In addition due to the rapid growth of mobile terminals (smart phones, pocket PCs), there will be also a substantial mobile marketplace for leisure services in the destination area, but very different device-types make it almost unaffordable for service SMEs in the destination to participate in that new mobile marketplace.
The EU-funded project Aladdin aims to develop a mobile destination system that combines both the provision of a mobile incoming tour operator workspace and a mobile content and service management system for destinations. The Aladdin destination management system will provide incoming tour operators with an optimised and cost-efficient mobile workspace that supports their business processes and allows small companies to compete with larger incoming tour operators, while also allowing SMEs at the destination, such as local service and commercial companies, to offer their services and content in an attractive and easy accessible way to the potential customers.
The Aladdin consortium will consider different usage scenarios, having in mind an ageing society with the growing demand for safety on the one hand, and a young generation with their well established mobile behaviour on the other. Extensive dissemination in the public and scientific area will be the basis for good exploitation efforts. In addition the so far non-existent competition in the area of mobile applications for tour guides opens a promising market for a standard product that is supposed to assure the success of the Aladdin system beyond the co-operative research project.
