Beacons, small Bluetooth devices that transmit radio signals with low consumption and a short range, are widely applied in the field of tourism. They can guide visitors, with their smartphones, to discover new places, creating experiences with original knowledge. We also talk about microlocalization technologies.
Contemporary tourists are, in their everyday life and when travelling, constantly connected to their smartphones. The challenge of tourism connected with new proximity technologies is to grasp a new opportunity: to provide travellers with targeted and thorough information through the nearest, most familiar and reliable channel, i.e. mobile devices.
Beacons are geolocalization devices, that are starting to spread, finding new and original applications in the tourist industry too. The iBeacon technology allows transmitters (beacons) and receivers (smartphones) to operate. Thanks to Bluetooth, and through an app installed ad hoc, they transmit information to smartphones in the vicinity. These transmitters allow the user to receive information, maps or any other contents in a precise place and at a precise time.
With beacons it is the city itself that speaks to tourists when they approach a monument or a place of interest. In practice, beacons, placed in strategic points of the city, can send any information to tourists passing near them with their smartphones. It is the new frontier of proximity advertising.
Beacons can also provide precise data in real time on the use of the app by users hence allowing the activities, behaviour and paths within the cities and the application itself to be analysed. In this way, contents can be changed instantaneously on a case-by-case basis and information can be provided on the places of greatest interest and how tourists move around. Overall, a lot of data can be produced, which is extremely useful for optimizing the city/tourist interface process even more.
Antreem has already built up case studies and applied beacons and other proximity technologies. We are at your disposal for more information!
Some figures on beacons and smartphones
90% of iOS devices and 70% of Android devices are compatible and able to use applications based on beacons. 500 million mobile devices in the world can interact with iBeacon technology (bluetooth 4.0) and this number doubles from one year to the next. According to research by Google, 79% of consumers use smartphones in store, not only for finding out information, but also for using special offers. Three billion coupons were redeemed in 2014 on mobile devices and a significant number of these were redeemed through apps exploiting iBeacon technology.