Article

A visitor's bureau welcomes new kiosks

The introduction of upgraded kiosks at Louisville International Airport offers passengers more choices for obtaining information, maps on activities in Louisville.

April 30, 2004

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Greater Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureaupresident and chief executive officer Ron Scott gets a kick out of his job, promoting the city of Louisville, regularly jugded one of America's favorite places to live.

He eagerly awaits the annual reports from quality of life experts, who regularly give Louisville high marks. The Places Rated Almanac has listed Louisville among the 15 most livable cities in America in five of its past six editions; the city rated 14th in the 2000 edition. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has ranked Louisville one of America's five most livable cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

"Louisville has a reputation as a very warm, accessible city," Scott said. "We want every single device that touches visitors here to be as friendly as possible."

For the bureau, that mission begins with a pair of kiosks at Louisville International Airport. The kiosks, which were developed by Videobred Productions, a Louisville-based digital production facility, offer tips on where to go in Louisville and printable maps for how to get there.

The kiosks -- which cost $30,000, mostly on programming and database development -- debuted the last full week of April, just 1 1/2 weeks before the Kentucky Derby, which is one of the busiest times of the year for tourism officials in Louisville.

A new day dawns

The kiosks are an upgrade of a kiosk system in place since 1995. Scott said about a year ago the bureau decided that the kiosk program was in need of a makeover.

"They weren't as helpful because you couldn't print anything out," he said. "You'd see people standing there scribbling all these notes."

Videobred used a Compaq computer running Macromedia Director Shockware software to develop the new kiosks in enclosures manufactured by Olea Exhibits/Displays Inc.

A 17-inch touchscreen displays an mpg2 movie highlighting Louisville and its many tourist activities. Users can activate the kiosk program by touching the screen, use the menu to obtain information on activities, shopping, and other opportunities, and print out directions.

"The main menu itself is actually a movie," said Videobred co-founder Bob Manning. "The background has a little animation featuring Louisville.

"We haven't seen (a movie as a main menu) anywhere else," he added. "Everything seems to be moving fine so far."

The kiosks were placed at each of the airport's two baggage terminals. Flyers who normally face a mundane wait for their luggage to arrive now have the option of seeking directions to various attractions.

Scott said the updated kiosks should ease pressure on the airport's manned information booths.

"An increasing number of visitors were only getting information at the visitor's desk at the airport," he said. "If two or three flights get in at once that can be a real hassle. The kiosks will speed things up, and the thing we like is that they print out the directions now."

Kinks are bound to occur with any kiosk project, and Manning said his company has discovered several with the airport kiosks.

One was a simple enough matter -- dealing with worker reactions. Because the kiosks play a continuous movie loop, they run the danger of aggravating airport employees who work around them for hours on end. The solution, according to Manning, was to isolate them.

"People who work around kiosks always get concerned about repetition," he said. "That's why they sit away from anybody who is working there. The skycaps have already asked us if they will play music and we assured them they wouldn't."

Another problem involves directions. Manning said his team is learning that out-of-town visitors do not always have a feel for the rhythm of negotiating Louisville. A mistake in understanding geographic designations can hurtle visitors miles from their destination.

"We had one guy who wanted to go to the Holiday Inn Airport East and he ended up in the East End (of Louisville) instead of the east part of the airport," Manning said. "These things crop up, but we'll get them fixed quickly."

Scott said expansion plans will depend upon their success at the airport.

"We're going to watch them carefully and see how they go," he said, "and maybe we'll place some more in other locations."