Discover Idaho Falls’ hot spots through new app
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - A new way to experience Idaho Falls is through your mobile device.
The city has launched a new app that can be found in the app store as ‘Liiingo,’ it provides information about the city’s hot spots, like restaurants, activities, and places to explore.
The tourist geared app was in the works for a year and caters to those who speak English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, something that the city said was the selling point.
“I think what stood out to us the most about Liiingo was the ability to offer information in other languages. Because if not, it could just be an app like any other app that would be providing information that is useful, but what we felt like was really made them stand out was this ability to provide it in multiple languages,” said Idaho Falls economic development coordinator, Dana Briggs.
Briggs said the four languages were selected based on information from the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Center.
The city signed a three-year contract with Liiingo for $5,500 which includes the four translations. Briggs said that in the future more languages could be added.
Although the app is geared towards tourists, Briggs says community members can benefit as well.
“I think it can benefit both visitors and residents because residents will be able to share it with people that are coming to visit them, but also just usually using it for family members people that are coming and going from our community and ourselves you know we can all utilize it to have more information readily at our fingertips about what the great things that we have to offer in our community,” Briggs said.
Funding for the app came from the Community Partnership Grant that the city offers to non-profit organizations that are furthering economic development and tourism effort in the city.
The app can be found searching the app store for ‘Liiingo,' scanning QR codes that will be placed around the city, and soon beacon technology will be used to notify you about the app. "When people are in a certain proximity to locations, their iPhone will pick up that signal and then they'll get a notification saying, 'do you want this app you can download it for this information,'" said Briggs.
Now that the app has launched, the city will be monitoring its progress and use, "we'll just be able to gather analytics from the visitors that come to see how many are using it, the different languages that are predominantly being used the most and be able to, evaluate it and improve it from there, and we just hope that it's a great resource and tool for our community to use," Briggs said.
