Ever been in a new metropolis and tried to figure out your way around the city, especially trying to get somewhere by public transport only(think Paris where asking a friendly official for help is not an option!)?Why not have interactive direction look-up terminals (with multiple language options!) at least at secure locations such as subway and railway stations: type in the address of the museum you are going to, and the system will spit out an optimum route using public transport options, print the map out (could be for a fee) and give you an option to purchase necessary tickets/metro cards on the spot.
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Something that would require less infrastructure would be a system that sent visual and text information out to a smartphone like an iPhone in response to a call to some standardized int'l. "Information Please" speed-code (say 811 or whatever). The caller would be given a choice of languages to work with, then a FAQ + a map selection, backed up by a button to speak to an operator in his language.
(The operators could handle multiple cities--there wouldn't have to be a separate bureau in each city. In fact, the operator's center could be dispersed, with operators working out of their homes.)
It would incorporate Google's rotatable street-level photos and Google Earth to allow callers to visualize the look of the turns they'd have to take, their overall route, and their destination. Maybe Google would institute such a service, perhaps backed by a subsidy from visitor's bureaus, tourist departments, etc. Once the software is created to display this info. and interact with the smartphone for one city, it would cost only half (??) as much to implement it in another city--so this thing would have legs if it were instituted anywhere.