Online activity and tour agency Isango is creating an iPhone application aimed at giving travellers in-resort access content and, eventually, booking facilities.
The app is currently under development and is likely to go for submission to the App Store approval process during the summer of 2010.
Initially the app will be content-driven and simply showcase material and products available from cities on the Isango platform.
Officials say they expect to stagger the launch of the product so different destinations are added over time.
The launch of such a product for Isango does raise a number of issues around product booking, vice president of commercial Deepak Jha admits, thus why the app will initially only consist of content and other information.
Ordinarily, Isango takes a booking for a product and gives the user an email receipt. Jha says currently many of the product suppliers on the Isango system may be reluctant to accept booking confirmations on a mobile handset, limiting the app to being an in-resort booking tool.
Isango hopes to add booking technology into the app over time and once its suppliers agree to digital booking confirmation.
Mobile destination booking has other complexities that need to be tackled, says Patrik Oqvist, European managing director for Isango rival, Viator.
Sites such as Viator and other destination product agencies often have a 24 to 48-hour grace period between when the user makes the booking online and details are sent to the supplier for inclusion on customer manifests.
A real-time mobile booking facility for such activities would need to overcome such problems as, once again, booking in-resort is likely to require a far shorter time scale.