engleski

Development of mobile marketing in Croatian tourism using location-based services

People spend more time on their mobile phones than ever before. In 2014, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage ; last statistical measurements show that over 1 billion of the world’s 4+ billion mobiles phones are now Smartphone’s. In last few years the development of mobile device technology has influenced and changed the forms of advertising in general terms. The combination of Smartphone devices and use of GPS technology has inspired business entities to create new trends in the Smartphone consumer market and has established a new industry in Smartphone applications. Because of increasing of use of mobile phones, tourists can easily get information of their destination. Of tourism operators are expected to use the information received from consumers and attract consumers to the destination. Nowadays tourists voluntarily share information of their location, using applications on their Smartphone device. If a business entity wants to offer its product or service to the target market they are able to use a location-based service, a software application for Smartphone devices which detects where is mobile device located. Such applications provide users with useful information depending of their geographical position. The most popular applications among Smartphone owners, reach hundreds of thousands of users. Not only do these services let users to share their location with friends, they also bring a social element to the table. Most popular location-based services are apps like Facebook Places, followed by Google Latitude, Gowalla and probably the best-known dedicated location-based service, Foursquare. Users can check in to cafés, bars, restaurants, parks, and pretty much anyplace else. Once their friends know where they are, they can recommend that places. The special interest of authors will be focused on exploring the role and potential of using applications in tourism The aim of the paper is to give an overview and importance of using location-based services for promotion, that allow small to medium size tourist operators, to attract consumers using technology that's checking millions of users in to local businesses.

Location; applications; Smartphone devices; Foursquare.

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