Egyptian World Heritage Site set up Mobile Portal on Windows Azure

As part of the real world Windows http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13357.html ">azure series, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in Egypt, We contacted the provincial development consultant, Wafaa Hassa, to explore how the company built a Luxor mobile portal on Windowsazure to enable visitors to perform virtual tours and location-based services for historical sites in Luxor. In Egypt, MCIT works with public entities to help introduce new technologies and develop new business models that can reproduce the entire Egyptian society. Here to read the success story of Luxor City. Read about what he's going to say.

Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about the Luxor city tour.

Wafaa Hassan:luxor is a modern metropolis with about 500,000 people in the capital Luxor province. Luxor is also home to the United Nations World Heritage Thebes ancient city, including temple buildings in Karnak and Luxor, the West Bank Necropolis on the Nile, the Valley of Kings and Queens, and about 12,000 daily. Visitors come to visit what is known as the world's great open-air museum.

Tourism is an important part of the urban economy, producing e£400 million (66 million dollars) of income each year. We want to encourage people from all over the world to visit Luxor temples, tombs, and other historical monuments, and to make it more available to visitors from this experience. In modern cities, to support local tourism and upgrade recreational facilities, Luxor also needs to help tourists find guides, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, transportation and important services.

HKS: Why do you develop mobile applications?

Wh:luxor is an important cultural relic and an international tourist destination. We need to provide foreign visitors with the information and services they need, and serve the people who work and live in Luxor. In the 2011, Egypt entered a period of extensive social change, albeit largely positive, but Egypt's tourism revenues have fallen by nearly 75%. Observers noted the role of new technologies, such as social media, smartphones and other mobile devices, in the country's transition. We want to use the power of these technologies to get visitors back to Luxor.

HKS: Tell me about Luxor mobile portal.

WH: We started working with the Cairo independent software provider Tagipedia to develop Luxor mobile portal. Now visitors to Luxor can use smartphones running on Windows Phone 7 operating systems to scan fast-response (QR) tags that are installed around ruins sites, visitor centers, and other Luxor. QR tags activate virtual tours of specific sites, including text, images, sounds, and video. When visitors scan the Luxor Mobile portal in a temple or other site for QR tags, they can take a virtual tour of the site and follow the links to relevant monuments. They can also search the portal for historical materials or information about guides, accommodations, restaurants, banks and ATM locations through our instant links to corporate and organizational functions or via phone calls.

HKS: Why is Windows Azure suitable for this solution?

WH: The Luxor Mobile Portal We originally supported comes with a dedicated cloud environment and Windows Azure. Scalable Windows Azure is a key benefit; the seasonal increase in tourism and the reduction in the use of applications directly affect application requirements, so we quickly decided to use Windows Azure Management Luxor Mobile Portal alone. Portals use Windows Azure Blob Storage and Windows Azure SQL databases to store and manage data. When the user scans the QR code, the Tagipedia technology that is hosted on Windows Azure identifies the associated code, or runs a program from within Tagipedia-like the Luxor Mobile portal-or allows users to download applications from another source.

For Luxor Mobile Portals, Tagipedia manages Windows Azure infrastructure and runs analysis tools to monitor applications, estimate travel levels or evaluate marketing campaigns, and send reports to Luxor. If a new account or other service is opened on the Luxor, city workers can easily add information to Luxor Web sites and mobile portals with a single update, saving a lot of time.

HKS: How can mobile apps help tourists?

WH: Using mobile portals, we can provide more experience to Luxor visitors. It's like a guide in your hands. Once visitors are Luxor, they can use a single mobile application to fully experience some of the most important historical sites on Earth, find the roads around Luxor, eat a meal, and even book a hotel.

HKS: What kind of results will you see with the Luxor Mobile portal?

Wh:luxor Mobile Portal, we have helped support the most important aspect of the Luxor economy, enhancing the ability of Luxor to serve tourists and local businesses. Luxor can also track and analyze its marketing activities, so it can more effectively promote its historical sites.

In July 2012, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities wanted to deploy similar portals elsewhere in Egypt, and South Sinai was interested in the portal's ability to promote its beaches, activities and tourist destinations.

HKS: What will you do next?

WH: With the expansion of the mobile portal, Luxor can involve other sites, resorts, or regional events such as hot-air balloon travel or photographic hunting. In addition, and as Egypt's political situation stabilizes and tourism increases, in other cities we can easily extend Windows Azure and replicate the success of the Luxor Mobile portal.