Capital rings changes with landmark app
An Irish tourism body has scored a world's first with a new mobile phone device that guides visitors to landmarks.
The new app, which targets users of smart phones, can also give the 3.8 million tourists to Dublin information on the landmarks they are viewing.
At a cost of €2.99, the app, which can be downloaded from the internet, is part of a €10m digital investment strategy by Dublin Tourism.
The technology, which covers the greater Dublin area and operates within a 10km radius from where the user is located, is the brainchild of Irish mobile device firm Geoguides.
Dublin Tourism said yesterday it was expected the technology could attract an extra one million visitors to the capital by 2015.
The most recent visitor figures for June showed that tourism numbers to the country recorded the smallest year-on-year drop to date in 2010. A total of 600,030 people visited Ireland in June, a 5.7pc drop compared with last year.
But tourism bodies said July should show a further improvement.
Launching the product at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin, Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin said: "Mobile technology is part of more and more people's lives, and a vast wealth of information at your fingertips is what visitors will look for when visiting Dublin."
- Ailish O'Hora
Irish Independent
