251. Multimedia Geoinformation in Rural Areas with Eco-Tourism: the ReGeo-System.
- Author
-
Frech, Iris and Koch, Barbara
- Abstract
Rural regions, such as the national and nature parks involved in the ReGeo project, are often dependent on the tourism sector and thus show a high degree of interest in eco-tourism issues. How can such areas attract new visitors, how can they compete with the big players in the tourism industry and how can they make themselves known to a broad public? The following article presents the ReGeo project, which aims to help rural areas find solutions to these issues by working with modem technology. For most rural regions the solution is to set up an attractive Internet site presenting the region, establish a network of local information points and perhaps even provide information on CD-ROMs and for mobile and PDA devices. It has been proven that such tourist information systems are becoming more and more popular and attractive to the user (ProH and Retschizegger, 2000). Such systems can be improved through the use of photographs, maps and animation. ReGeo also uses GIS-functions, a central interactive map and remote sensing data system, which not only improves the attractiveness hut also the usability of an Internet-based tourist information system. It also emphasises the necessity of adapting this system to different devices. The ReGeo-project pays special attention to the specific problems of rural regions, including the lack of a central institution with the ability to administer such a system. Last but not least, ReGeo intends to act not only as a tourist information service, but rather as a multi-purpose digital geo-data service through which the test regions is attractively presented to a broad audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2003