Ok, so what have I learned from the world of tourism this week? Very little actually. Well, very little with specific regard to tourism, but it has been a week of Augmented Reality.
Hopefully AR will inevitably become more widespread in tourism as it lends itself perfectly to our industry. Entry level costs may be a major barrier though for the majority of applications in tourism at the moment, but there are certainly a lot more examples emerging.
There was an excellent AR seminar laid on by Software Alliance Wales on Thursday and that followed a great catch up with Jon in Visit Wales who has to be one of the most inspiring digital strategists (and practitioners) that I’ve met. Always a pleasure and always useful.
The event that followed was equally as good where we were shown some great examples of AR on retail labels using the Blippar app, AR glasses that are gathering pace and even the remote possibility of AR contact lenses. Pie in the sky? Who knows?
(Given the pace of change, you can’t rule anything out these days which makes horizon scanning particularly challenging!).
One of the most exciting AR releases this week was the Black Eyed Peas app for 69p on iTunes (search for BEP 360). This is ground breaking and no doubt the start of a new wave of music media but what interests me is how AR could potentially inject new life and dynamism into printed media.
As more and more ads, billboards, lifestyle magazines are increasingly starting to apply AR, will the market start craving more print media that offers opportunities to experience AR? Will be soon see AR jumping out of holiday brochures and print runs and distribution climbing again? It certainly throws an interesting twist into the ‘need for print’ debate that’s for sure!






