‘Appy new download to hit Marbella streets soon

Marbella Town Hall has announced it is to launch a free mobile tour guide app in the next few days designed to help tourists to the splendid resort to get more out of their visit.

Called Marbella Street, the free app will use iBeacon sensors placed at 100 areas of interest in and about the town to deliver quick and interesting information to its users in either English, Spanish, German or Russian…

Officially unveiled last week, the Marbella Street app is to be a free download available from the Apple Store and Google Play, meaning anybody with an iPhone or Android smartphone (that’ll be most of us then) can download the app for free and enjoy discovering more about Marbella’s fascinating past, present and future.

The sensors will connect to each user’s mobile phone via Bluetooth and, as the user approaches, audio and visual information will be channelled to the phone, detailing points of interest and other factual or historical snippets.

The Marbella Street app is being launched in the run up to the ever-busy Easter season, by which time Marbella Town Hall claims all 100 sensors will be in place and operational.

If successful, there should be no reason why similar schemes could not be rolled-out across other popular areas of the Costa del Sol, although it is unclear currently just how far-reaching the initial Marbella Street app will be.

For example, it is more than likely that some of the 100 iBeacon sensors will be located in Puerto Banús and San Pedro de Alcántara, which are technically both neighbourhoods of Marbella.

Regardless, the app is a great idea that should become a hit with locals and tourists alike, especially if the Town Hall finds a good way to monetise it by inviting local businesses to ‘sponsor’ a beacon closest to their particular establishment, for example.