Mobile Applications and Tourist Information In Situ

Today’s mobile phones are like small computers. With the phone the user has access to information similar to a PC user. Some of the phones have GPS embedded. When this is not the case alternative positioning options are available. In this paper purposive sampling is used to select 25 mobile applications for travelers in situ. The purpose of the paper is to gain insight in whether or not spatiotemporal tourist information is integrated in the apps for the iPhone and Nokia N97. Based on these two parameters spatial and temporal, an application can present a customized content to the user based on where he or she is, and what the person can do now and in the near future. The findings, based on this initial study on iPhone apps and Nokia apps, show a difference between the two parts of the spatio-temporal concept. While geotagging is build into most of the applications quite few applications take into account date and time.