Vanuatu Bucket List

Vanuatu tourism app

Summary

Vanuatu Bucket List is an application used by tourists travelling to Vanuatu. It is displayed in ports and airports in Vanuatu to show visitors how to make the most of their trip, based on how long they will be there.

The app details local business and tourist hot-spots, allowing the user to search, sort, filter, store and categorise listings based on experience, location, category and keyword. The user can also store listings in a “bucket list”, allowing them to build their own travel itinerary.

Aktura Technology was engaged to design, build and deploy the application on Android and Apple iOS phone and tablet platforms.

The application can be downloaded in the App Store and Play Store.

Features

App downloadable from Google Play Store and Apple App Store
Works on most phone and tablet operating systems
Does not require Internet connectivity to continue to work after being first downloaded
App is fun to use and captures the tourist “vibe”
Ability to add food, activities, services or tourist hot spots to a “bucket list”
Ability to search and filter listings on location, experience, category, keyword or search term
Listings, categories, locations and experiences all configured through a back-end database – all app content including icons are centrally maintained and can be updated, deleted or new content added without requiring a client-side application update.
Client-side application is asynchronously updated with database information if Intent connectivity is detected

Client

Name: xplorevanuatu
Website: xplorevanuatu.com.vu
Industry: Travel
Location: Vanuatu

Details

The Vanuatu Islands are a beautiful and increasingly popular holiday destination for tourists from around the world. However Internet connectivity is poor throughout the islands and as such there were no phone or tablet apps dedicated to listing tourist hot-spots, resorts, restaurants or emergency locations within Vanuatu.

We were tasked with developing an application that can be advertised in local airport and cruise liner terminals and downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store using the connectivity provided at the terminal. After the application is downloaded, it was required to continue to work without future Internet connectivity.

The client had been let down by a previous developer, but the deadline remained the same to capture the start of the tourist period. This meant the design, development and deployment needed to be complete a month.

Communication is the most critical part of meeting tight deadlines, so the client was added to our project management systems, offering real-time and direct communications between the customer, designers and development team.

The application is initially seeded with listings located on a cloud database, however, when opens, the application attempts to update the listing information from the cloud.

Currently, the client has over 50 paid listings within the application and we are currently in negotiation with the client to expand functionality to include a booking system to directly book restaurants and resorts through the application.

Our roles included:

UX and UI design
Application functional design based on customer expectations
Database and schema design and implementation
API design and implementation
iOS application development, approval and deployment
Android application development and deployment

Feedback

The team at Aktura were fantastic. From start to finish, the project was handled with professionalism and I felt that what I needed was always possible due to the skill level that Mark and his team have. The project finished a week early, which was fantastic as time was so critical. I look forward to working with Aktura on further developing this app, and on my other upcoming projects. Give them a go because you won’t be disappointed with your end product!”