Smart Tourist Destination: Balancing tourist, place, and services.

18 June, 2018 – Technological evolution in the tourism sector is a constant. If only a few months ago you saw tools of virtual reality, Big Data and Machine Learning increasingly present in the strategies and planning of the main tourist actors, now the trend, according to Vector ITC Group, goes through the application of the intelligence used in Smart Cities or Smart Cities to Tourist Destinations to turn them into Smart Tourist Destinations (DTI). In fact, IDC Research Spainhas revealed that the Smart Cities market will move over 65 billion euros by 2020.

“The intelligent tourist destination model is based on sustainability to ensure the balance between economic growth, environmental preservation and socio-cultural structure, with the ultimate goal of establishing and contributing to an activity fairer, more diverse and respectful tourist with the territory and its inhabitants“, says Jaume Rosselló, Director of Vector ITC Group Balerares.

Smart Tourism:

The pillars on which Smart Tourist Destinations are based are economic, cultural, social and environmental sustainability, innovation, accessibility and technology. To develop a successful smart tourist destination, it is necessary to contemplate the integration of ICTs, since only technology offers powerful tools for the sustainable management of the tourist territory.

According to Vector ITC Group, some of the development proposals for the new smart tourist destination model are:

• Savings in traditional energy or substitution by renewable energies.
• Measurement of environmental parameters: water, air pollution, noise pollution, etc.
• Efficient waste collection and treatment management.
• Intelligent irrigation systems depending on humidity and soil conditions.
• Platforms aimed at creating tailored customer experiences and reducing seasonality.

“At Vector ITC Group we develop platforms oriented to smart cities and destinations that provide tourists with everything they need to know about what happens and will happen in the place that has chosen as their destination. They are very flexible platforms and integrate with other systems, which facilitate and adapt the information according to the tourist, adapting to their tastes and preferences. These types of platforms help optimize the user experience“, adds Gema Ruiz Díaz-Mariblanca, Innovation Consultant at Vector ITC Group.

These types of platforms are also aimed at companies providing tourist services, as they allow to schedule marketing campaigns, adapting them by proximity, dates and tastes of customers, thus optimizing the performance of advertisements and Conversions. The use of machine learning allows, for example, offers displayed on advertising banners to be selected more accurately, which in turn increases the effectiveness of customer campaigns by up to 50% and combats tourist seasonality with Success.

Vector ITC Group has tools to ensure the security of Smart Cities infrastructures, since their base is communications (Wi-Fi).

In addition, he has extensive experience in the application of Big Data technologies. Big Data is essential to make it easy to choose the places to visit within the smart tourist destination. The goal is to avoid the confluence of many users in the points, thus reducing the impact on the quality of life of the residents. If two cruise stakes of 10,000 tourists arrive at the same time, it is necessary to establish different tourist attractions to prevent crowds.

“Our UX experience in designing guide portals allows us to help coordinate tourist needs always with proper use of the resources available in the city. For example: a rainy day a city usually collapses cars with the corresponding need for parking. Having the location of the tourist can be directed to different points and promote the environment“, says Jaume Rosselló, Director of Vector ITC Group Baleares.

Proposal for the development of an intelligent destination:

Taking these aspects into account, Vector ITC Group proposes to design a strategy aimed at optimizing the user experience for each phase of a trip:

• Home: it is necessary to have multi-channel tourist portals, attractive, with audiovisual content and virtual environments with all kinds of updated information, simulators, games, news. Vector also recommends that you consider customer customization and segmentation to provide you with higher quality content tailored to your preferences.
• Purchase: B2C/B2B platforms designed for conversion are suggested for the acquisition phase, with solutions to micro-customize the product and cross-bids with multi-channel promotion strategies.
• Displacement: In the third phase, Vector recommends having a multichannel private area for customers with personalized information, for immediate identification of the customer on arrival and to have a multichannel traveler service integrated to maintain the unique customer vision.
• Stay at the destination: it is necessary to integrate the world off and online in all the hotel devices and tourist services in the area, as well as mobile systems and wearables facilitators of processes and recreational nature, as well as models of affiliation with third parties in the area.
• Reputation: finally, by the time the stay is over, it is recommended to monitor the reputation on social networks and specific loyalty systems, to know the opinion of travelers, as well as to carry out monitoring and control of the whole enterprise digital scope through cloud solutions.

“A smart tourist destination is a place consolidated on an innovative technological infrastructure that guarantees the sustainable development of the tourist territory. To do this, it must be accessible to all, it must facilitate and contribute to the interaction and integration of the visitor with the environment, improve the tourist experience in the destination and the quality of life of the resident and increase the value and competitiveness of the destination in the face of similar others“, concludes Jaume Rosselló, Director of Vector ITC Group Baleares.