Tourism Tech: Will these apps help you explore your city?

Are we on the fringes of the app economy, especially when it comes to tourism? Crowdsourced travel reviews, Google Maps live views, social media feeds, globe-trotting nomadic influencers posting sunsets from far away. Does it make financial sense for them (to build, maintain, or even buy) anymore, given what they do?

I haven’t seen much of my recruiting city, Los Angeles, during COVID, so I wanted to explore it again with fresh eyes. A lot has changed in the last few years. Many businesses have closed or cut staff hours. But tourists are flooding Southern California. How do they navigate the city today? To find out, I downloaded some LA visitor apps and grabbed a Tap mass transit card. Here’s what happened.

gps my city

(Credit: SC Stewart)

While standing in Beverly Hills across from the famous City Hall, I hopped onto the free city Wi-Fi and downloaded the GPSMyCity app.(opens in new window) Allows Google Play to use precise GPS location while the app is running. We waited for it to triangulate satellite-based mapping data from 12,500 miles overhead and suggest places to go. But it wasn’t. Seriously missed a trick.

The app’s menu popped up articles like California Dreamin’ — Things to Do in LA, The Ultimate Guide to Koreatown, Silver Lake’s Hidden Staircase, and more. But I was at least six to eight miles away from any of those destinations. Typing “Beverly Hills” into the search function brought up a full-page ad indicating a solid onsite internet connection. I tapped the X to close the ad and read through a fairly general description of the city. This is the same paragraph in the short form guide.

If you scroll down you will see “Boris Karloff’s Former Home” and if you click on the red GO THERE square it will say “The requested feature is only available in the full version. A 3 day free trial is offered to try the app. I uninstalled without being impressed.

On a nearby stump was a then and now photo of Beverly Hills with a QR code.I scanned and watched a 2 minute video(opens in new window) From the Beverly Hills Historical Society on the history of where I stood. This was more like But the magical mystery-style tour didn’t show a map leading from one QR code to his next. I gave up and went home.

Google Maps and AR

(Credit: Google)

I wondered if the app no ​​longer cut it.Without an in-house writing team, it’s difficult to keep content up-to-date and accurate, and there is no business model behind it that $78.51 billion is spent on mobile search. Are we going to build our own city-based guides DIY style now?

Admittedly, I use Google Maps all the time and have noticed a dramatic increase in the number of commercial pins. Some of them are related, but many are not.However, for the purposes of this article, we usually ignore[更新]Click to find “What’s new in your region” content, including content from Local Guides.(opens in new window).

There were some glowing reviews of restaurants I hadn’t tried. Thanks to Google’s diverse feed integrations, I was able to scroll down to make a reservation, see the menu, and find out the busiest hours. This is fine, but a painstaking way to put together a self-directed itinerary for travelers. But things are looking up in that regard.

2022 Post on Google Maps Immersive Views(opens in new window) describes how advances in computer vision and AI have enabled the tech giant to fuse billions of street views and aerial imagery to create a rich digital model of the world. Live view helps you see details of opening hours and transit congestion. The new ARCore Geospatial API allows developers to overlay real-time augmented reality features onto city-based content wherever Street View is available.

But it’s completely fragmentary. There is no editorial vision or accuracy of the wording itself. I think this is due to the nature of the internet today. No one is in charge (not even Elon). But that doesn’t make for a cohesive view of the city for tourists and locals alike.

discover los angeles

(Credit: Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board)

For Downtown LA, download the official guide from the Los Angeles Tourism Convention Board.(opens in new window) And it was immediately incorporated into the UI. Strong colored bands across the screen to assist with primary navigation, options like DO, EAT, STAY, EVENTS (which pretty much sums up the city-based experience), and a real-time weather feed. Top. So far, so good.

Choosing DO gave me a sense of gameplay under one or the other title. Go to an event or explore El Pueblo de los Angeles (are you a thrill seeker or a history buff?).

I[その他のオプション]I clicked and got TOP HOLLYWOOD NIGHTCLUBS vs K-TOWN SHOPPING GUIDE (My club days are gone and I never understood shopping therapy). I kept clicking and ended up at her CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S LA which sounded cool before the app crashed.

After restarting the app, I was back at this section. It was very late, but I finally triangulated the current GPS with the opening hours of the Natural History Museum’s Little Trump Costume.That didn’t appeal to me, so I kept swiping left and right (yes, Tinder-style navigation), navigating mini-articles about where Chaplin famously filmed silent movies. child (1921). It sounded interesting, so I selected Get Me There, which (eventually) loaded into Google Maps.

