Innovative Mobile Tourism Services: The Case of ‘Greek at the Hotel’

Mobile services have become an essential tool for the tourism industry. Today’s tourists expect to get personalized access to information anytime, anywhere and in real time. Mobile technologies can fulfill their expectations and support them before, during and after their trip. In the hotel industry there are apps advertising services and experiences, the hotel can offer guests including restaurants, bars and discos, planned daily or weekly activities (tours, cooking, traditional dancing lessons etc.). The smart ‘hotel of the future’ can be a place where guests get access to information whenever and wherever they need it, through context-aware mobile applications that can enhance user experience via beacons and digital signage technologies. This paper highlights the added value that mobile applications can bring to hotel services. ‘Greek at the hotel’ is an example of a Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) app developed for tourists, offering ‘hotel-specific’ language material in Greek. It can be customized for each hotel and enriched with photographic material from all the premises so that guests can get familiarized with the hotel even before their arrival in the country. The content is translated in English and other support languages can be added upon request. The innovative feature of this app lays in the fact that users can access language material in real time by getting notifications to their smart device once they are inside or outside the premises with the help of beacons.