Digital Tourism campaign wins Anvil Award

ANVIL AWARD. Members of the Digital Tourism team receive their Anvil Award of Merit during the 49th Anvil Awards last Feb. 26 at the Solaire Resort and Casino. Receiving the award are co-founders Max Limpag (5th from left) and Marlen Limpag (4th from left) for InnoPub Media and public affairs department head Sally Aldaba (3rd from left), VisMin public affairs senior manager Atty. Maria Jane C. Paredes (6th from left) and NN Navarro (4th from right), Lourdes Gocotano (3rd from right) and Monica Tejada (2nd from right) of Smart Communications, Inc. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

A nationwide program that seeks to harness mobile technology to deliver tourism and historical information was recognized with an Anvil Award of Merit during the 49th Anvil Awards last Feb. 26 at the Solaire Resort and Casino.

The Anvil Awards recognized the Digital Tourism campaign of telecommunications leader Smart Communications, Inc. and Cebu-based new media startup InnoPub Media with an Anvil Award of Merit for programs “on a sustained basis” in Arts & Culture, Heritage and Tourism.

The award cited the program for “harnessing technology to deliver accurate, timely and relevant tourism, historical and heritage information to mobile users thereby boosting the country’s tourism industry.”

Digital Tourism has several components, including the production of e-books and mobile phone apps to serve as tourism guides and the putting up of interactive tourism markers that use quick response or QR codes and near-field communications or NFC to deliver information about tourism and historical sites to phones and tablets.

The program was piloted in Cebu but is now being implemented in Iloilo and Baguio City and is being rolled out in other areas of the country. The Cebu component was launched in Argao by Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III in September last year.