Almeria, Benidorm, El Ejido, Iron, Jaca, Marbella, Santander, Valle del Jerte… So to complete the list of the 72 places that make up currently the Network of Tourist Destinations in Intelligent imaging (DTI), driven by the Secretariat of State of Tourism. What are their common features? All are destinations innovative statements on a technological infrastructure that guarantees the sustainable development of the territory, while facilitating the visitor’s interaction with the environment, to improve their tourism experience. “The paradigm has changed completely”, says José María Souvirón, Marketing manager of Smart Cities at Telefónica Companies. In your opinion, the customization of the experiences and the optimization time are possible already now in all the phases that surround tourist getaway: the search for pre-accommodation through apps, the realization of cultural routes in situ with support of augmented reality, the reservation and use of new options for urban mobility, the query points of interest in totems digital… “Even on the return trip, through the tools of big data and social listening analyze the actions performed by the tourist, with harmonised data, to set up patterns of use that continue to improve the services and offer new experiences adapted to each profile,” says Souvirón.
‘QUIZ’: What type of traveler you are
To know if you’re taking advantage of everything that they put at our disposal the tourist destinations smart or if we’re still traveling the old-fashioned way, just made a series of questions on our way of getting to know a new place. Discover with the following quiz if you are a genuine tourist or a digital if you need to catch up on the day to improve your getaways.
Souvirón remember that public and private entities are aware of the strategic nature of the application of technology to tourism. Not in vain, it is the sector that most contributes to the national economy, which contributes 15% of GDP (more than 190,000 million euros in 2018, according to a report from American Express and the World Travel & Tourism Council). “To maintain that level of income in a highly competitive environment at the global level is a constant challenge to which we can respond with digital tools that put the tourist in the center to improve your experience as a visitor”, says the expert of Telephone Companies. But what is the particular technology behind the digitization of tourism? Souvirón highlights the following.
‘Big data’
The analysis of the information collected by the ecosystem cheap, is always aggregated and anonymised, converts the data into useful information to customize the services based on the user’s profile. For example, this technology is used by many city councils to get to know not only how many tourists visit their patron saint, but also their provinces, or countries of origin, their different profiles of consumers and their habits of behavior, among other data. In this way, the local administration manages to create offers tailored services to those visitors and enhance your experience by optimizing the times of the events or the operation of public transportation, among others.
Disabled
The mobile phone is a tool to ask questions in real-time, hire services from the apps and interact with points of tourist information as totems or beacons, which help to create tourist routes custom. This is the case of the City of Santander, which has launched an app that alerts the user when about to certain points of the city where there are installed beacons that automatically send the information of interest. To this end, the tourist only needs to download the app and carry on, your Bluetooth connection while walking. This, in addition, it lets you know the town council for what areas travel more visitors.
Connectivity
The evolution of networks has enabled the access to digital experiences in environments, tourism, urban and rural. “Before, the content delivery was more limited, but now the protocols of the last generation provide the experience of real-time information, with a bandwidth adjusted to each application, and a minimum consumption of batteries of the devices,” according to Souvirón.
Internet of things
In connection with the previous point, the technology of Narrow Band IoT (NBIoT) has driven the deployment of connected objects. The installation of sensors in buildings, vehicles, luggage and other objects improves the experience of the tourist. For example, a custom code in the mobile phone, it is enough to open the lock, smart hotel, without the need to carry a key or a physical card.
The cloud
The cloud services enable the tourist to have access to your data at any time and from any place. In addition, the cloud allows companies to deploy tools agile for the online contracting of their services.
artificial Intelligence
Although the most eye-catching it can be to find an android that caters to the tourist in an airport or in a hotel, the artificial intelligence is already present in the attendees of voice and other services of instant messaging with which the tourist companies engage with their customers to offer a customized treatment.
virtual and augmented Reality
Their application, both in museums and in open spaces, brings to the tourist, in an interactive format, additional information of that which you are visiting. For example, Telephone Companies have developed a tourism project immersive that allows you to take a tour of Segovia in the FIFTEENTH century thanks to an app and the glasses of the mixed reality HoloLens from Microsoft. Visitors can experience first-person historical moments such as the encounter of Isabel the Catholic and her brother Henry IV, the coronation in the church of San Miguel or the step of the Catholic Kings by the collapsed door of San Martín. The integration of 3D elements in the real environment enables the consumption of content augmented reality as a visualization of the original structure of old buildings or the process of construction of the Aqueduct.
‘Blockchain’
Their use is still incipient, but could be useful in a consortium of tourism (hotels, airports, rentals, etc) to verify a digital identity and not having to leave documentation sensitive as a deposit. The same consortium could assess that a user is a good traveller in order to provide better service without proof of prior reliance.
Platforms of smart city
“in Its application to tourism is immediate,” recalls Souvirón. It is a software that provides a control center where they monitor in real time all the data of the services offered by a company or any other entity. Thus is achieved an intelligent use of the information and decision making more agile and effective.
“The technology exists since a long time ago. Now, the important thing is to apply it intelligently to create services more attractive and improve the experience of tourists. In addition, this will contribute to the economic sustainability, cultural and environmental of the territory”, concludes the expert of Telephone Companies.
