Leisure and Tourism Information Point Kiosks

Whether you are looking for somewhere to stay or somewhere to eat the tourist information Kiosks has all the answers on its multimedia touchscreen. The kiosks has a whole host of information about UK tourist attractions throughout Britain including many castles, museums, art galleries, stately homes, royal palaces, zoos and theme parks.

People have been cutting back on taking holidays in the face of the economic uncertainty, by cutting back they mean that fewer of us have been holidaying outside of the UK. Last year global airlines will saw a 14% drop in passenger numbers and although they expect some recovery during 2010, the prediction is that any recovery will be slow. So with more of UK residents holidaying at home added to the 32 million overseas visitors who also are expected to join us on our UK holiday this year, the UK tourism industry is in for a busy year.

Of course when you arrive at your holiday destination, you want to know information about the local attraction and events that are happening over the next couple of weeks at the surrounding pubs, clubs and other venues. Usually this information is available in hotel foyers, and holiday park receptions and at camping and caravan parks in the form of racks of leaflets and notice boards. However there is a more efficient way of presenting this information, which offers up to date information as well as multimedia functionality - The Tourist Information Kiosks.

Because the Internet enabled kiosk shows information digitally from either an attractions website or from a database and doesn't rely on hard copy leaflets, the content can be updated whenever needed. Furthermore, multiple kiosks can be updated by one central computer, which makes changes to kiosk information a very quick procedure.

Information about the Attractions
For each attraction added to the kiosk, all of the usual information can be displayed that you would expect to see - opening hours, prices, as well as information about the attraction.

Photos can also be included, with text to accompany the images.

Additionally videos can also be added to the information, a short film of maybe 3 minutes can give offer tourists a better view of what they can expect to see and do at the venue. Videos might also include testimonials of previous visitors recommending a day tip there.

Interactive Tourism Kiosk
The kiosk can help the kiosk users to select attractions that might appeal to them. The users are asked a series of question, such as - Do you have Children, how old are the children, do you want venues of educational interest, animal interest, do you enjoy active days out, and so on. From the kiosk user responses, the kiosk selects day trips, venues and events that would suit their criteria and displays this information on the screen.

When users have found day trips that maybe of interest to them, they can print off the necessary information of how to get there. This can be in the form of a map or a complete route from where the kiosk is to the tourist attraction.

Event Alerts
One event that are advertised on the kiosk, a quiz night at the local pub on Thursday night at 7pm, for example, can be sent as an alert or event reminder to the users mobile phone.

When the user is browsing the kiosk events, there is an opportunity to flag events that they might want to participate in. Once the user has flagged the event they are asked to give their mobile phone number, their name and accommodation number, and on the day of the event, the kiosks sends a reminder to their mobile phone. This is a great way of reminding visitors of event that may interest them. It ensure that they have the opportunity to make use of all the facilities available to them and to have an enjoyable holiday, and it also helps to ensure maximum turnout at any functions.

Tourist Information Kiosks can be a way of getting information to holidaymakers. Tourism Kiosks can also be useful to people with disabilities, including people who are hard of hearing and the visually impaired.

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Hospitality Kiosks are ideal for greeting visitors in Hotels, on Cruse Ships, Resorts, Timeshares, Conference Centres, Spa Hotels and Holiday Parks.

Self-service interactive kiosks in a hotel are a great way of giving customers or would be customers up to the minute information about the hotel and the facilities available, without the cluttered look of notice boards and signs. Additionally a hospitality or Hotel kiosk can greet your visitors and sign them in, as well as updating their information or preferences.

Most members of the public are already familiar and comfortable with interacting with self-serve kiosks, and for some people they find that being greeted by a hospitality kiosk as all part of the experience of staying in a hotel with up to the minute technology.

The location of the kiosk is key. The kiosk wants to be clearly visible to visitors as they enter the hotel, so that the kiosks can greet the new arrivals. However the kiosk doesn't want to be too far from the entrance, so that passers by can use the kiosk to gain information about the hotels room rates, the restaurants menu, and the hotels entertainment or spa and beauty treatments.

