Tasmanian tech project tourist tracker gets funding nod

Tracker to gather data on tourist choices

Among the other Sense-T ideas being funded is the Sensing Tourist Travel project, in which 600 tourists will be given free mobile internet access in exchange for information about their holidays to help target tourism marketing and investment.

Real-time sensor data will track the tourists as they move around Tasmania.

The data will provide the tourism industry and government with insights into the choices visitors make in terms of destinations and accommodation.

"We're going to be using mobile phones which have GPS apps on them and we're going to be following tourists as they move around the state," University of Tasmania tourism researcher Anne Hardy said.

A new focus on improving productivity in Tasmanian freight, logistics and supply chains was also announced.

Sense-T is partnering with Australia's Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence (NICTA) to form a $2 million lab at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

It will focus on developing efficiencies in transport, freight and logistics in the private and public sectors. 

Source : ABC News    Selina Ross     4th May 2015