Is there an app for every budget?
by Jennifer J. Salopek
 The great thing about mobile applications is anyone with a developer’s license can create one. The bad thing about mobile applications is anyone with a developer’s license can create one.
Amusement parks and attractions have broad appeal to the travel and tourism industry, particularly to enthusiasts. If you don’t develop a proprietary mobile app, chances are some enterprising amateur will develop an unofficial version.
Not every attraction is fortunate enough to employ someone like Noah Meister, vice president for information technology at Boyne Resorts, a family-owned, Michigan based corporation that owns several ski resorts, an indoor waterpark, and the Sky Lift in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and employs 7,000 people. “I was excited about the iPhone and the apps for it. I thought it would be cool to build an app for Boyne,” Meister says. He purchased a MacBook Pro and a developer’s license and got to work.
Once Meister had a prototype, he brought it to Boyne’s president and marketing director. The app is now an elegant way to get to Boyne’s mobile websites; it integrates with Google Maps and social media.
The folks at the Melbourne Aquarium began discussing a mobile app last summer. “Our timing was great, just as the iPad and the iPhone 4 were being released,” says Shaun Scanlan, digital marketing coordinator. The aquarium staff knew they wanted to develop a true functional app that would enhance the visitor experience.
Kermit Weeks, founder and creator of Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida, took a different tack. Rather than developing a functional app, he created an interactive game, “Gee Bee the Little Racer and Friends.” The game features animated characters based on the aircraft in Weeks’ collection, the largest private collection in the world. “The game helps to extend our product line that started with a children’s book, and provides a soft sell for the attraction,” Weeks says.
“An interactive game permits the engagement of younger visitors,” notes Dominic Carola, creative director and president of Orlando-based Premise Entertainment, which developed the game. Carola, a former Disney animator, advocates a storytelling approach that converts your brand assets into characters who can tell your attraction’s story.
Ease of development and standardized technology have brought custom mobile apps within reach of small and midsized attractions. Weeks spent $20,000 on his game, while Scanlan admits to a budget “in the thousands.” For attractions not ready or willing to invest in a totally custom solution, Resort Technology Partners in Denver launched Realparx In November, a platform that facilitates the development of customized apps.
“The single biggest topic of conversation we have with our clients is, ‘How do we get involved in mobile?’” says Michael McDermott, senior vice president of marketing and sales at RTP; the company has been developing mobile apps for about three years. Realparx not only allows the usual navigational and informational features of an app; it includes “augmented reality” features that leverage the iPhone’s compass, camera, GPS, and accelerometer in an interface reminiscent of MTV’s “Pop-Up Video.”
Key to a successful project, says Daniel Gorog, CEO of Australia-based Outware Mobile, is deciding at the outset what you want the app to do; for example, is it for driving sales or a tool to be used by visitors? “Decide on the platform based on the market,” he says. “In Australia, the iPhone is the prevalent smartphone. It is the easiest to develop for, and users understand how to download the apps.”
Don’t let amateurs highjack your message. “Unofficial apps represent only one person’s perspective. Maintaining control through a proprietary app is accurate and integrates with marketing and sales strategies,” McDermott says.
But amateurs don’t bother Meister—perhaps because he began his project in a similar way. “Unofficial apps are still exposure for the resorts,” he says philosophically.
Jennifer J. Salopek is a freelance writer in McLean, Virginia. She can be reached at jjsalopek@cox.net.
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