For hoteliers, a hospitality kiosk provides a solution to staffing shortages and speeds up check in on arrival times. With a hospitality kiosk taking some of the strain during busy periods, this enables the staff to work more efficiently and effectively and provides visitors with a more enjoyable stay.

A kiosk in the hotel also provides value for money for the visitors, because they are able to access lots of information that the hotel has provided for them. This of course, in turn draws their attention to other facilities available at the hotel, which means that that the hotel can cross sell more services by raising visitor awareness.

Offering great customer service to visitors, as you will be aware increase customer loyalty. Visitors like to return to venues that provide value for money and where they feel they have received exceptional service. So many venues simply offer a room, restaurant and have a foyer with a stand of 'places to visit' leaflets but with a kiosk they could dramatically offer more customer service and increase their visitor's experience.
The information provided by the kiosk could include...
Arrivals queuing and Check in

Booking a taxi and find other travel information

What's on at the restaurants Menu?

Book a table at the Restaurant

Find out about the venues entertainment

Find out about local entertainment in the vicinity

City Maps

What are the room rates?

What sports, spa and beauty facilities are available?

Provide customer service feedback forms

Sponsorship - local companies can sponsor advertising space on kiosks

The hospitality kiosks can be kept up to date remotely, that means that the software to update the kiosks is accessed from a computer, which interacts with the kiosks wirelessly to update their information. If you have multiple kiosks, they will all be updated together and not individually. Because at a click of a mouse the new information and content will update the kiosks 'in house', there are no ongoing costs to maintain the information on the kiosk, making them very cost effective. Additionally training is given to those members of staff who will be responsible to maintaining and updating the kiosk's information point.

Information access kiosks are on their way to a hotel near you!

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At visitor's centres the public expects to find some information about the attraction or local area, this might be information about park, museum, railway, or other venues of local interest where people are invited to visit. The visitors centres need to display information about opening times, entrance fees and discounts, what can be seen at the venue and times of mini exhibitions or demonstrations etc, information about other places of local interest, and so on. To have all this information attached to a notice board is not the most attractive way to display the information and can't always be seen out of hours. A kiosk for Visitor's Centres offers a solution for displaying information to the public and gives additional benefits.

Displaying information
A kiosk can have multiple pages like a website, and can provide unlimited space to display all the information that the visitors may want to know about. Not only that, but the kiosk can record which information has been viewed and include statistics on the most popularly viewed information. Enabling an insight to the visitors to your venue and their interests.
Kiosk Bookings
The kiosks could take bookings and payments for entrance to the attraction and provide a fast track entrance. Kiosks on the entrance would help with busy times without the cost of recruitment and training of new staff.

As well as taking payments for entrance, the kiosks could also ask the visitor to 'gift aid' the payment and collect the information onscreen. The kiosks would always offer the visitor the opportunity to 'gift aid' and wouldn't forget as might be the case with newly recruited staff.

Kiosks bookings might also extend to the visitors booking a table for dinner at an on site restaurant or booking a boat for the boating lake for example. Making visitors aware of other facilities on site and taking maximum revenue and boosting profits.

Digital Signage
A kiosk, which isn't currently being operated, doesn't sit idle. As computers have screen savers that kick in after a specific time has lapsed, the internet kiosk has a set of advertisements that it can run whilst it is waiting for the next user.

The advertisements might be of attractions at the venue, or up and coming day events at the venue, visitors saving if they book events or if they buy a family ticket and alike.

However the kiosks could also have paid advertising from other local attractions and venues which would give a secondary income.
Out of hours the 'shop window' can become the kiosk. By using thru-glass touch screen technology windows can be transformed into huge interactive advertising boards where the kiosk can run its advertising set, or can be accessed as the in-house kiosk providing information about what is available at the venue.

