This document discusses the potential of location-based games for tourism. It provides an overview of existing location-based games like Geocaching and Ojoo, and their goals of inspiring exploration and adventure. The document also covers the growth of the mobile games market and the profile of the average mobile gamer. It outlines how location-based games could be applied in outdoor tourism, city tourism, hospitality, and cultural heritage. The document discusses enabling technologies like smartphones and concludes that location-based games could turn the tourism world into a playground if they provide engaging and meaningful experiences tailored to audiences and contexts.

1. LOCATION-BASED
GAMES IN TOURISM
Jessika Weber
PhD Researcher
School of Tourism, Bournemouth University
58th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for Europe
and Seminar on Mobile Technologies for Improving
the Tourism Experience

2. GEOCACHING
Jenn Seva
• Volunteer and avid geocacher since 2001
• Business Development Manager at Geocaching HQ, Seattle
• Editor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Geocaching, 3rd
Edition
• MISSION: To inspire and enable discovery, exploration
and adventure.

3. OJOO
Peter Symons
• Social media, tech and marketing expert
from Ghent, Belgium
• Founder of OJOO, a revolutionary mobile app for creating,
playing, sharing and selling location-based games from
any mobile device
• MISSION: turn the world into a big playground

4. GOOGLE
Anne Beuttenmüller
• Joined Google 2008 and worked in
various positions
• Since 2 years head of Product Marketing & Community
Management Europe for Ingress at Google’s Niantic Labs
• MISSION: Create adventures & explorations through
meaningful interactions with the local environment and
people using technology and gameplay

5. GAMES AND
TOURISM ARE
TEMPORARY
ESCAPES INTO
ANOTHER WORLD(Ermi and Mäyrä 2005)

7. * USING THE
REAL WORLD AS
THE PLAYGROUND

8. LOCATION-BASED GAMES
… for mobile handheld devices can be
understood as outdoor games making use of
the player’s physical location via the
GPS sensor and compass to facilitate
gameplay activities. The player interacts
with virtual and physical game mechanics
in order to overcome artificial challenges and
to proceed gameplay in the real and game
environment.

10. Posi%ve
Player
Emo%ons
Loca%on
Engagement
ENGAGING EXPERIENCES
Authen%city
Social
Interac%on
Loca%on-­‐based
Storytelling
Playfulness
Media%on
Tool
Tourist LB Game
Tourism Locations
Real/Virtual
World
Game
Mechanics

11. HISTORY, PRESENT & FUTURE
2012 2013
• Google
Glass
2014
• 6th Gen.
iPhone
2015
• VR –
Oculus Rift
• AR –
HoloLens
• EyeFly 3D
2016 …
• 4G
• Cloud
Gaming
1999
• Mobile
phones
with
GPS
2000 2006
• Google
maps
for
mobile
2007
• 1st Gen.
iPhone
2008
• Android
with
GPS

12. * POTENTIALS
FOR TOURISM

13. SMARTPHONES ARE KEY
ü Advancements in mobile technology
ü Affordability & increased connectivity
ü Ubiquitous travel companion
Dads
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Laptop
Tablets
Smartphones
Mobile device usage during travel
Over 55
35-54 years
Under 35 yeards
Total

14. MOBILE GAMES MARKET
ü Growing 27.3% between 2015-19
ü Among all apps, 65% spend on games
ü $ 24 Bn. mobile games revenue in 2016
ü More than 60% of gamers play mobile games daily
Mobile Games Revenue 2014

15. THE MOBILE GAMER
ü No longer a ‘stereotype’ game player
ü Average mobile gamer is 37 years old
ü 2 out of 5 players are female
ü Play everywhere and any time
ü Play ‘in-between’
ü Like adventure and social games

16. * APPLICATION FIELDS

17. OUTDOOR TOURISM

18. CITY TOURISM

19. HOSPITALITY

20. CULTURAL HERITAGE

21. CURRENT (temporary) CHALLENGES
ü High roaming in EU- free Wi-Fi in destinations
ü GPS accuracy
ü Compatibility of apps and devices
ü Courage for innovation

22. LET‘S TURN THE
TOURISM WORLD
INTO A PLAYGROUND

23. KEY CRITERIA FOR IMPLEMENTATION
ü Know your target audience & their interests
ü Real world application case
ü Consider the gameplay context
ü Available, findable & user friendly game app
ü Business model
ü Games around the tourism journey
ü Engaging and meaningful experiences

24. GAMEOVER
Jessika Weber
PhD Researcher
School of Tourism, Bournemouth University
jweber@bournemouth.ac.uk
www.jessikaweber.net
@JessikaWeber

25. REFERENCES
• CCM Benchmark
• Technavio Research
• Statistica.com (June 2015)
• Kallio, Kaipainen and Mäyrä (2007)
• Engl and Nacke (2012)
• Jacob and Coelho (2011)
• Kallio, Kaipainen and Mäyrä (2007)
Pictures
Shutterstock and private