The Louisiana Office of Tourism recently launched a new iPhone app for Louisiana’s African American Heritage Trail at the ESSENCE Music Festival in New Orleans. This is the first app of its kind for tourism in Louisiana, and visitors attending the festival were the first to experience its features.

A project of the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the African American Heritage Trail takes visitors to museums, heritage sites, institutions and cultural attractions in all corners of Louisiana. The trail was launched in February 2008 with 26 member sites and expanded to 33 sites in 2010.

“We developed this app to help guide visitors to trail sites as they travel throughout the state,” said Pam Breaux, secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

The app, titled LikeNoOther, has a number of features that visitors can enjoy, including directions to trail sites, GPS, maps, photos, and more. It also includes an original song and video from Grammy Award-winning musician Chris Thomas King and audio vignettes narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr.

“It is great that we are able to utilize new technology to bring Louisiana history to life,” said Jim Hutchinson, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Office of Tourism.

Visitors can download the app for free to their iPhone, iPad or iPod a number of ways, including from the App Store, iTunes or at the trail’s website, AStoryLikeNoOther.com/iphone.