Tourist Information Kiosks launched for the first time in history

With the vast growth in tourism, the need for technological advancement in the tourism industry has also increased immensely and to fulfil this present need, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Development has taken a step forward, together with Intelo Networks (Pvt) Ltd., in a joint project to establish a network of digital Tourist Information Kiosks (TIKs) to provide information required by tourists.

The first TIKs were declared open to the visitors by Minister of Civil Aviation Priyankara Jayaratna yesterday at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). Rumy Jauffer, Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, participated in this official event.

The TIKs provide information via interactive touch screens in an accurate, trustworthy and timely manner. This unit will initially accommodate 10 languages: Sinhalese, Tamil, English, German, Japanese, Dutch, Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Italian. Tourists will be able to gain more information about Sri Lanka by viewing the available video content.

Apart from providing necessary information to tourists, this will facilitate the earning of extra revenue per tourist visiting the country by way of providing easy access to the products and services listed in the kiosk.

TIK is a technology-driven digital information network (displays information through electronic touch screens and LCDs) that provides precise exposure to the tourism industry, excellent returns to beneficiaries of tourism and brand awareness to consumers. The project will see the positioning of more units in key locations in and around the country such as at Tourist Information Centres of SLTPB, business centres, shopping malls, selected hotels and places with high tourist footfalls. The entire business network is automated, requiring minimum human interference.

These unique and attractive kiosks introduced for the first time to Sri Lanka have two screens to be seen in one unit.

The touch screen can be easily accessed by anyone and it will help browse through tourist-related information and products and services available according to their requirement, while the 32” LCD screen attached to it on top will play general tourist-related information and documentaries.