Through the ‘Smart Tourist Destinations’ call launched by Red. es thanks to ERDF co-financing through the Spanish Multi-regional Operational Programme (POPE), SICE has been awarded the supply for the development of the “Salou Smart Tourism” initiative, whose work will promote the application of information and communication technologies in the municipality, with differential and competitive services that will guarantee, in turn, sustainable development, accessible to all, which will improve the visitor’s experience and the quality of life of the resident.
The ‘Salou Smart Tourism’ initiative is based on the implementation of a Smart Tourism Destination platform, the main component of the project. This is specifically the Smart Platform developed by SICE, called KALIOPE PF (“powered by FIWARE”), which will act as the integrating core of the initiative, allowing all the elements to be interconnected, providing a single vision and integrated information management. It will also make it easier for different users to exploit and visualise the data. It also incorporates business intelligence (BI) and dashboard tools for the control and operational management of each of the components from the platform itself.
Under the Platform, a first block of components or verticals aim to analyse the mobility and transport of the citizens and tourists of Salou, in terms of parking occupancy levels, mobility of users and vehicles, and use of public transport; as well as mobility flows through analyses based on big data. Thanks to this, the City Council will be able to understand and predict patterns of behaviour, make forecasts of demand for use, study ways of applying the conclusions in tourism management and improve the planning of public services and marketing campaigns. In this respect, cameras will be installed on the main entrance roads to the municipality for number plate recognition and real-time traffic visualisation, which will be integrated with the management software already existing in the CPD of the Local Police. In addition, a network of sensors will be deployed to count people in buildings or specific points, and vehicles in two areas of the Poniente and Levante promenades.
The second component block is purely oriented towards tourists. It includes the development of a progressive mobile web application – which does not require installation on the device – to provide visitors and residents with information and functionalities to improve their experience in the municipality. A system of tourist signage will also be implemented using QR codes at 133 points of interest distributed along four cultural routes, which will link to specific content in the app; digital content will be created related to the itineraries and tourist and historical resources of the municipality (Salou 1900, Architecture of the 60s, Roman Villa of Barenys, Iberian settlement of La Cella, Camino de Ronda, …), and interactive totems and information screens will be installed.
Finally, the project emphasises sustainability and energy saving with a last block of components based on the implementation of a remote management system for public lighting and the renovation of LED luminaires on the seafront of the Miramar and Jaume I promenades; in addition to the remote management of the irrigation system on the Jaume I promenade, to monitor consumption, humidity and temperature. Two control stations will also be installed to monitor the weather and environmental conditions in Salou.
Salou is considered a benchmark tourist destination in Europe and the most important tourist spot on the Costa Daurada, and its tourist activity is based on sun and beach and family tourism, as well as leisure, sports and gastronomy. The project that SICE has begun will allow new elements to be incorporated into the city, mainly of a technological nature, which will enable a qualitative leap to be made in the services that Salou offers its visitors and citizens, fully addressing its transformation into a Smart City, a Smart Destination.
