Gifu prefecture is using Sekai Camera as its tourism campaign. It already has posted more than thousand AirTags, and is going to post 3500 AirTags till the end of 2009.
This is a report of  how Gifu, famous for its scenic beauty of old hometowns, is promoting tourism with AirTags.

With enterprise AR solution “Sekai Camera eX”, Gifu prefectural government is posting AirTags at Gifu from web browsers. The posted AirTags are displayed as Authorized Tags.

Although there are many Airtags in Shirakawa-Go, a world heritage site, Takayama city’s AirTags outnumber those of Shirakawa-Go.
If you see along the old town of Takayama with Sekai Camera, you’ll see many authorized tags displaying information of hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.

At famous cherry trees, we enjoyed watching beautiful fall colors as well as pictures of cherry blossom. Sekai Camera enables you to see how things look at other seasons.

Takayama is hosting quiz rallies called “iPhone walking route”, lending iPhone till the end of November. For more detailed information, check the free magazine,“Hidachi Magazine 2009 Fall”, offered at souvenir shops around Takayama station.

These quiz rallies are intended to expand tourists’ traffic stream, which tends to focus on certain areas, to the whole city. By expanding the traffics, Gifu effectively uses its tourism resources as well as convey its attractions, not only which are shown in the guidebooks.

When we walked the street with old merchant houses, we found many AirTags posted by tourists in addition to Authorized Tags. We could not actually visit observatory at Shirakawa-Go, yet, at the national road, we found pictures of its famous houses with steep rafter roofs taken from the hill.

With AirTags posted by tourists and Authorized Tags that are augmenting Gifu’s tourism , Gifu’s attempt has been unique case of Consumer Generated Media in tourism.

Bring your Sekai Camera with you when you visit Takayama!

■iPhone walking route in Takayama
http://mobilecore.net/iphonejuku/take-a-walk-in-takayama/