2 May 2006. While visiting Cape Town in South Africa you no longer need to hop on a bus with a bunch of other tourists and a tour guide to be informed about the history of the mothercity. You just step in your rental car and turn on the radio.
This week Tourism Radio was launched. The station gives tourists guided tours in their rental cars. Tourism Radio works through a Global Positioning System (GPS) placed in cars and taxi"s, which tells a computer where the vehicle is. It then broadcasts relevant local information.
The radio service starts once the vehicle ignition has been switched on. The device then connects to a server based in Cape Town. The server monitors the vehicle 24 hours a day, playing local music, giving historical information, weather updates, security announcements and tells you about what"s happening in town during the evening.
Operations Director and Founder Mark Allewell, an ex-tour guide, said to website IOL: 'It is like having a local person there in your car. We have pre-recorded shows, which are interrupted if the tourist drives through an area of importance to give them information about that area."
If they drive past the Castle, for example, information will be given about its history. If they detour to another area such as Kirstenbosch, information will switch to the botanical gardens.
Tourists tune in to Tourism Radio on 90.2FM to access the information.
Click here to listen to some recordings of Tourism Radio |
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