Texas A & M University: Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences
Abstract
New technology has been seen as a way for many businesses in the tourism industry to stay
competitive and enhance their marketing campaign in various ways. AR has evolved as the
buzzword of modern information technology and is gaining increasing attention in the media as
well as through a variety of use cases. This trend is highly fostered across mobile applications
as well as the hype of wearable computing triggered by Google’s Glass project to be launched
in 2014. However, although research on AR has been conducted in various fields including the
Urban Tourism industry, the majority of studies focus on technical aspects of AR, while others
are tailored to specific applications. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the current
implementation of AR in the Urban Tourism context and identifies areas of research and
development that is required to guide the early stages of AR implementation in a purposeful
way to enhance the tourist experience. The paper provides an overview of AR and examines the
impacts AR has made on the economy. Hence, AR applications in Urban Tourism are identified
and benefits of AR are discussed
