• Archives of design research
• /
• v.20 no.3 s.71
• /
• pp.151-162
• /
• 2007

How can new media devices and networks provide an effective response to the world's growing sector of cultural and historically-minded travelers? This study emerged from the question of how mobile handsets can change the nature of cultural and historical tourism in ubiquitous city environments. As wireless network and mobile IT have rapidly developed, it becomes possible to deliver cultural and historical information on the site through mobile handset as a tour guidance system. The paper describes the development of a new type of mobile tourism platform for site-specific cultural and historical information. The central objective of the project was to organize this cultural and historical walking tour around the mobile handset and its unique advantages (i.e. portability, multi-media capacity, access to wireless internet, and location-awareness potential) and then integrate the tour with a historical story and role-playing game that would deepen the mobile user's interest in the sites being visited, and enhance his or her overall experience of the area. The project was based on twelve locations that were culturally and historically significant to Korean War era in Busan. After the mobile tour game prototype was developed for this route, it was evaluated at the 10th PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival). After use test, some new strategies for developing mobile "edutainment content" to deliver cultural historical contents of the location were discussed. Combining 'edutainment' with a cultural and historical mobile walking tour brings a new dimension to existing approaches of the tourism and mobile content industry.