7 future trends of smart tourism

As more and more smart cities emerge all over the world, smart tourism is becoming increasingly important. The difference between the two? Smart cities focus primarily on improving the lives of their residents, whereas smart tourism initiatives are focused on pleasing visitors, whilst also enhancing the quality of life for local residents.

A key aspect of any smart destination is the integration of ICTs into physical infrastructure (Gretzel, Sigala, et al., 2015). When a tourism destination gets smarter, the tourists’ needs and demands are expected to be fulfilled more efficiently to create a better tourist experience. Smart apps and products are implemented across the user’s experience to accommodate the visitors that come to explore their city, such as virtual 3D city maps, LED-animations to illuminate iconic buildings, tourism websites with smart apps such as a water fountain locator, but also something as ‘simple’ as creating free Wi-Fi network accessible around the city.

Time for us to take a look at some of the future trends of smart tourism:

1. Accommodate booking beforehand

   The way people like to book things is changing - more and more people book accommodations but also activities before leaving their homes. If anything, what Corona has taught us is that time is precious and nothing is self-evident, therefore people want to make sure they are getting the experiences they want by planning and booking more beforehand. This also works for planning ahead on location; in the north of Germany, in Lübeck Bay, the local tourism office has implemented sensors at the entry and exit points of a few adjacent beaches that can be tracked in real-time by its guests.

2. Utilize the current BYOD-culture

   Some tourist operators do this already, and the tourist operators that aren’t should consider facilitating the BYOD-culture (‘Bring Your Own Device’) by making tours accessible from a visitor’s smartphone. Create an app to guide visitors through the city for example, by showing them on a map where the next public restroom is.

3. Wearable technology

   Wearable technology is enhancing the tourist experience in large destinations. Smart watches and tech wristbands can do anything from opening your cabin door on a cruise to downloading your boarding pass on a plane or even voice activating local directions.

4. Explore new technologies

   Recent advancements in audio technologies like Listen Technologies’ Navilution® Wi-Fi, an automated GPS multilingual commentary system, are proving a win/win for both visitors and tour operators.

5. Accessibility & Inclusivity

   Accessibility of a city and its points of interests can be enhanced by smart technologies through creating maps with wheelchair-friendly routes and access points. Where accessibility has always been an important topic, inclusivity is gaining importance quickly in life, and in tourism.

6. Sustainable travel

   Smart cities have the potential to be much more sustainable than non-smart cities. A very simple example of sustainable smart tourism is: if you do a city tour with an app, no flyers, paper maps, or other receipts and tickets are required.

7. Open data

   Where Europe is mainly utilizing smart solutions in order to show innovation, Australia focuses on smart governance and specifically open data. A concrete example: Tourism Australia has partnered with Virgin Airlines to assist in trip planning by sharing data such as destination interests.

The Ultimate Smart City Parking Guide 2021

Munich, February 19th 2021 - Cleverciti is proud to announce the publication of the Ultimate Smart City Parking Guide 2021. The complete guide can be downloaded here.

Why an Ultimate Smart City Parking Guide?

Because smart cities are becoming both increasingly popular and important.

What can you expect from the Ultimate Smart City Parking Guide 2021?

• A detailed analysis of the challenges that cities face today
• Real solutions that tackle these challenges
• The influence of climate change on the development of smart cities
• Insights into the future of smart cities in 2021 and beyond
• The role of smart parking in the development of smart cities
• Emission reduction due to smart parking
• Concrete use cases of smart parking solutions in smart cities

Download the guide now: Download the guide here.

Smart cities will rise

In 2019, there was a lot of buzz around the concept of “smart” or connected cities.

Parking will continue to be an uphill battle

We expect parking issues will get worse before smart parking trends get better.

The opportunity of ride-hailing services

The complexity of parking has propelled the popularity of ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft.

Entering mainstream conversations

While consumers innately understand the parking challenges they face every day, awareness of smart parking solutions has been low in the general population.

Deep Tech is coming and it will solve some very tough problems

Since long we have been talking about high-end technologies or scientific techniques that would help revolutionise the world when used together or in conjunction with each other. Here’s a look at few of the many companies developing applications using deep technology startups that can drastically change the way things function today.

Ecological applications

• Graphene-XT has developed a graphene suspension that produces high-grade graphene at lower costs with reduced environmental impact helping strengthen several industrial sectors.

Daily-life Applications

• Trinckle 3D opens up the world of 3D printing to commoners by reducing barriers with the help of a cloud-based platform.

The Indian Picture

• Imaginate focuses on integrating computer vision and AR/VR to deliver deep tech solutions.