GPS systems can go much further than the golf course, as GPSi Europe’s latest success will soon demonstrate. Acknowledged as one of the world’s five most extraordinary gardens, Parco Sigurtà near Gerona (www.sigurta.it) is investing in the latest GPS technology, the Inforemer HDx GPS system from GPSi Europe, to manage its fleet of golf carts, and to enhance the visitor experience of those seeing the park and its gardens in a golf cart.
Managing golf carts around seven kilometres of trackways
Located nearby Lake Garda, the park started life back in 1617 as a private estate and is a fusion of a country park, a wooded area of tall trees, and a huge garden with many flower beds and ornamental plants. Parco Sigurtà extends over half a million square metres and has over seven kilometres of trackways that guide visitors around all the major features, both seasonal and permanent.
To enjoy each and every feature Parco Sigurtà has a number of ways for visitors to see things: on foot, in a golf buggy, by ‘fun trains’, and by rented bicycle. There is also an electric shuttle service for those wanting to learn more about the history and the attractions of the park, during an hour-long guided visit.
The golf carts have long been one of the most popular choices, but once visitors were in the carts the park’s staff had no means of knowing where the buggies were, or controlling where they went. With the new GPS system, all that changes.
The WiFi system around the park and gardens will help remotely to keep the buggies on the trackways, which will enhance the visitors’ safety, and protect the features. Back in the park’s offices, each cart can be tracked around the estate’s seven kilometers of trackways.
Better visitor experience, increased advertising revenues
Being cart-mounted screens, the HDx units will be able to both maximize the visual information about each part of Parco Sigurtà visited in a golf cart, and talk the visitors through in whichever language they choose, each of the park’s famous features. There will also be the potential for advertising from the Park’s sponsors as well, creating an additional revenue stream for the Park and a new way of discretely reaching the thousands of buggy-based visitors.
Parco Sigurtà is installing the WiFi system and the HDx units in January 2009, and is expecting to improve both its management of the golf carts, and the popularity of seeing the Park’s many features in way that both adds to the visitor experience and which is less time consuming than going by foot.
GPSi Europe: “Huge potential”
Phil Lewin of GPSi Europe is particularly interested in the potential of the HDx system for Europe’s many visitor attractions: “Golf carts with the HDx Inforemer system offer a simple solution to enhance the visitor experience dramatically to these kind of attractions, and to create a much needed additional form of revenue in the form of increased cart rentals and the potential of advertising onscreen. We are really looking forward to working with Parco Sigurtà in this very interesting project.”
GPSi Europe www.gpsieurope.com