In order to contribute to the development of tourism, which is also a very important economic activity of the entire county, the Tourist Board of Krapina-Zagorje County has equipped itself with various multimedia solutions, applications and content. The multimedia setup is located in the Tourist Information Center in Roses Designer Outlet, where tourists are able to get a lot of useful information about the Zagorje tourist offer in a fun and modern way. Therefore, tourists will be able to make memories and share them with their loved ones.
The fact that Krapina-Zagorje County is the most successful destination in continental Croatia tells a lot about its tourist offer, the number of tourists staying, and daily tours. In order to promote and share the beauty of this region, the County is constantly developing and contributing to a project called "Fairy Tale in the Palm of Your Hand". Within the project, tourists can explore various destinations and attractions such as spas, castles, Roman roads, agritourism, museums, churches, hiking and biking trails, etc. The main attractions of this region are: untouched nature, rich cultural and historical heritage and gastronomic specialties that make Zagorje a recognizable, unique tourist destination.
Following the guidelines of the county tourism development strategy, the Tourist Board of Krapina-Zagorje County has decided to modernize and digitize the interface through which tourists get information about services, news, events and diverse content of the county. For this purpose, the Tourist Board initiated a project which includes multimedia presentation, development of multimedia solutions, applications and content for the tourist information center in Roses Designer Outlet.
The challenge of this project was to design various multimedia solutions that would expand and digitize content in order to increase the attractiveness of the county's locations while at the same time preserving nature and sustainable development. This initiative includes the development of informative, entertaining content, but also educational content in order to increase the number of visitors, increase economic activities in the area and present Zagorje as a unique tourist destination.
Our approach was to develop digital content and equip the tourist information center with various applications that promote certain offers of the area through multimedia. It was also necessary to ensure the attractiveness and functionality of the tourist information center space through internal and external multimedia display, but also to ensure that all content is displayed and managed using our PandoPad® Manager content management system.
As part of the center's external multimedia setup, we provided one PandoPad® Outdoor kiosk made as a Photo Spot unit, and VR (virtual reality) glasses that project themed 360 ° video content. As part of the center's interior layout, we provided two PandoPad® WALL units, one that contains a variety of informative and entertaining applications while the other contains two interactive games that use a camera to control movement. A mobile application (tourist guide) has also been developed that uses AR (augmented reality) to display certain content by scanning QR codes from county tourist maps. Finally, our PandoPad® Manager system as a central place to manage all content and a large package of PandoPad® Applications were delivered.
Various fun and informative PandoPad applications
On the indoor and outdoor interactive PandoPad unit, the visitor can see photo galleries of Zagorje, watch video stories, browse brochures, or even play games with Zagorje motifs. One of the games is called Geolocator, which instead of offering answers to questions in text form, requires players to answer by touching the exact position on the geo map. Tourists can also send an e-card (electronic postcards) and take selfies with background motifs of Zagorje in front of the tourist information center.
Movement detection games
Inside the center, there is also a PandoPad unit that features two interactive games that use a Kinect camera. Kinect camera recognizes the movements of visitors, and provides a fun way to play games with Zagorje motifs and history. Visitors thus have the opportunity to save Veronika Desinićka from an unfortunate fate and thus learn all about the famous legend through the game. The second game, "Fairy Tale in the Palm of Your Hand", introduces visitors to the heritage motifs of Zagorje.
VR virtual cycling
One of the interesting multimedia solutions is a virtual bicycle ride, which is placed in front of the center, where visitors can find a bicycle model with VR glasses. With the virtual ride, we provided visitors with a unique way to cycle through most famous location of Zagorje using virtual reality (VR) and 360 degree videos.
The location of the tourist information center and Roses Outlet Center on the east side of the highway Zagreb – Macelj is very specific from a business standpoint. The location allows tourists to stop and visit the center when traveling, introducing them to the tourist and gastronomic offer and helping them make beautiful memories that they can share with their loved ones. By carefully considering the location, all the beauties of Krapina-Zagorje County shown through multimedia will remain in their fond memories. With this approach, we wanted to show that we understand the value of the tourist region itself, its goals, and the specificity of the location for our multimedia solutions.
Mobile Application and AR
As part of this project, a mobile application called Visit Zagorje was created, available on iOS and Android devices. The application offers information about castles and museums of Zagorje, hotels, spas, restaurants, visitor centers, sights, churches and shops. Also, the application uses AR (augmented reality) technology that allows the user to discover tourist facilities by scanning QR codes. Tourist codes can be found on interactive tourist maps that are available in various locations and can be used to obtain additional information on specific points of interest (POIs).