On the 31st of October, after more than 3 years of hard work, an exciting collaboration titled Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot TRL 7-9 came to an end. We are happy to say that the project achieved, in some parts also exceeded, all goals set.
Let’s dive into the past for a while. Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot TRL 7-9 project was a continuation of the biggest R&D public funded project in the field of tourism in Slovenia, Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6 research project. The main goal of the Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6 ‘research and development’ project was to build a collaborative Tourism 4.0 platform as a disruptive technological solution built on trust and exchange of data between all tourism stakeholders for sprouting a new generation of tourist applications, services and processes all the while respecting the user’s data privacy.
Tourism 4.0 is after all an entirely new paradigm and Arctur is proudly leading its development collaborating with various stakeholders in the process. To put it shortly, Tourism 4.0 adapts the concepts from Industry 4.0 to the tourism sector by introducing new business models supported with technology such as IoT, big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, VR and AR in order to build a collaborative tourism ecosystem.
Being at the helm of the Tourism 4.0 development, Arctur aimed at taking the findings accrued within the Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6 project even a step further and as a consequence the Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot TRL 7-9 has been born. The consortium consisted of a whooping 14 partners, coming from tourism and with the hi-tech background, devoted to advance the development of the integral technology pillars of T4.0 ecosystem and setting up the first Tourism 4.0 Living Lab Slovenia.
If it sounds like a handful, then it probably is, and we haven’t even factored in the COVID-19 pandemic yet. During the COVID-19 pandemic most of the tourism companies closed their operations and Arctur, being the lead partner in the Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot project, reacted innovatively. We took the opportunity to recognize the specific tourism-related problems that the pandemic uncovered and used the project’s creative environment to develop innovative Tourism 4.0 applications, an award-winning Smart Camper Stop being one of them. In course of it all the project’s hi-tech partners, being less affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns, maintained the schedule on producing the aforementioned technology pillars of the T4.0 ecosystem.
After all is said and done, the Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot TRL 7-9 not only achieved set goals but also developed other innovations in the process. Wouldn’t you call that a success? All of the project’s KPI’s have been reached, with over 230.000 thousand users of the developed Tourism 4.0 applications! The Tourism 4.0 Living Lab, set up in the Slovenian campsite Menina, attracted more than 4.000 tourists of the future – establishing such a Tourism 4.0 centre creates huge opportunities for the promotion and recognition of Slovenia as the most innovative and sustainable tourist destination in the EU and other parts of the world beyond it.
To sum everything up: The Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot produced 22 Tourism 4.0 applications, 3 new Tourism 4.0 business models, 204 involved Tourism 4.0 Stakeholders and 233,313 active Tourists 4.0.
Everything stated above is proudly presented in the Tourism 4.0 Demo Pilot’s closing video and described in depth in the Booklet Demo piloti Turizem 4.0. We are talking about 72 pages of pure excitement and fun, something that is fundamental to creating ideas that grow. We want to give you inspiration and energy to seize all of life’s challenges so please dive into the challenges faced and solutions developed within the scope of this amazing project. At Arctur, we don’t follow the changes, we co-create them! Thank you for co-creating the future with us.