Guest Books and Special Visitor Messages
The kiosks can also offer visitors the opportunity to write a message about their day at the attraction in the onscreen Kiosk. The guest book works as a great testimony tool to would-be visitors and their comments can be used in other marketing materials - in leaflets or on a website.
As a special functionality, the kiosk could take a photo of the kiosks users and they could select a backdrop to superimpose their image on to send it as a digital postcard to their friends and family. This would not only be a special functionality for visitors, but would also provide the opportunity for email capture and advertising the venue to third parties.

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Churches and other religious societies are mini communities and as such they often have a lot of activity, and many events happening at one time. A notice board is often not big enough to highlight all the functions on offer, this is where a Kiosks in a church or other religious buildings can provide the space to advertise all of the events that the community can get involved in.

Church Information Point
The information point can be easily updated whenever there is new information that needs adding. Unlike a conventional notice board, you never run out of space. Additionally when an event or news has lapsed, the kiosk automatically removes the posting, so you are not showing out of date information.

Church Tourism
Because the kiosk can be accessed by anyone who visits the location, the kiosks can offer information about visiting access to tourists who wish to visit the building.

This might include tour guide times.

Opening hours for visits.

Interesting information about the building or artefacts.

A printable information sheet for people to read as they walk around. A Children's print out is popular with information about the church, special things to look out for on the visit, as well as quizzes and puzzles.

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Kiosks for Museums and Galleries
Touchscreen kiosks are an excellent solution for making your museum or gallery into an interactive experience. Our touchscreen kiosks are available in a range of sizes and can be fully customised with your logos and other images.

Kiosks for Museums
In Museums, touch screen kiosks can be used to help make your exibits come alive with interactive tours, exaplanations and links to other learning materials. Touch screen museum kiosks enable you to expand the range of exhibits with photographs of related items and short video clips.

Kiosks for Art Galleries
Touch screen kiosks in Art Galleries can be used to show information about art history, information about the artists and related stories. The art gallery kiosks can show close-up images of sculptures and other art and help to inform and educate your visitors.
Environmental Monitoring for Musems and Galleries
Kiosks4business is a division of Sequoia Technology Ltd and one of our other divisions - SensorMetrix has a great range of products for environmental monitoring for museums and art galleries. The environmental monitoring products can measure temperature, humidity, light levels and be used to data-log values or to trigger alarms. The environmental monitoring products can also turn on/off external heaters and humidifiers in order to create an environmentally controlled space for your museum and gallery exhibits.

Security Monitoring for Museums
Whilst environmental monitoring will help preserve the condidition of your Museum and Art Gallery exhibits, what about security against theft or vandalism?

Our environmental monitoring technologies connect seemlessly with door, tilt and movement sensors and can even operate electronic locks. The electronic locking checks that the enclosure has been closed and locked and alerts the operator when the door is opened.

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Touchscreen kiosks, now a familiar sight in supermarkets, train stations and many other locations, are now ready to be used by Zoos to educate and inform your visitors.

Touchscreen kiosks can be used in Zoos to enhance the visitor experience and provide access to a vast range of information relating to the animals on view. The Zoo Kiosks can provide much more background detail that posters and can also include video clips of the animals in their natural habitat. Further, the Zoo Kiosks can be used to show extinct animals or to inform the visitor about wildlife conservation, the planet and how global warming may affect adminals and ourselves.

The touchscreen Zoo Kiosks can be branded to suit each of the locations within the Zoo and each kiosk can have information specific to that location whilst still linking to information relating to all animals.

By using a touchscreen in a Zoo young people can find out enteraining images and videos used to educate them. The Kiosks in the Zoo could be linked together such that small children can obtain clues as they use each machine and take their journey around the Zoo.

The Zoo kiosks are not restricted to their use in enclosures but can also be placed in retail outlets and dining rooms. The Zoo kiosks can be positioned at the entrance to the Zoo also such that people can access information while waiting. Additionally, the Zoo Kiosks could be used for your visitors to make a donation or leave feedback on their experience at the Zoo.

