Abstract:

Mobile Geographical Information System can be considered as a hot area in research studies. Several projects have shown the implementation of Mobile guides that acts as an aid for tourists, but with the MTG (Mobile Tourist Guide) we propose a new approach for providing GIS (Geographical Information System) assistance to tourists visiting the island of Mauritius. It is different from current GPS (Global Positioning System) based products on the market and, is applicable to a range of mobile devices that fall into the smart phone category. The implementation of the MTG raised several issues concerning the environment in which it shall operate: What could be the accuracy and acceptable data size of the files to be displayed? What are the peculiarities of the users (tourists)? How can this service be delivered to the tourists? Is the need for a multilingual system justified? Can the Mauritian wireless network infrastructure support such systems? This research paper focuses mainly on those issues which are embedded in the development of the MTG, and the latter is compared with existing mobile guides implemented in different environments.