Telefónica y Red.es, a public business entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligenceintroduce new technological solutions that will help Arona reach the rank of Smart Tourist Destination (DTI), along with six municipalities and councils from Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country and Valencia.
To do this, they have a aggregate budget of more than 15 million euros which comes from items from the municipalities involved (with a minimum of 20% of the budget for each initiative) and from the EU’s European Regional Development Funds (Feder) (with a maximum of 80%), channeled through Red.es.
Arona’s plan is based on three axes: sustainability, accessibility and mobility and innovation. For this, the platform thinking city de Telefónica will connect the tourist application, route planners, environmental stations, services for tourists and data analysis solutions.
Arturo Rodríguez González, deputy director of Smart Territories at Red.es, indicates that “with the call for Smart Tourist DestinationsRed.es will promote the digital transformation of tourist destinations, using technology to collect information that allows analyzing the data to improve the services offered to residents and visitors, in addition to enabling the sustainable and energy-efficient development of our destinations.”
In these projects awarded by public tender, Telefónica was chosen as the technology provider for its extensive experience in comprehensive approaches that incorporate various technological components. “All these initiatives will make the management of all the public and private services offered more efficient, such as visiting monuments or routes and staying in hotels and restaurants.”
It is one of the seven municipalities and councils of Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country and Valencia.
In addition, the information collected through sensors and other devices will help to avoid the overcrowding of tourist sites or, for example, to promote little-known places. For this reason, we are very happy to contribute to the sustainable digitization of these municipalities, as it will benefit not only the local tourism industry, but also its inhabitants,” says Diego López Román, manager of Smart Services for Companies at Telefónica Spain.
These projects for the comprehensive digitization of the destination with deployments of digital solutions seek to make the destination smartest being able to be replicated in other municipalities and tourist councils. Among the new solutions that they implement are those that count and analyze the tourist flow, the one that improves communications infrastructures and the creation of digital content with augmented and virtual reality, which are accessed through a mobile application, and will be incorporated Technological tools that highlight local experiences.
