The eTreasure project aims to enhance tourists' cultural experiences through a treasure hunt game played via SMS and MMS. It provides relevant information about points of interest and allows collaborative play. The game is designed to guide tourists through a city or cultural site while engaging them through challenging tasks. It uses simple SMS technology to deliver tips and get responses. Current implementations involve schools and regional development projects in Lugano, Switzerland. Future plans include integrating more detailed content and structured feedback mechanisms.

1. eTREASURE: ENHANCING TOURISTS EXPERIENCE BY PLAYING A TREASURE HUNT Alessandro Inversini NewminE Lab University of Lugano Switzerland [email_address] Lorenzo Cantoni NewminE Lab University of Lugano Switzerland [email_address] e-Business in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, 14 March 2008, Athens, Greece

2. AGENDA Background and Objectives Structure and Technology User Experience Relevant Issues Wath’s on Now Future development

3. BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Tourism Goods Consumption eTreasure objectives To offer a playfulness way to enjoy cultural heritage consumption, hence promoting informal learning To provide the user with relevant information on the cultural places s/he encounters To promote collaborative experiences To draw users’ attention to a given Point Of Interest, exploiting the concept of economy of attention To offer to tourists ad hoc commercial information during the city visit

4. STRUCTURE & TECHNOLOGY (I) Main requirements Assists/Guide tourists while visiting a cultural site or a city (consumption phase). Find an easy and well known way to engage with tourists. Publics The eTreasure project has been designed for two specific publics of reference: tourists and schools enjoying a visit to a city. Technology SMS and MMS

5. STRUCTURE & TECHNOLOGY (II) Orange CH, is eTreasure Technical Partner

6. USER EXPERIENCE Users Motivations Age and gender; Interests: players are required to choose a path (e.g. cultural or natural); Time: player choose the number of POI to be enclose in the treasure hunt.

7. RELEVANT ISSUES Treasure Hunt? The issue of Time Informal Learning “ incidental learning, unstructured, unpurposeful but the most extensive and most important part of all the learning that all of us do everyday of our lives” Rogers, 2004 Economy of the attention Location Based Services “ the key aspects of LCBS are their inherent relations between location coordinates or activity-contexts and applications”. Kühn,2004

8. USAGES (I)

9. USAGES (II) Strength: Creative & different “ City visit that includes outdoor activities coupled with challenging (interesting) tasks” Interaction with the system: the easiness of use, SMS technology is fast and common, easy to answer and to get the next tips Weaknesses: Event communication and promotion Interaction within the path: users need more information about the specific places, monuments and so on. Errors management

10. WHAT’S ON NOW Carlo Cattaneo Association Award Regional development Schools Projects with schools (11 to15 years old) DMOs integration Lugano Tourism

11. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Coupling each eTreasure hunt with already available paper based guides for tourists, so that they can read them while playing Offering podcast material on the website Providing brief textual or audio information via MMS when a player is in a given place Web portal for eTreasure creators Structured Feedbacks

12. eTREASURE: ENHANCING TOURISTS EXPERIENCE BY PLAYING A TREASURE HUNT Alessandro Inversini NewminE Lab University of Lugano Switzerland [email_address] Lorenzo Cantoni NewminE Lab University of Lugano Switzerland [email_address] e-Business in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, 14 March 2008, Athens, Greece