comScore also revealed that Europeans who visited travel sites in March spent an average of almost 37 minutes browsing travel-related content. Within the travel category, online travel agencies garnered the most time spent, 19 minutes on average, followed by airline sites (17 minutes) and hotel sites (15 minutes).
To find out more about comScore visit their website.

Newsweek reports how people can take a holiday in Second Life - the virtual online world. The article also highlights that people/organisations are starting to produce holiday guides for Second Life!

Reactive an Australian based online design agency (with an office in London) have a downable white paper on their website looking at Web 2.0 and the travel and tourism industry.

An interesting article in Business Week about how Starwood Hotels have used the virtual world of Second Life to carry out user research to prototype a new format of ‘loft style hotel’.

Kuoni Holidays has released it annual ‘Long Haul’ report which highlights the fact that some travellers are requesting holidays where they cannot be conacted.  The Adventure Company also offers trips where mobile phones are confiscated for the duration of the trip.

From early next year Emirates will introduce new technology which will allow passengers to make and receive calls and send SMS when airborne. Though we understand that only a limited number of passengers will be able to make calls at the same time.

Cumbria Tourism have introduced a service whereby visitors can download podcasts from their website.  The podcasts are updated and cover a range of subjects from the Colours of Autumn through to literary walks between two of William Wordsworth’s homes.

It would be interesting understand the role which Web 2.0 is playing within the tourist experience.  In particular content created by users e.g. personal blogs, Wikipedia and photos shared on Flickr are an important information source which potential visitors can use to find out about a destination and base in part their decision on whether or not to visit.

Technology is helping to re-define the visitor experience in respect of ‘guiding.’ 

Node Explorer is a handheld location media device which delivers media to users in situ.  The device allows visitors to watch and listen (using headphones) to streamed media as they explore destinations. 

The online visitor experience are increasing in number.  “The south west of Scotland is to offer online access to all its local museum collections, thanks to financial support from the Scottish Executive.”  To read more click here. Source: Scottish Executive.

Views to enjoy…

Live wildlife images from webcams around the world – click here 

Cape Town’s wine lands – click here

The Eiffel Tower – click here  

French Polynesian Islands – click here 

The Pyramids – click here   

Los Angeles – click here

Google Maps have launched a beta version which can be downloaded on to your mobile phone.  This allows users, amongst other things, to locate restaurants, places of interest, view maps and get directions.

Visit Scotland have reported a 76% increase in the number of online accommodation bookings in the first four months of 2006 compared to 2005.  The role and place of the traditional printed holiday brochure is changing as the world wide web becomes a more accepted (and trusted) booking tool.  On the technology horizon it would be interesting to know the role which mobile devices could play in the holiday booking experience.