Missouri Expeditions

Heritage Tourism Using GIS on Smartphones to Drive Economic Development

John Deis

Missouri Expeditions was: • Conceived in frustration

– Limited resources in a rural county to develop sustained tourism • Designed in desperation

– Clock is ticking on opportunities to develop and differentiate in the mobile market

• Partnered in concern – Grant funding for humanities and arts projects is at risk as

federal and state funding sources are cut – The Missouri Humanities Council funded this project as a hedge

to protect their future • Developed by team

– Could not have developed Missouri Expeditions without Esri’s Rent a Tech Services (RATS)

Heritage Tourism “Heritage tourism encompasses elements of living culture, history, and natural history of place that communities value and steward for the future. These elements are very specific to a community or region and can contribute to pride, stability, growth, and economic development. Heritage and culture are especially critical in rural settings.”

The Heritage Tourism Initiative Core Team of the University of Michigan Science and Culture Museum

STEM, Meet the Humanities

How can GIS connect Heritage Tourism with Economic Development?

• Connect place with heritage • Provide a platform for media specific to the

heritage at that place • Provide a platform for intriguing questions

and challenges that are rewarded • Connect economic development through the

reward system – businesses provide rewards

Missouri Expeditions is: • An Android and iOS app

– Uses native operating systems to use phone features – More OS’s to come later

• Based in ArcGIS OnLine (AGOL) – AGOL provides GPS/GIS services and features

• Triggered by location – The user must be at a selected location (a point), which determines

the story and actions – Place-based experiences delivered via short videos

• A hierarchical database – Database contains the content location, challenges and rewards – Expeditions (domain), sites (collections of like types) and GPS points

for stories and challenges (types via media)

Gamification – What Is It?

• Gamification is the use of elements of game play in non-game contexts

• It provides rewards and engagement for users

How Gamification Works

5 Common Mechanics • Points

– Measure a user’s achievements in relationship to others

• Badges – Reward achievements visually

• Levels – Encourage users to progress

and unlock new rewards • Leaderboards

– Organize players by rank • Challenges

– Encourage engagement by offering tasks to complete

Four Main Ways to Drive Engagement

• Accelerate feedback cycles • Clear goals and rules of play • A compelling narrative • Challenging but achievable

tasks

Missouri Expeditions Parts List

• ArcGIS Online • ArcGIS JavaScript API • ArcGIS SDK for iOS • ArcGIS SDK for Android • ArcGIS Desktop for data modeling

US Smartphone Users and Mobile Market Penetration

0

50

100

150

200

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

47.7% 55.5% 62.5% 68.8% 74.1%

115.8 137.5 157.7 176.3 192.4

% smartphone users ofthe mobile marketNumber of smartphoneusers (Millions)

Source: Emarketer, April 2012

Missouri Expeditions, the app

Expeditions and Sites

Points of Interests and Challenges

Sample Site Video

Challenges

Native OS Tools Integrated Into Challenge Constructs

The Web “Backend”

Building Challenges

Building Challenges

The Team

Next Steps

• Testing in Hannibal • Seek additional funding through grants and

sponsorships for developing enhancements and future releases

• Start the roll-out • Start including advertisers to support

economic development • Plan next releases

Contact

• Twitter handle - @MOExpeditions • Facebook – Missouri Expeditions • Email – MissouriExpeditions@gmail.com• Just me – jdeis1@yahoo.com • www.mohumanities.org