Tourism Radio hits millionth rental, before holiday season rush

The location-based travel guide devices, known as Tourism Radio, have hit the millionth rental day since inception in early 2010, ahead of the traditional holiday rush. It currently has its devices playing in South Africa, New Zealand, Namibia and Angola.

The device plays audio clips automatically as the user approaches specific points of interest or enters into a general location. The uniqueness of the technology is in its ability to seamlessly arrange thousands of audio clips and organise them into a coherent dialogue, based on location, creating a great user experience for travellers as they drive around.

While in use, the device keeps a detailed log of its position and gathers information about how many times particular sound clips are played, based on the user's movements. This means it is able to produce detailed usage reports on where travellers are going and what they are doing during their stay - a handy tool for advertisers.

Building a database

Tourism Radio CEO Mark Allewell says, "Our ability to not only play locally-relevant information to travellers, but also to build up a huge database of where travellers are going, has given us an insight into what tourists expect while on holiday.

"With these usage stats, we're able to show our advertisers exactly where their money is going. No longer do companies have to spend with the faint hope of having some kind of impact on anyone who happens to see or hear their ad. This offers advertisers a captive audience and we're able to show them just how effective their campaigns actually are."

For more, go to www.tourismradio.co.za.