Mobile Applications for Cultural Tourism – Past, Present, and Future. Criteria for a Successful Mobile App

Abstract

This publication presents a prototype of a mobile application for cultural tourism. Its main goal is to provide information about tourist sites in a city with a rich historical past and deeprooted traditions, catering to the needs and preferences of contemporary users in terms of functionality and user-friendliness. The paper analyzes contemporary Bulgarian and foreign mobile applications for cultural tourism, emphasizing their advantages over similar applications that were active in the recent past. These advantages include availability, interactivity, and an enhanced user experience. The purpose of the paper is to develop and promote a mobile application that will meet the needs of tourists. The methodology for designing the prototype includes a review and comparative analysis of mobile applications that existed a decade ago, as well as current applications in this field in 2023. Both local applications for Bulgaria and international applications for the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Hungary, and Spain were studied. The study focused on usability and other key characteristics that are similar to the functionality of the developed application. Weaknesses of some of the analyzed applications and problems avoided in the proposed prototype are indicated. The paper also presents the primary features of the developed application, such as its user-friendliness, speed of operation, intuitive design, and easy access to tourist and cultural sites. In the future, with the introduction of various mobile applications in this field, it is expected that users will be greatly facilitated in their search for up-to-date information on cultural and historical sites around the world.