Location-based Mobile Tour Guide Services towards Digital Dunhuang

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, as a world cultural heritage, is the existed world’s largest and best-preserved Buddhist art treasures. For thousands of years, it has attracted millions of people all around world. However, in the long-term protection and exploitation, Mogao Grottoes has been in the dilemma between cultural relic protections and tourism developments. In this regard, the paper, leveraged technologies of wireless network, mobile communication and geographical information, established Digital Dunhuang oriented Mobile Tour Guide (MTG) architecture and workflow extended C/S or B/S modes, and designed location-based MTG services by means of SMS, MMS and WAP, IVR, such as variegated location-aware services, handheld Mogao Grottoes cultural libraries, mobile virtual Mogao Grottoes experience, wireless identification and tour booking, personal journey tips and so on. Furthermore, it listed some evaluation indicators to measure the pros and cons of services and satisfaction of tourists. It also exhibited a simple MTG J2ME prototype run on mobile phones. All these MTG services will become well complement for current Mogao tourism items and reinforce service quality day by day.