Top Five Travel Destinations Featured in Film

Climb the New Zealand Alps, wander through the misty, rain-soaked Scottish Highlands or get lost in the forests of North Carolina. Not quite the locations you would think of going to yourself? Well what if I told you these are the locations used in some of the biggest movies to come out in the last couple of years? You may just consider it if you knew you could visit Hobbiton, from  The Hobbit, in New Zealand, or District 12 from the Hunger Games in North Carolina. Travellers are looking for something more when they visit countries, and planning to visit favourite film and TV locations has become more than just a pilgrimage for movie fanatics. These are the top five film locations from recent years:

5. Paris, France. Featured in films which like Moulin Rouge and Inception, who wouldn't find the City of Love and Light a little more intriguing? It's starring roles in these two Oscar winning films has certainly added to its allure. However, bringing its cultural side a great deal more attention is the ever-controversial Da Vinci Code. Visit the many art museums or follow the Rose Line just as the hero of the film, Robert Langdon, did and let the mystery of the city speak to you. Find the best places to share similar experiences with our Hummba Paris guide.

4. Rome, Italy. The Italian capital was brought to life for hundreds of viewers across the globe in the film Eat, Pray, Love. Many women fell in love with the Italian city; its inhabitants; and its food, thanks to the publicity the film gave it. The notion of living the pizza and the pasta lifestyle was never made more tangible than in the way it was portrayed in the film. The cuisine, of course is not the only attraction the city holds. Its ancient monuments have been starring in films for years, with the Coliseum being the most prominent among them.  Enjoy the best of food and culture in the city with our Hummba Rome guide.

3. Asheville, North Carolina, USA. Delve into the world of Katniss Everdeen and the rest of the characters from the Hunger Games at the various locations scattered around and bordering the city of Asheville. By far the easiest, and possibly the best, location to visit is the ghost town of the Henri River Mill. The empty town was the ideal location to mimic the run-down home district of Katniss and Peeta.

2.  Glencoe, Scotland. It was up in these Scottish Highlands that we shared an emotional moment between James Bond and his commanding officer, M. Featuring as the landscape surrounding his family homestead in the film Skyfall, the location swept audiences off their feet and has now become the favoured location used in the film. Perhaps it is the beauty of the rugged hills, or the way the highlands seem to match Bond as dangerous, wild and yet gorgeous that has made them so attractive? Pay the spot a visit and decide for yourself.

1.  South Island, New Zealand. With many of the locations from both The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit spread all over the country, it may be worth your while to base an entire holiday around the island.  If time is limited, choose your favourite scene and go in search of the stunning location it was shot in. The beauty of each of these locations has been preserved, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the magic and mystery of Middle Earth. Download a Tourism Radio New Zealand guide to help you navigate your way around the country.

Le Web 2012 – Where does Tourism Radio® fit in?

Hummba's parent company, Tourism Radio, was this year invited to Paris, France, to take part in the premier internet and blogging expo in the world, Le Web.

According to Le Web’s organisers, more than 50 billion electronic devices will be connected to the internet by the year 2020. If that number is too staggering to comprehend, try look at it from your own perspective: How many devices do you own that are connected to the web? Your Android smartphone? Your iPad? Your television? Possibly even your fridge? It’s only logical that your vehicle will follow suit, and that’s where Tourism Radio and French auto giant Renault come in.

Tourism Radio in the Renault R-Link

At Le Web 2012, we officially launched the Renault R-Link Tourism Radio audio travel guide application. The R-Link is Renault’s fully integrated multimedia system, and will be available in selected Renault models from 2013. Tourism Radio is one of the first applications that will be available for download on the system.

Le Web 2012 follows the theme The Internet of Things, and organisers say it’s all about “melding the physical world and the virtual world.” Here at Tourism Radio, we can’t agree more. Our partnership with Renault ensures that drivers will soon be able to explore cities all over the world from the comfort of their vehicles. We launched the R-Link app with a comprehensive guide to Paris (in English, French and German). Plans to expand our content base to other European centres are already on the cards and these are expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2013.

Tourism Radio in the Renault R-Link

If you’re at Le Web, be sure to head over to the Renault stand and give the Tourism Radio app a spin. If however you’ve missed the expo, don’t worry, you can get all the info you need from our website: http://www.tourismradio.info.

Tourism Radio® showcases audio guides on the Renault R-Link at Le Web 2012

(Cape Town, South Africa) South African travel technology company Tourism Radio joins forces with French automaker Renault at Le Web 2012 – the foremost blogging and web expo in the world.

Renault first announced its fully-connected and integrated R-Link multimedia system at last year’s Le Web, where it was revealed that Tourism Radio would be one of the first applications available for download on the system.

Tourism Radio’s R-link application plays general audio information about the area a Renault vehicle is driving through, as well as information about specific points of interest nearby. It will serve as a personal tour guide, built right into the dashboard of future Renault models. The uniqueness of Tourism Radio’s technology is in its ability to seamlessly arrange thousands of audio clips and organise them into a coherent dialogue, based on location, creating a tailor-made user experience for each vehicle.

Tourism Radio CEO Mark Allewell says, “Renault has always been at the forefront of automotive technology, and I believe that the R-Link is quite simply the next evolutionary step of the motor vehicle. Tourism Radio is the perfect addition to the R-Link, and it also fits in with the theme of Le Web 2012, the Internet of Things.” Allewell will attend Le Web from the 4th to the 6th of December, and has been invited to showcase Tourism Radio on the Renault stand.

Tourism Radio’s R-Link application will initially feature an audio guide to Paris (in English, French and German), with plans to roll out to other major European centres in the near future. For more information about Tourism Radio visit http://www.tourismradio.info.

Tourism Radio clocks its one-millionth device rental day

(Cape Town, South Africa) South African travel technology producer Tourism Radio® has officially recorded its one-millionth device rental day. This comes just weeks before the traditional Southern Hemisphere end-of-year tourist high season.

Tourism Radio currently has location-based travel guide devices circulating in South Africa, New Zealand, Namibia and Angola. The device plays audio clips automatically as the user approaches specific points of interest or enters into a general location. The uniqueness of the technology is in its ability to seamlessly arrange thousands of audio clips and organise them into a coherent dialogue, based on location, creating a great user experience for travellers as they drive around.

While in use, the device keeps a detailed log of its position and gathers information about how many times particular sound clips are played, based on the user’s movements. This means Tourism Radio is able to produce detailed usage reports on where travellers are going and what they are doing during their stay – a very handy tool for advertisers.

Since the Tourism Radio usage stats went live in early 2010, the company this month logged its one-millionth device rental day. Tourism Radio CEO Mark Allewell says, “Our ability to not only play locally-relevant information to travellers, but also to build up a huge database of where travellers are going, has given us an insight into what tourists expect while on holiday.”

“With these usage stats,” says Allewell, “we’re able to show our advertisers exactly where their money is going. No longer do companies have to spend with the faint hope of having some kind of impact on anyone who happens to see or hear their ad. Tourism Radio offers advertisers a captive audience, and we’re able to show them just how effective their campaigns actually are.”