Museums move into the future with gadget guides and ticket machines
By the beginning of July, visitors to museums in Greece will be able to use high-tech gadgets to guide them around exhibits and forget about time-wasting queues thanks to automated ticket machines. After this much-needed modernization, the Ministry of Culture then plans to bring in a slew of other upgrades, including the refurbishment of archaeological sites. Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis is currently preparing a press conference to announce the new measures as well as arrangements to tidy up the Archaeological Fund. Voulgarakis recently told reporters about the automated ticket machines and the 5,000 hand-held gadgets providing high-resolution video, detailed diagrams of sites and audio programming, among other things. These will be offered at 15 museums and sites around Greece, including the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The total cost of the gadgets is about 9.5 million euros. Though some of the devices will be initially available to visitors this summer, the work on the entire project won’t wrap up for another 14 months. The Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum and the archaeological site of Mycenae will be among the first to get the contraptions. Ticket machines It will also be 14 months before the complete installation of the automated ticket machines, which will monitor visitors entering the museums. The machines, which will cost -2.7 million, will be initially installed at the Acropolis of Lindos in Rhodes, at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and at the Delphi archaeological site. All the new measures are aimed at improving the experience of touring Greece’s museums and sites for the 7 million people who visit them annually. Visitors will now be able to purchase tickets with their credit cards, there will be substantially less crowding as people enter and leave, and there will be special offers for ticket purchases. The automated ticket machines will be equipped with technology to test the authenticity of -5, -10, -20 and -50 notes.
