The Platform Operation in the PECT TurisTIC in Family project, which is now in its final few months, today unveiled its main deliverable: the ‘Trip&Kids’ web app, a technology platform for managing tourism services. This new tool positions Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre destinations as domestic and international pacesetters by deploying management, recommendation and gamification tools to meet the digitalisation needs of businesses and organisations, especially SMEs, and family tourism in segments including sun and beach, heritage and wine culture.
The platform has been developed by the Eurecat technology centre in conjunction with Tarragona Provincial Council’s Tourist Board and is closely aligned with family tourism strategy and needs on the Costa Daurada and in Terres de l’Ebre to address the specific exigencies of families when they are on holiday. It has been rolled out over the last three years as part of the Territorial Competitiveness and Specialisation Project (PECT in its acronym in Catalan) TurisTIC in Family led and coordinated by Tarragona Provincial Council.
The platform was kicked off this Tuesday, 6 July, at a launch event held in the Provincial Council’s Auditorium and was introduced by Ignacio de las Cuevas, Operations Director in Eurecat’s Tourism Innovation Department.
‘Trip&Kids’ is a tool that “turns the Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre into two groundbreaking destinations in tourism services digitalisation,” says Xavier Torra, Eurecat’s chair. It is an outstanding example “of tourism’s need and ability to innovate and deliver technological solutions to the challenges of digital transformation, sustainability and enhancing the visitor experience and safety in the current situation.”
“Projects such as the PECT TurisTIC in Family are crucial in driving and upgrading our economy,” notes Noemí Llauradó, chair of Tarragona Provincial Council. “They are extremely valuable at this time in terms of restarting the tourism industry and the economy in general in our region.”
“Partnership and teamwork have been the cornerstones in developing this new technology platform in response to the challenge of innovating, designing new products and becoming more competitive to position the Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre as flagship family-friendly tourism destinations,” adds Meritxell Roigé, deputy chair of Tarragona Provincial Council and chair of its Tourist Board.
This information and recommendation technology platform “delivers features and usability for various kinds of users such as tourists, businesses, destinations and local residents who can reap the benefits,” argues Gerard Macià, lead for the PECT TurisTIC in Family Platforms in Eurecat’s Tourism Innovation Department.
The web app enables tourism operators, managers, businesses and organisations to digitally manage the family tourism experiences they provide and their bookings from their mobile phones as it adapts to any type of device and in real time. The platform also helps tourist destinations handle visitor flows by using gamification tools tailored to family tourists to foster safe tourism and sustainable resource use.
As for the tourists themselves, ‘Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre Trip&Kids’ enhances the experience of families by recommending bespoke activities in real time based on their interests, the age of their children and aspects of their surroundings such as the weather, crowds, safety restrictions, parking availability and where children’s playgrounds are along with other services by integrating external sources of information and sensors. Plus the gamification resources in place allow visitors to play games to learn about the region’s assets and make culture more accessible to children.
Territorial Competitiveness and Specialisation Project TurisTIC in Family
The PECT TurisTIC in Family is an intervention initiative coordinated by Tarragona Provincial Council. Its partners are Tarragona Provincial Council, Tarragona Provincial Council’s Tourist Board (Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre), Rovira i Virgili University (Functional Nutrition, Oxidation and Cardiovascular Disease Research Group; NFOC Salut), Eurecat’s Tourism Innovation Department, Montblanc Town Council, the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) and the CENFIM interior furnishings and hotel contract cluster.
The TurisTIC Operation 4 Platforms project is co-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the Catalonia ERDF Operational Programme 2014-2020, investment in growth and employment objective, and Tarragona Provincial Council.
You can view Costa Daurada Trip&Kids here
You can view Terres de l’Ebre Trip&Kids here
