Enhancing the Visitor Experience: Case Study: Development of Mobile Technology to Bunratty

After reading the paper from the IDC on their work on the development of Bluetooth technology to Bunratty, I have started getting a more focused view of my FYP.
The paper 'Enhancing the Visitor Experience at Visitor Attractions through the Adoption of Information and Communication Technology' describes the prospects of giving a visitor a detailed and customised experience not possible before, where the visitor is encouraged to participate in an active manner in the tour.  Different technologies can make this a possibility.
The paper shows how mobile technology can enhance visitor satisfaction, the development, and the prototype device they developed.
Usability, Experience and Engagement play big parts in the interaction.
The visitor used a mobile device that they had (their mobile phone) and information was sent directly to their device. The IDC used Bluetooth for the delivering of information to the mobile devices as it is reliable, affordable and can be used quickly and seamlessly.
Bluetooth is a wireless system that utilises short range communications technology which is used for data transmission. It is now a basic feature on most mobile phones.


Key Points: 

• 95% of tourists own a mobile phone
• 88% of tourists bring a mobile phone on holiday
• 65% have Bluetooth technology enabled

The application would be downloaded before visiting Bunratty or at a base inside, and information would be sent to the visitor depending on their location inside the centre - location based alerts.
The alerts would contain information that was not available in the brochure or any information point in the centre, it was to be a supplement that would give further information of the centre, such as videos available for download.
It is thought that the data sent to the visitor could be questions in case they wanted to know more information, encouragement to visit other parts of the centre or information on the restaurants or shops (location/menus).

Image 1: Location Based Information “Alerts” for Bunratty Mobile

When designing the software, they made sure that it was fully interactive, easily expanded upon, and new content could be added by staff of the centre. The paper describes how the information is transmitted via Bluetooth and the practical issues related to the implementation of the technology.


There is a lot of recommendations in the paper that will come in useful later on in my research. I will be using it as a basis for my work.