Newsline from destinations about smart tourism

All DMOs in the world are striving to reimagine tourism and make tourism in their territories modern, digital, sustainable and ultimately smart.

The media and governments show no less attention to the development of smart tourism, because this topic is becoming extremely relevant.

Many DMOs are looking for information and examples to help them build smart tourism. They also try various methods, tools and approaches for the development of digitalization and smart tourism.

Here we collect interesting information about different DMOs from around the world – to know how DMOs cope with the tasks of building smart tourism and what new approaches they are using.

We hope that the global scaling of approaches and tools is quite possible, because destinations all over the world deal with the same client, namely the tourist, and what works in one territory will work anywhere in the world.

Paphos Island

Paphos Island is the winner of Europe’s “Smart Tourism Capital” competition thanks to many concrete actions. 

Quote: “Paphos’ smart parking facilities, smart lighting, water management system, smart apps in the Unesco archaeological park, access to tourism and hospitality products, services, spaces and experiences through the use of information and communications technology-based (ICT) tools, participation and networking in several EU funding programmes, disabled-friendly beaches, the expansion of braille signage for visually impaired people, promotion of rural areas and walking trails, ongoing efforts to promote cultural heritage and enhance visitor interaction with local crafts and traditional experiences, and the efforts to register the European religious route taken by the Apostle Paul on his missionary journey to Cyprus, Greece and Italy, were among the many initiatives that contributed to our victory.” More.

Macau

The Macau government has made the development of smart tourism in the territory one of its priorities. 

Quote: “In this context, the Government promised the launch of electronic versions of Macau tourist information in several languages, optimizing mobile applications and the functions of audio-guided tours or the promotion of applications and MGTO identification on various social platforms through the most popular platform on the Internet and mobile applications.” More

Hanoi

Hanoi is constantly digitalizing tourism: a unified information base of attractions has been created, digital audio guides are supported, tour products are actively promoted on social networks and websites, exhibits and attractions are being digitized.

Quote: “Digital transformation is one of the important solutions for tourist sites and travel businesses to build tours and attract visitors to Hanoi.” More

Korea

Korea’s largest hyperscaler has joined forces with the Korea Tourism Organization to provide the most advanced digital services on the visit korea website.

Quote: “For example, an interactive map expected to be launched in the first half of this year will let tourists search for destination information and plot routes through Naver Map. Also, Naver Cloud’s Clova Studio no-code AI tool and its HyperClova language model, which has been touted to have human-like linguistic capabilities, could provide personalised multilingual destination information and travel itineraries through real-time chat. KTO and Naver Cloud said they would also work together to strengthen smart tourism infrastructure and expand their cooperation in other areas.” More

Sarawak

The Malaysian government encourages all players in the tourism industry to make greater use of digital technologies, because it considers this the only way to win in the competition for tourists.

Quote: “Under the Smart Tourism strategy in Malaysia’s National Tourism Policy, Karim added that the country’s revenue could increase by four fold from the current USD25 billion to USD 110 billion in 2023.” More

Shanghai

Shanghai develops international tourism and announces 28 new tourism innovation projects worth $15.7 billion.

Quote: “Wang Haimin, general manager of the China Tourism Group, said that the group and the Shanghai government will … develop more smart tourism and research tourism products in the future.” More

The section is updated periodically. If you have interesting news about smart tourism in destinations, please send it to us here

Acropolis

Overturim, as a phenomenon of excessive number of tourists, makes the Acropolis management look for various technological solutions to reduce the number of visitors and fight queues. In particular, smart tourism technologies are being applied – such as electronic tickets, entrance at a certain time for groups, etc. This is the case when smart tourism becomes not a whim of people with smartphones, but a vital necessity. Read more here.

Top 10 Marketing Directions for Organizations on the Internet

A new analytical report on the promotion of destinations on the Internet based on the calculation of smart tourism indexes. Details and download link

All the news is here.