Travel Technology Application and the Community and Tourism Networks

Creating Community and Tourism Networks (CTN) can provide important travel information and services to the traveling public. This system of information creates a new level of technological capacity for delivering information to people via Location Based Services (LBS) that will expand tourism and revenues for regions, communities and businesses. Additionally CTNs will be a robust strategy to assist the regions and communities to get access to tools, educational content and services that can be delivered through smart-phones and the Internet. CTNs can also create numerous additional benefits, including:

·         a new “marketing” venue for rural communities and businesses interested in growing tourism in their area,

·         technological support and tools to help tourism partners grow revenues,

·         expand abilities for organizations, communities and businesses to develop interpretation, which is the core product of the experiential tourism industry,

·         hubs for regional and community collaboration and networking,

·         valuable capabilities to link and disseminate location-based services (LBS) and information to the traveling public,

·         a system to capture critical information about the traveling public, their activities, preferences and feedback. Providing surveys, and continual tracking an evaluation of travelers experiences before, during and after their trips is accomplished easily with the Iowa Travel Network.

Purpose

The purpose of the CTN is to provide:
1) a complete “package” of answers to questions that traveler’s might have, and

2) customized information about the places they are traveling through.

For regional and community collaborators the intent of the CTN is to help the region and communities be better hosts to visitors and do a better job of “Marketing Your State, Region, Community, attraction or business”. In addition, CTNs can provide dynamic, interesting and timely information to users at all locations. Future uses of interpretive content can be offered in web-based syndicated outlets.

In addition, the CTN already serves as a template that can easily be adapted to other states, or nations worldwide. The CTN is a bold and innovative adaptation of new technologies to “telling the stories of people and places”, which is the most important part of creating a robust touristic experience. Our technology partners-- Zoom Information Systems and Telvent-- provide a strong technology infrastructure on which to build the CTN.