Mobiles include mobile phones (cell phones), personal digital assistants (PDAs, such as Palm Pilots or Blackberries), MP3 players (such as iPods), and satellite navigation devices (such as TomToms).
Thanks to increasing convergence, many of these functions are beginning to be offered in a single device. Because these facilities are becoming so easily available to everyone, mobiles seem likely to be a greater driver of globalisation than the PC-based internet has been so far.

The impact of mobiles on tourism marketing could be greater over the next five to 10 years than that of the desktop PC, website and fixed-link broadband has been over the past 10 years. The mobile has already become almost everyone’s indispensable personal companion, throughout the day, throughout the world. It's usefulness and ‘comfort factor’ has overcome the resentment that many people have felt about its intrusiveness, for young and old alike. And mobiles are personal; PCs are for work. They are ubiquitous: in the street, in the countryside, on the beach, hands-free in the car, and on planes soon, too. They know where they are, and can tell you about where you are if you wish.

Nearly 100% of visitors have one, in contrast with PC internet access which is enjoyed by less than half the population in many markets. Even in developed markets, fixed-link internet usage is expected to plateau at 60% to 80% coverage. And most visitors do not bring their PC with them. When all the functions of mobiles can work fully across frontiers, contact made before the trip can be maintained during and after it. But mobiles may be more important for providing customer service during a trip than for marketing to new customers before a trip. The networks have the opportunity to send content to mobile phones that is tailored to the subscriber database. This could be personalised, and may attract huge earnings from advertisers.

M-commerce

A report by Juniper Research indicated that payments in the developing world made by mobile phone will reach US$ 22 billion by 2011. Most of the 204 million mobile phone users making payments with their phones by 2011 will use SMS (text-to-pay). However, over 52 million mobile phones will have contactless chips, which will let them make physical payments.

Satnav

Satellite navigation (satnav) systems enable the user to follow a route from A to B, or search their way through a traffic jam, or to find the nearest restaurant.
The term GPS refers to the Global Positioning System of satellites which originated in the USA’s satellite defence systems of the 1970s. The EU has a project, Galileo, for a similar satellite system.
Satnav maps are an ideal way to present tourist information to mobile device users. Points of interest can be presented to an accuracy of a few metres, enough to show a pedestrian on which side of the road the building or object is located. As an indicator of the scale of adoption, the European and North American markets for portable navigation devices were expected to grow to around 21 million units in 2007.

Note: The information on this page is drawn from resources produced and used by E-Tourism Africa trainers Peter Varlow (TEAM Tourism) and Damian Cook. Please do not reproduce or publish this material without permission. This information is an overview of content from our Training Seminars. If you'd like learn more about this topic, attend one of our events and join the E-Tourism Seminars.