Background

The Golden Quest Discovery Trail (one of Australia’s most popular adventure drive trails) was launched in 2003. It’s nearly 1,000kms long, has 25 official sites and intimately explores the evolution of Western Australia’s legendary Goldfields.

Neil and Liz from the Goldfields Tourism Network wanted to find another way to encourage tourists (and locals) to explore the remote Goldfields region, bring more people into the communities, support local business and educate people on the remarkable history of the towns and sites.

Solution

With a website and printed guidebooks already available, it was decided a mobile app was needed to complement the existing information. An important part of the decision to fund and produce the app is that it works offline. So, information is available even when there is no internet coverage (as long as the app has been downloaded previously).

Users are  able to find, search, track and read information about the sites all at a touch of the finger on their smartphone.

A handy feature in the app is the ability to register your trip for safety purposes. You add in your details, the number of passengers, start and end points, date and emergency contact and with GPS tracking, the Goldfields Tourism Network can check that you arrived at your end destination. Or pinpoint your last destination if there are any concerns that your party has gone missing.

App features include:

• Real-time GPS: track your location on a map at all times
• Trail Notes that describes the road journey between each site
• Features Stories that are relevant to each site
• Four Sectional Trail Maps that detail each section of the trail journey
• Services: Find a meal, accommodation, shopping, fuel or Visitor Centres nearby
• Trail Audio files that complement the information at the stopping points along the Trail