TurisTIC

A tourist game simulation, winner of the hackathon organized within the framework of the day

More than 200 people gathered at the Verbum of Vigo in the II TurisTIC Conference of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra, focused on “Intelligent Tourism”, a meeting that served to continue bringing new technologies to the tourism sector while generating synergies and tackling some of the challenges facing the sector immediately. The initiative, promoted by the Provincial Council of Pontevedra and Minube had the collaboration of SmartPeme and the Galician Tourism Cluster, which supported the organization of teamwork sessions held prior to the meeting. A “hackathon” that counted with the participation of 28 people that were grouped in teams to give new answers and to look for useful technological applications for the sector. Finally, it was a fun dynamic tourist game in which the user has to visit tourist destinations and overcome challenges in their journey was the winner of the first hackathon DESTInno.

The application called Domingo Fontán Challenge, in allusion to the Portas geographer who in the 19th century completed the feat of drawing a very precise map of Galicia, was developed by Celso Gómez Corbal, Luis Eduardo Castro Rodríguez and Jarold Meléndez Lugo. The second prize went to the Niiru project, a kind of Big Data that compiles all the interests when planning a trip and proposes appropriate routes. Finally, third place went to an app designed for people over 55 who opt for intelligent tourism.

Public-private collaboration and synergies
The president of the provincial institution, Carmela Silva, stressed the importance of this type of meeting in which synergies are added and bets on Intelligent Tourist Destinations and ICT. “The administrations have to be references of change, be aware of the new that is emerging in society to implement it and turn it into resources that guarantee the future of the territories. The provincial president also said that to achieve this requires a commitment of public administration with the public sector and staff. “We need administrations to become agents of change, because public institutions manage people’s resources and we must return them to them in the form of new ideas aimed at building a common project so that citizens have a quality future.

The president of the Provincial Council participated in one of the round tables of the day, along with the delegate of the Zona Franca, David Regades, Javier Yagüe, responsible for the System of ICT Management and innovation at Vigo airport, who spoke about the smart airport, and Fernando Fraile, director of the Institute for Quality Tourism. Fraile, who made a journey through successful public-private partnerships developed since the birth of the Q for Quality in the 1990s.

The second presentation included the participation of SEGITUR’s project manager, Edurne Vidal; AENOR’s product development manager; and the tourism expert and president of Spain Live Music, Iñaki Gaztelumendi. Moderator David Villar, leader of Specialization and Governance of CTIC Asturias, introduced the concept of “Governance within Intelligent Destinations”. The conference also had the presentation on “Innovation applied to tourism marketing”, led by the director of Paradores de Cambados y Pontevedra, Meritxell Marcos and Enrique Gonzalez, manager of Marketing, Blockchain and Big Data in Telefonica.

Finally the day was completed with two round tables, one of success stories and the application of new technologies to the tourism sector in the province of Pontevedra, moderated by the head of the advisory program and training courses TurisTIC Sonia Torres, and in which the protagonism was for companies in the province, and a second table, moderated by Enrique González, in which the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, his counterpart of the Galician ICT Cluster, Antonio Rodríguez, and the president of the Spanish Association of Artificial Intelligence, Amparo Alonso, participated.