The EuroMed Tourism Innovation Platform (ETIP) that is under formation in the context of EuroMed Libeccio project was presented in the infoday organized by the Industrial Systems Institute (ISI) of the ATHENA Research Center and the Region of Western Greece (RWG) on November 24, 2024 in Patras, Greece in the context of Development Forum 2024.
EuroMed LIBECCIO relies on the collection and analysis of Big Data related to the tourism sector and focuses on creating a more efficient, sustainable and resilient tourism for the Mediterranean area. In Greece the pilot sites have been identified in the coastal Aegialeia and the coastal zone of Palaeros – Astakos in Aetoloacarnania.
“In the Region of Western Greece we create adequate tools for the promotion of our tourist product and in parallel we engage into an endeavor to give our potential visitors all necessary information to further stir their interest” mentioned in his opening the RWG Deputy Governor of Tourism Development Mr Panos Sakellaropoulos and focusing on the Mediterranean area he explained that “this area of the planet has a lot to offer. It is about countries that share the same sea, are lit by the same bright light of the sun and are inhabited by people with a common destiny. In this context they may enhance their common interests and advance in collaborations for the promotion of their tourism product”.
The important contribution of ICT in Tourism was emphasized by professor Chrysostomos Stylios, ISI Director, mentioning relevant innovations of the Institute.
«In an era of transition from service provision to provision of authentic experiences, new technologies seem to be possible to give bigger added value to tourism product than traditional approaches” he explained and added that “it is of imperative need for the companies to make the transition from conventional tourism governed by manual processes, isolated systems that are based on the business sense of professionals and the offer of generalized products, to digital tourism, governed by targeted products and services, characterized by the use of real data, interconnections and access to open platforms”.
ETIP was the focus of the speech of Dr Athanasios Kalogeras, Research Director at the Industrial Systems Institute. “LIBECCIO is a European funded project that focuses on more efficient, sustainable and resilient tourism in the EuroMed area” and he mentioned that its basic target is towards improving the governance and management of destinations, as well as increasing resilience against a number of risks exploiting destination data and updated information. The project has a strong consortium including ISI and RWG.
Mr Ioannis Mardikis (European Public Law Organization) talked about Dialogue4Tourism (D4T) project related to Sustainable Tourism in EuroMed. He mentioned that popular tourism destinations have had adverse effects from mass tourism, like deterioration of the natural environment, which have had important environmental and social impact. “It remains an opportunity for Greece to reflect on the repercussions of low budget tourism and turn towards strategies that can drive special kinds of tourism”. Referring to D4T, he emphasized that the project is related to undertaking initiatives in the Mediterranean, leading to “greener”, “smarter” and “more resilient” tourism.
Dr Christos Alexakos, Principal Researcher of ISI referred to the importance of the Data Analysis for Decision Support in the tourism sector, which is the target of Libeccio. “The LIBECCIO Destination Management Support System (DMSS) is a semantically enriched web platform that integrates datasets, sustainability indicators, and big data analysis for the exploitation of policies and data driven decision making”, was mentioned by Dr Alexakos, and he presented the two pillars of the project:
* The support of regional / national policy makers with analyses for the support of applied policies, evaluating their economic, social and environmental impacts and the overall tourism sustainability, providing a feedback framework related to a destination baseline.
* The provision of assistance to tourist destination organizations and businesses in monitoring the progress of visitor flows, improving the decision-making process regarding commercial strategies, service quality policies and marketing actions.
A discussion with stakeholders was then developed on the need to include the entire Quadruple Helix in the pilot areas and in the Tourism Innovation Platform.
