Published on : Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Visitors to the Top End will be able to interact with an animated jumping crocodile and take a virtual tour of the Northern Territory with new interactive message boards unveiled at the Darwin Airport today.
Chief Minister Adam Giles said the new interactive displays at Darwin Airport would help encourage more domestic and international visitors to include the Territory’s regions as part of their holiday.
“The message boards were created using the Kinect motion sensing technology found in Microsoft Xbox game consoles and will allow visitors to take a virtual tour of the Territory’s regions as well as a ‘selfie’ with a jumping crocodile,” he said.
“Research has shown that visitors to the NT arrive with unstructured itineraries. The virtual journey message boards will encourage more visitors to visit our unique regions – Darwin, Kakadu, Arnhem Land, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Uluru from the moment they hop off the plane.
“Encouraging regional dispersal and boosting tourism numbers in our regions is a key goal of the Northern Territory Government to ensure our regional and remote tourism businesses can grow and prosper.
“It’s all part of the Country Liberals Government’s plan to drive the development of North Australia and build a $2.2 billion visitor economy by 2020.”
Mr Giles said the new interactive display was located by the luggage carousel on the ground floor of the airport and aimed to capture visitors’ attention while they wait for their bags.
“The virtual journey concept allows visitors to stand in one of the Territory’s seven regions highlighted on a large map placed on the floor. This will then prompt a virtual journey video of the selected region to start, with the visitor given the option to download a suggested itinerary,” he said.
“The second concept features an interactive, animated jumping crocodile. The motion sensing technology will prompt the crocodile to jump at the same time and a photo will be taken capturing the experience. The visitor will be encouraged to share the jumping crocodile photo on social media with family and friends.”
NT Airports Director Commercial and Aviation Development, Steve Presser, said the project ties in well with recent initiatives to further develop the terminal’s sense of place, including specially designed retail spaces and new artworks.
“Darwin Airport is proud to welcome visitors to the Top End from around Australia and the world, and creating a great experience for passengers is a key focus for us,” he said.
“Tourism NT’s innovative new project offers travellers a taste of the Territory’s unique activities and fun sense of adventure, and will add to the overall feeling of arriving somewhere special.”
The Airport project will also see still images featuring each of the Territory’s regions projected on to a wall in the customs area of the international arrivals hall. Another video projection will also be installed in the coming weeks in the international arrival zone.
The wall projections are aimed to entertain international visitors while they wait at customs and inspire them to include the Territory’s regions as part of their holiday.
The new message boards can also be adapted to feature a special welcome message to visiting business delegates or sporting groups to Darwin.
Tags: Darwin Airport, jumping crocodile, Top End
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