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| Philippines |
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| Travel guide through cellphone launched |
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| Source: Manila Bulletin |
| Author: Jaser Isidro A. Marasigan |
| Date: 2002-12-25 |
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The 'WOW Philippines Finder' is a first-of-its-kind product to be offered to mobile phone users which offers accurate and complete information on the tourism facilities, services and attractions in the country through short messaging service (SMS) or texting.
A creation by MapCentral and CyberSoft Geoinformatics Inc. (CIGI), the 'virtual travel guide' has been endorsed by the Department of Tourism (DoT), which said it would encourage travelers, through its marketing programs, to use the mobile phone service in locating tourist attractions and facilities.
MIC Holdings president and CEO Philip E. Juico said that, "the product is designed to empower tourists, Filipinos and foreigners alike, to travel to any of the country's 7,100 destinations with the convenience of information that can be provided via simple text messaging."
To avail of the service, mobile phone users just need to type: WOW in , and send to 288 for Smart and Talk 'N Text users and 2958 for Globe users.
For example, users can send "wow birdwatching in cebu" and receive detailed information on birdwatching locations in Cebu and other tourist activities.
"WOW Philippines Finder is all about convenience for the would-be traveler," said Jane Remandaban, vice president of MIC Holdings. "Instead of countless hours researching online or going to numerous travel agents for information, we are giving mobile phone users the convenience of getting all the necessary information to help them decide where to go or what to do via a text message."
Juico explained that "WOW," the tag coined by Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon, was used as a brand tag in recognition of the government's tourism marketing campaign.
"WOW Philippines Finder makes traveling around the Philippines much simpler. We believe this is a big step in boosting Philippine tourism," he added.
WOW Finder was developed in cooperation with web-based applications expert Knowledge Systems Developers, Inc. (KSDI) and Asian Navigation and Tracking Systems, Inc. (ANTS).
KSDI specializes in database and data-enabled web-based applications and is the company behind Travelsite.ph, a premier tourism portal in the country.
ANTS, on the other hand, is the main provider of Location-Based Services (LBS) in the country. LBS, which is mostly based on radio, satellite and mobile phone technology, allows users to locate a person or establishment.
CyberSoft is the country's leading service provider of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions.
The website, MapCentral.ph, was likewise developed by CyberSoft for MIC Holdings Corp. MapCentral.ph boasts of an extensive database of establishments, streets in Metro Manila and suburbs as well as the road and establishment database of key cities and municipalities all over the Philippines.
CyberSoft and MIC Holdings, through MapCentral, were the same group behind FindPrecinct.com, a public service offered during the 2001 elections.
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