Smart Tourism with Smart TVs

Background: The use of ICT to promote tourism in the Colombian Caribbean is limited; however, applications for smart TVs are a viable alternative due to their multimedia capabilities. This paper presents the development of an app called SantaMartaTV, which is intended for Smart TVs and envisions the concept of tourism in a Smart City. The app offers photos, videos, maps and descriptions of the most ideal touristic places in Santa Marta; it allows users to share the content on Facebook, a social networking site. The content displayed on the site is stored on XML files which contain information about the resources. These files are hosted in the servers of freely available services, such as Facebook, YouTube, Google Maps and Dropbox. This feature reduces the cost of implementing new technological infrastructure and facilitates the editing of content. SantaMartaTV promotes the good name of the city as well as improves the visitors’ experience by providing them with interactive information at any time. This article further proposes a methodology for developing Smart TV apps. This new methodology is based on existing agile methodologies, usability concepts and the audiovisual capabilities of TV sets. The methodology satisfies the needs for the development of apps because it provides tools and diagrams which facilitate and guide the elaboration of these specific applications therefore ensuring a user-friendly and attractive app for potential users.