ALADDIN project develops mobile holiday destination system

Developing a mobile holiday destination system that combines workspace for non-local tour-operators and a mobile content and service management system is the aim of the EU-funded ALADDIN
project. Project partners have now successfully tested two prototypes developed in the framework of the project, says the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, one of the project
partners.

The trial took place in three different holiday destinations in Austria, Sweden and Hungary with the prototypes providing information about the destination on mobile devices for tourists as
well as tour guides. Generally speaking, test subjects are satisfied with the level of technological maturity of the system, the Fraunhofer Institute states. They also considered the system to
be extremely helpful.

Asked to identify the main challenges for an information system of this kind, test persons pointed out the need for the information to be of high quality, as well as up-to-date. In addition,
they stressed the importance of developing a suitable business model to implement the system.

The ALADDIN project, which received ?1.3 million in funding under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) involves 10 partners from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the UK, Sweden and Hungary. It was
set up in order to help European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and travel industry to face current challenges, such as competition from large international companies.
Moreover, the system should help accommodate changes in customer’s behaviour patterns such as last-minute-bookings and changes of hotels and flights.

The largest part of businesses involved in the tourism and travel industry are SMEs, including tourist offices, restaurants and museums, project partners point out. The mobile market is rapidly
growing and will be a substantial marketplace for leisure services, they are sure. However, very different device-types make it almost unaffordable for service SMEs in the destination to
participate in that new mobile marketplace, and the ALADDIN project is trying to change that.

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