The huge increase in available bandwidth, particularly wireless broadband (along with parallel enhancements in processing power and memory capacity), is facilitating access to the internet via a variety of media devices. This opens up a ‘new frontier’ for large scale electronic distribution – to visitors travelling to and within Destinations. Driven by the ability to access the internet from multiple ‘media gateways’, the internet is becoming integral to telecommunications, broadcast and publishing media, so that it will become the primary means by which most visitors will:

• Access information
• Access news – such as e-papers and magazines, TV and radio news
• Communicate – including email, phone, video mail, video conferencing, and blogging

From the perspective of visitor information provision, the new media access devices of greatest relevance are:

Mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) for internet access by 3G or by WiFi. WiFi offers ‘hotspots’ that can cover a single room or many square miles overlapping with other hotspots, and allows PCs, phones or PDAs to connect to the internet. WiFi-enabled handheld devices, together with wide area WiFi network provision (including across whole cities) will be of particular interest in enabling low cost access to the internet for information and for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls.

MP3 technology to allow download of podcasts such as city guides, in audio and/or video form.

Hand held and in-car devices that combine internet access and a global positioning system (GPS) that enables satellite navigation (satnav), to provide local route finding and itinerary planning, relating routes of travel to attractions and facilities. The combination of satnav and tourist information on hand-held devices has already begun and will be widely available in the medium term
An important related development is the advent of ‘location based services’ – to communicate specific information to people, via in-car or handheld devices, when they are in a particular location – for example, for a DMO to provide information about a particular place of interest to people when they are in the vicinity; or to transmit advertising, such as special offers, that are specific to the location. Such services are likely to be widely available by 2010.

Fixed internet access points within the Destination, which will become widespread

It is now possible to draw on a wide variety of third-party resources to supply live content for a website. Examples include:

• Online mapping
• Motoring, cycling and walking routes
• Weather forecasts
• News services
• Conditions for special interests, such as safaris, walking, diving and surfing
• Online carbon emissions calculators
• Currency calculator
• Games

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.