Press Release

Year

City of Kobe launches multi-lingual travel app "KOBE Official Travel Guide by NAVITIME"

―Tourism information also to be provided as open data ―

Objective◆
     Foreign tourists to Kobe are increasing yearly, with an estimated 740 thousand visitors in 2014 - up 34.5% from 550 thousand visitors in 2013. In order to enhance the visitor's tourism experience, the City of Kobe is launching a smartphone app that will provide navigation and information that ranks high in tourists' needs, including free wi-fi hotspots, ATM, and tax-free shops.
     Navigation technology will be provided by NAVITIME JAPAN, who will utilize the information provided by the City of Kobe, and together will aim to provide a safe and pleasurable tourism experience for the foreign visitors.
     Tourism information will also be provided as open data, which will allow various web and application to utilize the information.

◆Overview of "KOBE Official Travel Guide by NAVITIME"
 ・Launch date   :March 30, 2015
 ・OS   :iOS、Android OS
 ・Price           :Free
 ・Main features:Show KOBE Free Wi-Fi spot, station, tourist spots, tax-free shops, and information centers on map;                                       provide offline navigation from current position to the selected spot(*1) 
 ・Language      : Chinese (simplified/traditional), English, Japanese, Korean
                                 (Spot information currently available in English and Japanese only)
 ・Download URL
            iOS             : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id974374642

※1: Many applications require network connection to use; however, this app supports searches and navigation offline-based on the recognition that network connection is a problem many foreign visitors.

アプリ画像イメージ.jpg

◆Aggregation of tourism information and providing as open data
     Various tourism information, such as event information, sightseeing spots, and hotels, will be aggregated and provided as open data by the City of Kobe. The information will be provided through official websites and apps provided by third parties, and will also work together with the public cloud project initiated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications so that it will be widely available.

City of Kobe open data.jpg

◆Future roadmap of app
・Enhancing contents
       Provide updates, such as event information
・Adding transit search feature
       Offline search for frequently-searched transit routes by tourists
・Coupons
     With cooperation from businesses in Kobe, the app will add feature to  provide coupons

Other features will also be considered, based on user feedback.


神戸路線図_プレス用アイコン付き.png     coupons (Kobe).jpg