[dropcap style=”2″ color=”#f50a0a” text=”C”]airo based Wireless Stars announced today it has entered into an agreement with the Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) to kick start the “RAHAL” initiative. The Starting point of RAHAL will be on March 29th 2014 at the green city of Taif in Saudi Arabia (dubbed the Arab Summer Capital of the year), then onto Erbil, Iraq (The 2014 Arab Tourism Capital), after which RAHAL will continue its journey to various cities of the MENA region.
Dr. Maged Ghoneima, the General Manager of Wireless Stars, emphasized the importance of the signed agreement with the ATO, as RAHAL will allow tourists to explore the Arab world in a new and fun way. He also added that modern technology has become a major part of a person’s life and that it’s about time that we merge the latest technology with the Arab tourism industry, in order to break cultural frontiers and encourage people to explore local cultures and traditions.
[blockquote style=”quote” align=”” author=”Dr. Bandar Al Fahid, President of the Arab Tourism Organization.”]RAHAL is considered the first of its kind to be implemented across the Arab World encouraging Arab youth to get to know their homeland better.[/blockquote]
RAHAL is an innovative free Android/iOS Smartphone application which combines Touristic Landmarks, History & Local Culture with Reality Gaming. The application gives its users the opportunity to play the largest reality game ever introduced in the Middle East. The main objective of the game is to add a twist to tourism and encourage tourists to discover the Arab cities from a new and exciting perspective.
Participating tourists will move from one “Touristic Checkpoint” to another after receiving clues to solve through the Rahal application on their smartphones. As the tourists proceed down their route they compete with each other, gain points, unlock prizes and share memories via social media until they reach the end of the route.
By sharing their exploits on Social Networks with their friends worldwide, users’ friends can not only aid them in solving the riddles, but themselves discover a City’s culture and history though they are far away.
The Rahal application focuses on merging fun, exploration and gamification attracting tourists from all over the world to experience the traditions and cultures of the Arab countries. This is achieved by orchestrating a series of on-demand physical and mental challenges of competitions that orients the participants to enjoy local arts, understand local culture, indulge in local cuisine and explore new places. Participants are guaranteed to have an unforgettable experience and a chance to win valuable prizes.
The Rahal application has been developed using the proprietary reality gaming platform (Kinzhunt) developed by Wireless Stars, on which many reality games such as Treasure hunts and Scavenger hunts can be played. The free application supports both Android and iOS and is available on the respective app stores. The application includes many state of the art technology features such location based services, augmented reality, NFC and more.
