KOCHI: In order to make Muziris Heritage Project more informative and attractive to the tourist, the government is planning to roll out a virtual tour guide-augmented reality mobile application. The government issued an order recently allotting fund for developing the mobile app for Muziris Heritage Project.
According to officials in the tourist department, even though government has come out with the order allocating fund, the final decision regarding the platform, technical aspects and time period for development of the mobile app will be fixed at a meeting which is to be held this month.
“The government has granted `43 lakh for the development of the mobile app which would be very beneficial for the tourists visiting Muziris Heritage sites. The mobile app will act as guide using which tourist can get additional information about various sites,” officials in tourism department said
The app can operate either with the help of GPS or using mobile camera. Tourist while visiting heritage sites can use the application as virtual tour guide providing information to know about history, its videos and pictures of places of interest, traditions attached to the place and intricacies involved in the art or monument. The application would assist tourist in booking travel tickets, finding accommodation in and around Muziris. “The mobile app would enable the tourist to take a virtual tour of Muziris sites while they visit each places. It would also help them to reach these places easily. The mobile app would be provided by the tourism department,”official said.
The proposal for developing virtual tour guide-augmented reality mobile app was submitted by Thiruvananthapuram based Invis Multimedia.
Officials in tourism department said that the mobile app which is to be developed for the Tourism Department will first of its kind in the country and will have more features to assist tourist.