I forgot that tacos are dancing in the bottom left of the screen. To investigate, I clicked because I wanted to stop it. It was a promotional content for dineL.A. From 5 years ago. I tried to go back to Charlie Chaplin’s L.A., but the map hadn’t materialized yet. I gave up and uninstalled the app.

Try TikTok

(Credit: Getty Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket)

In LA’s photogenic corner, you’ll find people filming short-form, enthusiastic content for TikToks and similar. So I opened TikTok and searched for “LA City Guides.”

As expected, it was a varied bag, but with some standout contributors, including Kali(opens in new window), he seems to be constantly touring the United States as a travel vlogger.her guide(opens in new window) Quite cramped, but charming (multiple commenters noted, “This is not a day in LA, it’s at least 72 hours”). However, Kari and her mic were green screened against a sunny image and felt a little out of place. I didn’t know if this was a dream trip or a real experience.

Another self-proclaimed travel guru(opens in new window) We took a more vintage slant in the City of Angels, offering mid-century modern homes and 1920s garden tours, and asked our followers for their input on future content. Masu — an interactive guide for armchair travelers who need a sunny atmosphere (especially during the winter months).

The most comprehensive was Alanna(opens in new window)know how to spend a day in LA by suggesting cool things to do for cash-strapped visitors, like avoiding common tourist traps and eating donuts for breakfast at the farmer’s market. (“Bring cash. Card!”); Griffith Observatory (“Best museum in LA. Again, it’s free. Stroll through Chinatown.

As is customary on TikTok, Alanna responded to comments about travel distance and safety issues before posting new content to keep her followers coming back.

los angeles times

Still in DTLA, I looked up and found the (former) historic LA Times headquarters. I wondered if the 142-year-old local newspaper had a good guide for tourists and residents in need of a refresher.

I downloaded the app(opens in new window), but it opened straight up in the news headlines. Navigation along the bottom included eNewspaper, COVID-19 (still images), Media (video-based news), and My Library (save articles to read later). The options at the top were: Top News, California, Sports, Food, Others – Hoping for a “Guide to Los Angeles”,[その他]clicked.

However, I could not find a tourist guide. “More” goes from residential to company town (Hollywood Insider Industry coverage), real estate to obituary (there’s a joke there, it’s a good one; Nora Ephron already wrote(opens in new window) that is When Harry met Sally).

seriously? No tourism department! I couldn’t believe the house publisher had overlooked this commercial trick. Just a bunch of unrelated (really depressing) news. Uninstalled.

nostalgic trip

At this point, I miss Vindigo(opens in new window)In 1999, when I had a Palm Pilot, City Guide Vindigo was a revelation. Wi-Fi wasn’t prevalent at the time, and you had to HotSync your Palm PDA device to get the latest listings, but you could find opening hours, entertainment listings, restaurant reviews from Zagat, and turn-by-turn from the nearest intersection. By-turn route guidance.

You can even write your own notes (if you’ve mastered the unique “doodle” recording feature).(opens in new window) stylus) and pass them to Zagat for inclusion. Yes, it was grayscale and the UX was rudimentary, but it ran brilliantly within the parameters of late 90’s technology (which was also under 700kB. Imagine today’s bloated apps Please give me).

When I search(opens in new window) On LinkedIn for former Vindigo employees, you’ll find Dennis Crowley and all the names that made the Silicon Alley (NY, not SF) scene great.(opens in new window), co-founded Foursquare. Crowley, who pinkslipped from Vindigo during his crash in 2001 (like most others), posted: retro side(opens in new window) in his app heyday twitter feed(opens in new window).

Web3 Futures

In fact, with his latest venture, LivingCities, Crowley may be bringing the best of yesterday’s Vindigo-style city guides to tomorrow’s Web3 mapping protocol.(opens in new window).

While it’s still very secretive, his co-founder Matt Miesnieks (former CEO of 6D.AI) said:(opens in new window)now part of Niantic) wrote(opens in new window) It’s like the Living Cities manifesto about “building one layer on top of today’s mapping platforms.” [and focusing] We’ll cover the experiences, applications, and interfaces that enable these applications in real-world locations. ”

“New AI-adjacent creative technologies allow us to express ourselves in 3D in the same way that camera phones allowed us to express ourselves in mobile 2D,” said Miesnieks. “Meta (Facebook) calls their AR Cloud research project ‘Live Maps,’ which I think is a great name for something that needs to exist. These digital twins need to be bi-directionally connected to their physical locations. Real-time signals, from weather to people walking on the street, sounds to moving objects in the street, all need to be reflected digitally. ”

LivingCities seems poised for something needed in the future of location-based, mesh-enhanced leisure travel. Aside from engaging TikTok users, today’s tourism apps are useless. Also, you can’t expect suburban folks to DIY everything with Google Maps and random pins.