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It is Important in a museum to get the information over to the audience both to educate and develop interes. With today's internet generation, the best way to deliver information to them is in a technology rich way, with the aid of a multimedia kiosk. A multimedia kiosk means that it can play multiple applications, so it can be an interactive kiosk, which can also play audio and videos - all the ingredients you need to achieve an exciting information kiosk to teach people about the exhibits in the museum.

In recent years, free to enter tourist attractions, which is very often our cities museums have seen an increase in the number of visitors through their doors. National Gallery for example saw it's visitors increase by 9% to 4.78m visitors and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich saw an increase of 15% and welcomed 2.37m visitors during 2009.

Museum kiosks have helped to provide a more enjoyable museum learning experience and so have helped museums to provide the 'Value for Money' that visitors are expecting.

Read more about Museum Information Kiosks...

Our new e-leaflet module can be added to the information point kiosk to provide your users with always up to date leaflets and other documents. The touch screen e-leaflet module works in a similar way to an online shopping basket whereby users can view the document and touch a button to add it to their basket. Once they have the various forms and other documentation of interest the user is requested to enter their email address. The e-leaflet module then automatically creates one or more emails with the documents attached which is sent to the user.

Our new e-leaflet module is intuitive and can be branded to fit with your organization. Leaflets can be organized by category and documents including pdf, word, xl and many others can be provided. The e-leaflet module can provide leaflets in a number of different languages to satisfy the need to serve various nationalities.

The e-leaflet module is provided as a module within the information point touchscreen software and administration of the system is all done online. Having entered your username and password you can then upload the leaflets and other documentation which you would like to be made accessible to your users. Our real-time reporting system can provide you with a continuously updated record showing which documents have been accessed by your users.

The e-leaflet module deals effectively with what appears as a visual overload of information presented to clients as they enter your building. The leaflets are always up to date so no need to weed-out the old leaflets.

If you would like to find out more information about using our e-leaflets module please give us a call.

Multilingual kiosks are programmed with a software interface designed to provide information to the public in multiple languages. Once the kiosk has been loaded with multilingual software, the user can select which language the kiosk should display for that session. Multilingual touchscreen kiosks are already successfully being used by Welsh Councils where it is required that information is provided in both English and Welsh. However, touchscreen kiosks can be set up to communicate with users in any language that is needed. In today's multicultural society, multilingual information kiosks are growing in popularity as a way of delivering information in many languages.

Multilingual kiosks are ideal for communities where the mother tongue isn't necessarily English. A Sikh temple for example may want to install an information kiosk that defaults to displaying information in Punjabi the predominant language of the Sikh community. But in addition to Punjabi, they may also want to display information in other languages to cater for visitors to the temple.

The United Kingdom is a popular holiday destination for visitors from other countries who wish to access tourist information about our local heritage and places of interest to visit. However, most tourism leaflets are written in English which isn't helpful to holiday makers who speak limited English. A multilingual tourism kiosk can provide information about local attractions in the preferred language of the kiosks user. Obviously this provides excellent customer service, but it also enhances local tourism and the local economy. Touch screen kiosks enable non-English speaking visitors to access tourism information in a language they understand and because of this the holidaymakers visit more attractions. In a similar vein, airports are looking to install multilingual kiosks to provide information to travellers.

Who are Kiosks4Business?
As an operating division of Sequoia Technology Limited, a small to medium sized business based in Reading, kiosks4business was created to public access computing solutions for local authorities and public organisations. We have built and installed Parent Information Point systems in more than 15 councils across the UK and hundreds of other systems into automotive dealerships and other applications.

References
Our products are installed in many councils including: Bournemouth, Cumbria, Flintshire, Kirklees, Wrexham, Oldham and many others. Many are keen to act as referees of our products and services, and we'll happily put you in touch with them if you require this.

What next?
If you would like to find out more about how kiosks4business systems can help you deliver your services then please call us today on 0845 451 2020 or visit our website - www.Kiosks4Business.com