Penang Launches Tourism Application For iPhone Users

The Penang Government has introduced the state’s first tourism mobile application for the iPhone. The application, called Penang Tourism, provides live, up-to-date tourist and event information with GPS system that enables detailed street navigation to tourist attractions on the island. It was developed by Convep Mobilogy and can be downloaded for free from the iPhone App Store. The content is provided by Penang Global Tourism. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said this latest feature on the iPhone would boost tourist arrivals, especially from foreign countries and it will place Penang on the map with IT savvy tourists. It is important for us to try to capture the youth tourism market because once we can entice them to like Penang, it’ll be a lifelong love affair for them,” he said during the soft launching of the mobile application yesterday. Lim said Penang recorded a 40% increase in the number of international tourist arrivals in the first half of the year compared with the corresponding period last year. “As of June, there were 405,932 tourist arrivals compared to 244,146 in the same period last year. “We know the tourist industry has been having a good year but we need to work harder to get more attention for Penang,” he said. “We need to build up on infrastructure, both physical and modern technology such as mobile applications and other ICT features,” he said. Convep Mobilogy chief executive officer Darren Pang said the application allowed users to retrieve information, photos and videos of nearby tourist attractions. He said: “They can also look for places to eat and shop as well as a listing of upcoming state tourism, travel and hospitality events.“Tourists can also provide feedback via the application on the places they have visited in Penang.”He said the feature would be available on other mobile device platforms such as the Android, Blackberry and Java by the end of the year. Penang Global Tourism managing director Ooi Geok Ling said Penang would have its own Timeout guide book for next year.“The guide will be available by March or April and it’ll be sold in major international cities. After this, we hope for a bimonthly or quarterly edition to be published,” she said.