With regards your article on tourism in the most recent edition of MyCity Logan (April 12-18), I believe the primary drivers of visiting other areas are food, experiences, nature and people.
Food
There was a website (can’t find it anymore), that showed a map, very basic, however, it showed as a solid red colour where a tourist spot was. It then identified what each building was. You could very quickly see all the best places to visit without other information in the way.
This could work for restaurants and other places in Logan. You select an area in a list, up comes a map just showing the restaurants, then on the side it has information with a link to a menu, opening times etc. Google maps is great, but it doesn’t highlight one type of destination very well I.e. restaurants and when the map is zoomed out, you may not see a place, even when you zoom in it doesn’t always show places.
This could be part of a larger combined website or app. I would like to sign up to a place where I can mark places I have been, rate them, then it can suggest new places to visit. This can cover food, experiences, bush walks etc.
Experiences
Things like wave pools, indoor skiing, history tours etc all have the potential to bring people to Logan. There’s the Aussie Outback Experience, Top Golf, Indoor skydiving, unique mini-golf etc as examples of experiences that bring people from far and wide.
Nature
As part of a website or app, I would love to have a more detailed grading of walks where I can start off small, and then increase the difficulty. This can be part of training yourself to bigger and better challenges. If it tracks your progress, then makes suggestions, it drives visiting other areas.
People
Stories are what makes a person interesting. I’ve heard that in libraries, you can book out people instead of books. They will sit with you and just tell you their stories. This could be a pop up thing to bring people out to hear a story or just have someone to talk to.
Darren Crabtree,
via email.
