Selfie as a motivational tool for city exploration

Abstract

This study exploits the selfie phenomenon in order to develop an application that motivates city exploration and tourism to encourage greater mobility. The application uses a reward based system that rewards the user at specific target locations by allowing the user to take pictures and selfies at these landmarks only. This in turn encourages the user the visit more sites and unlock further content. Initially the research looks at evaluating whether taking a ‘selfie’ is sufficiently motivating for a user to be regarded as a reward. The survey results obtained show a strong correlation between photography, ‘selfie’ and travel. A number of users were then given a prototype of the application to use in Valletta the capital city of Malta. The users were then interviewed, the interviews established that users find such an approach for city exploration to be meaningful. Ultimately this means that through the application tourists are encouraged to explore more of the captivating sites found in the area.