Pinpointing Tourism Information onto Mobile Maps - A Light-Weight Approach

Location-based systems in the area of tourism, so-called mobile tourist guides, combine geographic information and tourism information in order to deliver relevant content to tourists on the spot. Existing systems often adhere to a heavy-weight approach. This means that, firstly, some do not build on existing tourism information systems, secondly, most of them do not employ standards for accessing geographical information systems, and thirdly, the majority employ a thick client. To tackle these issues, we propose a lightweight approach for location based systems. A major focus is on configurability, allowing to easily making existing tourism information location-aware, by pinpointing points of interest to geographical positions on a map. To demonstrate the applicability of the framework, a prototype of a mobile tourist guide has been implemented for the city of Linz, Austria, which delivers geographic data in form of maps or aerial photos and information about local points of interest.