Smart tourism makes a smart city

Smart tourism plays a key role in the development of smart cities, as initiatives to attract tourists can cause a significant increase in people and cars in even the smallest of towns. Smart solutions, such as smart parking, can make a good destination into a great destination. 

Smart tourism in short

According to the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, a smart tourism destination is:

“A destination facilitating access to tourism and hospitality products, services, spaces, and experiences through ICT-based tools. It is a healthy social and cultural environment, which can be found through a focus on the city’s social and human capital. It also implements innovative, intelligent solutions and fosters the development of entrepreneurial businesses and their interconnectedness.”

Smart tourism vs. Smart parking

Tourism causes traffic influx in popular tourist destinations resulting in rush hours with more and more people searching for parking spaces. Smart parking solutions detect parking space availability in real-time, helping to optimize on-street parking around busy areas. 

The average tourist aims to park their vehicle in the city center or as close to major tourist attractions, such as beaches or ski resorts, as possible. The resulting search traffic not only increases congestion and traffic hazards but also influences the quality of life for residents and visitors alike. Smart parking solutions help reduce search traffic by providing turn-by-turn guidance navigating drivers to the most convenient (nearest) parking space.

The average driver spends ten to twenty minutes each time they search for a parking space—a waste of time and a serious stressor with a negative environmental impact. Smart parking solutions can remedy the situation and considerably enhance the experience that smart tourism provides. 

Smart tourism in practice

Public-private partnership is essential when running a smart tourism initiative. A public-private partnership means that two or more public and private organizations make a long-term arrangement to work together. In other words, governments and businesses come together to complete a project or to provide services to the inhabitants. A great example of a public-private partnership is the project that Cleverciti did in collaboration with the tourism agency of the Lübeck Bay, where smart parking sensors were placed near the local beaches to measure occupancy and availability and guide the visitor to the nearest available spot. This project was honoured with the German Tourism Price 2020. 

Other examples of smart tourism initiatives are a public water fountain locator as part of a tourism website, or an app that offers city tours with audio to be downloaded on the visitor’s own device. The great thing about smart tourism apps: they are not dependent on seasonality. 

Want to know more about smart tourism? Read our article on the 7 future trends of smart tourism here. 

If you would like to know how to turn your city into a smart tourism destination, then book a meeting with one of our smart parking experts by clicking the button below. 

As more and more smart cities emerge all over the world, smart tourism is becoming increasingly important. The difference between the two? Smart cities focus primarily on improving the lives of their residents, whereas smart tourism initiatives are focused on pleasing visitors, whilst also enhancing the quality of life for local residents.

A key aspect of any smart destination is the integration of ICTs into physical infrastructure (Gretzel, Sigala, et al., 2015). When a tourism destination gets smarter, the tourists’ needs and demands are expected to be fulfilled more efficiently to create a better tourist experience. Smart apps and products are implemented across the user’s experience to accommodate the visitors that come to explore their city, such as virtual 3D city maps, LED-animations to illuminate iconic buildings, tourism websites with smart apps such as a water fountain locator, but also something as ‘simple’ as creating free Wi-Fi network accessible around the city. 

Time for us to take a look at some of the future trends of smart tourism:

1. Accommodate booking beforehand

The way people like to book things is changing - more and more people book accommodations but also activities before leaving their homes. If anything, what Corona has taught us is that time is precious and nothing is self-evident, therefore people want to make sure they are getting the experiences they want by planning and booking more beforehand. This also works for planning ahead on location; in the north of Germany, in Lübeck Bay, the local tourism office has implemented sensors at the entry and exit points of a few adjacent beaches that can be tracked in real-time by its guests, and again at the nearby parking lots. Let’s say, for example, that you were planning to visit Timmendorfer Strand, but the live ticker on the website shows you that the beach at Scharbeutz is actually a lot less busy today. You might want to adapt your plan and go there instead. 

2. Utilize the current BYOD-culture

Some tourist operators do this already, and the tourist operators that aren’t should consider facilitating the BYOD-culture (‘Bring Your Own Device’) by making tours accessible from a visitor’s smartphone. People are glued to their phones and tablets these days and generally like to use their own devices to explore a city. Create an app to guide visitors through the city for example, by showing them on a map where the next public restroom is. This is the type of information a tourist would benefit greatly from. 

3. Wearable technology

Wearable technology is enhancing the tourist experience in large destinations. Smart watches and tech wristbands can do anything from opening your cabin door on a cruise to downloading your boarding pass on a plane or even voice activating local directions. 

4. Explore new technologies

As is shown by the examples above, technology makes tours more accessible: Recent advancements in audio technologies like Listen Technologies’  Navilution® Wi-Fi, an automated GPS multilingual commentary system, are proving a win/win for both visitors and tour operators. Navilution also allows tour operators to collect, analyze, and share passenger information, making their job of building stronger sales and marketing solutions considerably easier and more powerful, plus enhancing the guest experience.

5. Accessibility & Inclusivity

 Accessibility of a city and its points of interests can, for example, be enhanced by smart technologies through creating maps with wheelchair-friendly routes and access points. Where accessibility has always been and will always be an important topic, inclusivity is perhaps a rather new development that is gaining importance quickly in life, and in tourism. The great thing about technology and apps is that it’s available to anyone with a smartphone; regardless of race, gender, income level, sexual orientation. A nice example of inclusive tourism are beacons placed at touristic sights that Amsterdam uses to let tourist signs translate themselves into different languages. 

