Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire (Pty) Ltd Company Reg No: 1998/004523/07
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Platinum road app launches massive end-of-year content update
The Platinum Road app, by South African author and journalist Peter Delmar, has enjoyed more than 4,000 downloads since it was first launched in mid-April this year.
The free iOS, Android and Windows Phone app contains over an hour’s storytelling, narrated by top broadcaster David O’Sullivan. The audio features stories derived from Delmar’s “road book”, The Platinum Road, covering the route from Gauteng to Botswana along the N4 highway, and on the N1 between Pretoria and Bela Bela.
Delmar says that after nearly eight months on the app stores it came time for a content update, “The response we’ve had from users has been phenomenal thus far, but we always planned to add to the app and improve users’ overall audio experience, to just keep giving them more lekker content. We’ve expanded on the app’s existing stories, with a few more tucked in at key points along the route. On top of that, we’ve also added handy details about toll plazas along the way, as well as information about a few of Bakwena N1 N4 Toll Concession’s social initiatives.”
Sponsored by Bakwena the Platinum Road app contains images, maps and stories about the history of Gauteng and North West, including anecdotes about vast vanished Tswana cities and the Anglo-Boer War, quaint towns and settlements, frogs and mining. The stories can be listened to anywhere in the world but, on the road, are triggered by a smartphone or tablet’s inbuilt GPS functionality, without the user incurring any data charges.
Produced by Tourism Radio in Cape Town, Delmar says the app is the perfect mobile adaptation of his book, “All the stories in the app can be found in The Platinum Road. The app shows, however, how technology can be used to deliver engaging content to people on the move, and tell stories in ways we never thought possible.”
Tourism Radio’s content manager, Jonathan Meyer, says they’re pleased with the app’s organic success, “Working with Peter to adapt his book for mobile users has been an exciting challenge for us. The fact that the app continues to be downloaded daily, by users from all over the world, shows that there is a demand
Directors: A. Johnstone, D. Msibi, T. Plaistowe (British) V. Raseroka, J. Swart, U. Singh, A. Wadda (Gambian), M. Edington (British) Chief Executive Officer: G. Blewitt for what we’re now calling ‘alternative travel guides’. This latest content update will only further enhance the user experience of people who have already downloaded the app, as well as make the app even more appealing to new users.”
Delmar’s business, Parkview Press has published three books containing largely unknown stories on major routes within South Africa – The N3 Book, The N4 Book and The Platinum Road. It also recently published a book featuring drives around historic Johannesburg – The Johannesburg Explorer Book. In 2015 Delmar plans to work with Tourism Radio to bring the content in his books to new travelling audiences.
To download The Platinum Road app, please visit http://www.tourismradiocityguide.com/app/the- platinum-road
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Peter Delmar – author of The Platinum Road +27 83 755 7305
Jonathan Meyer – Tourism Radio content manager +27 21 448 413 // +27 79 540 1944 [email protected]
Charmaine van Wyk – Bakwena +27 11 519-0413 [email protected]