M-tourism - The example of Paris transportation.

What is M-Tourism ? M-Tourism stands for Mobile Tourism. Year after year, the daily use of mobile phones has constantly evolved. M-tourism takes into account all kind of touristic use of mobile phones. Tourism destinations, as well tourism organizations or any company  linked to the field of tourism is developping new mobile applications or even mobile websites. M-tourism, after E-tourism is a very promising branch of tourism.

The example of the Paris transportation applications illustrates the development of this M-tourism.

• AUGMENTED REALITY : Metro Paris Subway Your New Eye is a augmented reality functionality that enables the traveller to locate the nearest subway station with iPhone's camera live view. The application displays elements located at maximum 1km away from where the person stands.  The iPhone user can display his phone in the horizontal position to get a list of all nearest stations. When a station is selected, a red arrow (compass) is displayed to show the direction and the distance to that point. He can also position his phone vertically to obtain a 360-degree view of all stations nearby your location, updated in real time as you walk in the streets.

• FLASHCODES : The RATP (the Paris transportation company) has been displaying more than      20 000 flashcodes over the past few months, that are 2D bar codes, on the overall tram and bus network. When scanning this bar code with a smartphone, it is possible to get all infomation about the network in real time. There is however one inconvenient : the application is compatible with few mobiles.

• POI (Point Of Interest database) : This application can be added to the Metro Paris Subway (receiving Subway alerts in real time). It allows the traveller to activate Food & Drink POI, Restaurants POI, Coffee, Pastry & Ice Cream POI, Leisure POI, and Accommodation POI in all over France.It enables to locate all nearby POI on Google Map.