Digital NRW travel guide launches with Münsterland data

DÜSSELDORF/MÜNSTERLAND. Münsterland is part of the first digital travel guide for the whole of NRW. Last week it was launched under the title "DeinNRW" on entdecken.nrw-tourismus.de. As a state-wide Progressive Web App (PWA), it offers for the first time a tool that accompanies visitors on their journey through North Rhine-Westphalia and provides them with current data from the surrounding area. The basis for the PWA is the new Data Hub NRW, which bundles free and usable data sets with opening hours, descriptions, address and contact data or places of interest.

"Data sets from Münsterland are also included in the Data Hub and thus also in the travel guide app," says Michael Kösters, general representative and tourism expert at Münsterland e.V. "In the coming weeks and months, the number of data sets will be further increased. We are focusing on a high quality of the data, because only in this way is it valuable for the user. For example, current information on restrictions due to the Corona pandemic. The entire project is an important milestone for the digital visibility of Münsterland." The data is collected and maintained in the Münsterland data portal. They are then automatically transferred to the Data Hub NRW via an interface.

The advantage of this feed is that the collected information becomes even more visible: "The data from the Data Hub can be used by companies, institutions or app developers just like the data from the data portal," explains Laura Finke, responsible for the NRW funding project "Tourist Data Management" at Münsterland e.V. Some large portals are already integrating the data. Finke: "Data on places of interest in Münsterland, for example, flows into the ADAC's high-reach Trips app. And in the future, if you drive past a brown motorway sign in Münsterland, the audio guide app 'Maqnify' will tell you something about Nordkirchen Castle or Vischering Castle. That's because it links the data with the tourist signs and offers audio information about the sights as you drive past." North Rhine-Westphalia is the first federal state to be represented comprehensively and with extensive content in the adventure guide.

With its presence in the digital travel guide "Dein NRW", Münsterland is also taking a step towards the future: "Web app instead of travel catalogue, you could say," says Kösters. "Because online, guests can see live and up-to-date which sights are nearby and how they can best get there." Those who want to use the "DeinNRW" PWA enter entdecken.nrw-tourismus.de into the smartphone's browser, open the page and add it to the home screen.

The Data Hub is part of the starter project "Touristisches Datenmanagement NRW: offen, vernetzt, digital" (Tourism Data Management NRW: Open, Networked, Digital), which is funded by the state and the EU with 3.2 million euros over the project period of three years and implemented by Tourismus NRW together with the tourism regions in the state and with the support of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering.
In the future, the Data Hub will be linked to the so-called "Knowledge Graph" of the German National Tourist Board, which is a similar project to the Data Hub, only on a federal level.

datahub.tourist-nrw.de
discover.nrw-tourismus.de