RTA launches a smart tourist guide on Dubai Ferry

A smart tourist guide service on board the Dubai Ferry was recently launched by The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
The service called ‘Nahaam' offers riders explanations about tourist landmarks and also displays information about the scheduled ferry trips, including a route map showing the current position of the ferry as is the case in airline flights.
The Marine Transport Department announced that it has recently fitted four ferry boats with the Nahaam system.
Doctor Yousuf Mohammad Al Ali, Chief Executive Officer of RTA's Public Transport Agency, said the launch of the initiative adds to the smart service offering to various spectrums of the community and responds to the wishes of ferry riders, particularly tourists and visitors.
"The smart tourist guide Nahaam is a dedicated system displayed on board the Dubai Ferry screens showcasing tourist landmarks of the Emirate on the line of the trip using a GPS based display, enriched with promotional information & materials,” Al Ali said.
Al Ali said that the name of the service comes from "an antique heritage practice once prevailed in the UAE where a person accompanying sailors plying the Arabian Gulf in pearl-fishing trips used to chant heritage songs that inspire, entertain and cheer up pearl fishers relegating the woes and risks associated with their profession. Fishermen, in turn, used to repeat these popular songs after the Nahaam”.
"We, in the RTA, are keen on giving heritage-inspired names to the services we offer to the public as part of our endeavours to reinvigorate and revive our glorious past and link it with our current impressive achievements as well as our promising future. Moreover, using traditional and historical names in our services is part of the innovation and creativity we are seeking to realise,” he said.
RTA explained that the Nahaam system is a tablet computer fitted in the ferry's captain cabin and linked with display monitors in passengers' cabins. At the start of the trip, the system displays a short movie about safety tips followed by a pictorial display of key tourist landmarks en route accompanied by an audio commentary.
It also displays other information about Dubai, the formation of the UAE federation, and Expo 2020.

Source:Gulf News