Constitution Hill in Gauteng released South Africa’s first Bluetooth-enabled tourism app at the Bashu Uhuru Freedom Festival, which took place on June 21-25 in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

The app was developed specifically for Constitution Hill and is available on iOS and Google App stores. It allows visitors to tour the heritage site with a virtual guide.

The app makes use of imported Bluetooth-enabled beacons, and together with the user’s device GPS, is able to tell a visitor’s smart phone precisely where they are in the complex.

It also lets visitors take a tour of the precinct outside normal tour hours and provides augmented information about spaces at the living museum, and potential visitors can familiarise themselves and navigate the precinct prior to their visit.  It includes a prompt upon opening, allowing new visitors to get accurate directions to the precinct.

Constitution Hill Development Agency CEO, Dawn Robertson, said it was exciting to be able to officially launch the app during the Basha Uhuru Freedom Fest, as the precinct was filled with energy, with a variety of concerts, film festivals, bicycle tours and dialogues.

 “We really needed something like this app because our precinct covers 11 hectares, which can make it difficult to navigate. We needed to be able to expand the narrative of the history into new places and into different spaces,” said Robertson.

 “The Constitution is approaching its 21st year and, as it comes of age, it also plays a more central role every day in the lives of the millions of South Africans whose freedoms it protects. More than ever we rely on our Constitution to protect our future, and that is what attracts so many millennials and young people here. This is a place of past history, but it is also a place of history making."