MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Hungry for a bite? Need a place to stay? Curious about upcoming events?
Soon, interactive kiosks in downtown Mobile will be available to answer those questions and more.
"Things to do, places to go, places to stay, itineraries, photo," Visit Mobile President & CEO David Clark said. "We get a whole lot of also guest information, where it gives us more intelligence. We also have a survey on this, and we can serve them what their interests are, like history, arts, food, culinary - you know, all of that. It's all in there."
Visit Mobile used $75,000 from a special fee on hotel rooms to buy three of the kiosks from a company called TrueOmni. One will be in front of the Downtown Mobile Alliance office on Dauphin Steet; one will be the Arthur Outlaw Mobile Convention Center; and one will be the visitors center at Fort Conde.
Clark said he eventually would like to install them at the new downtown airport under construction, as well as a few other locations.
Oliver Dorgan, Visit Mobile's vice president of digital & creative marketing, said he has been working on the project for about two years. He said the kiosks will have the same information as Visit Mobile's website, updated daily. Now, he said, there are just a few bugs to work out.
"We just want to make sure that the user experience is perfect, so we're working out a few little issues, and then we're good to go," he told FOX10 News.
Users can get information sent directly to their phones. And the kiosk has other features, including maps and the ability for visitors to build their own itineraries. There's even a "selfie" feature, allowing users to take pictures of themselves and then play with various frames, backgrounds and stickers. The photo will be sent to the user's email address.
"I don't think there's a whole lot of other cities doing this," Clark said. "I think your major destinations do it."