6. Sustainable travel

Smart cities have the potential to be much more sustainable than non-smart cities. Same goes for tourism. People don’t want to feel guilty about going on a trip. They want to still enjoy traveling, but limit the negative effects on climate as well. A very simple example of sustainable smart tourism is: if you do a city tour with an app, no flyers, paper maps, or other receipts and tickets are required; hence, you’re saving paper. Sustainable travel is a field where smart initiatives such as a smart waste collection or smart parking can come into play. More and more cities are creating mobility hubs outside of the city center with good public transport connections to the inner city and/or rental bike stations or rental e-scooters. Additionally, smart parking sensors are currently applied already to monitor and optimize the use of e-cars. And that’s only the very beginning…

7. Open data

Where Europe is mainly utilizing smart solutions in order to show innovation and create a competitive edge compared to other destinations, Australia takes a different approach and focuses on smart governance and specifically open data. A concrete example: Tourism Australia and Virgin Airlines partnered together to understand user journeys and assist in trip planning by sharing data such as destination interests in order to provide personalized airline deals and offers. 

Want to talk to a smart parking expert to see what they could do to transform your city into a smarter tourism destination? Book a demo by clicking the button below. 

This year’s edition of the world-renowned tourism fair ITB Berlin took place online from March 9th to March 12th. On March 10th, Cleverciti and the Tourism Association of the Lübeck Bay took the stage on Expo Stage 2 to talk about our successful project in one of Germany’s most touristic regions on the North Coast, where we tackled the high traffic increase in summer with an ingenious smart parking system that benefits both tourists and locals. The speaker panel consisted of Thomas Hohenacker, CEO and Founder at Cleverciti, David Parker, COO at Cleverciti and Paul Stellmacher, Deputy Board Member of Tourism Association “Lübecker Bucht”. 

“Successfully Managing Overtourism with an Award-Winning Parking Guidance solution”

As will be touched on later, this has turned out to be an exceptionally successful project for all parties involved. 

After short introductions, the speakers kicked off by briefly sharing the challenge at hand:

• Lübeck Bay is a top regional tourism destination, only 1 hour away from Hamburg

• It has 3 million annual visitors of which 1.5 million day visitors are drawn towards the beautiful beaches

• The area is filled with overcrowded hotspots with lead to massive congestion

• There is actually plenty of free parking space in lesser-known areas along the coast

• All of this was exacerbated by COVID as local tourism and social distancing became the number one priority. 

To solve these challenges, a traffic light system was deployed for the beaches and the surrounding parking areas, within an app called “Strandticker.de”. With Strandticker, visitors get steered to “green” areas and steered away from “red” and “yellow” areas. How? By showing a traffic light on a map of the tourism area. The data for the traffic lights come from beach occupancy sensors, installed at all entry points to the beaches, and parking occupancy sensors, installed at all parking areas along the beach. The acceptance of this app has been absolutely overwhelming! Since the launch in 2020, a staggering 400,000 unique users adopted the app with 4 million views within the app store. 

Reduce parking search

As for parking specifically, the main challenge in Lübeck Bay was to steer cars directly to the nearest and best parking space, instead of visitors driving to one of the most known parking areas, just to find there is no space anymore and then parking in illegal areas instead.

As said, this led to a simple “traffic light” system for both the beaches and the parking spots, where the visitors can see the exact occupancy status at a glance, quickly finding available parking and make better decisions on their way to the beach. The parking sensors are updated in near real-time which means that a few seconds after the car has parked, the sensor marks the spot as ‘taken’. 

Award-winning solution

This concept recently won two coveted Deutscher Tourismuspreis 2020 awards - 2nd Prize overall, and the People’s Choice Award. Reason enough for all parties involved to expand the system regionally! 

Future expansion

Next year, the system will be expanded to cover more locations within Scharbeutz and more cities throughout Lübeck Bay. In addition to that, more digital guidance will be added at key decision points to cover 100% of the driver experience in the area. And last but not least, the currently isolated data sources will be combined together to establish a predictive element: “If I leave Hamburg now, will there still be space in 1 hour?” Cleverciti is thrilled to partner with Lübeck Bay on this project and is looking forward to what is still to come.

After the audience learned a bit more about the project and its success, a few more questions came up in the Q&A section:

Why was parking guidance so important in solving the challenge at Lübeck Bay?

Though it is not often said, parking search actually is an immense cost to society, as is shown by these (rather shocking) numbers:

• 6.8 billion hours per year are wasted due to parking search, 

• 28 million metric tons CO2 is emitted per year (that’s 1.3 billion trees!) due to parking search,

• 132 billion dollars are lost per year and,

• 30% of all traffic is unnecessary*. 

*In the US, UK & Germany alone. 

Source: Innix Parking Pain Study & Donald Shoup: “The High Cost of Free Parking”

Why Cleverciti?

The next question was: why did the Tourism Association pick Cleverciti to handle their parking challenge? Cleverciti, as is illustrated by the case in Lübeck Bay, offers an accurate, real-time, per-space detection system in combination with turn-by-turn guidance to the nearest space. How? By using Cleverciti Sensors & Cleverciti Circ 360®. Each is easy to install and compatible with all public safety and privacy concerns as the sensors only transfer the GPS location of the cars. Also, both are installed on existing infrastructure, which reduces deployment costs. 

What is unique about Cleverciti’s parking guidance system?

What makes Cleverciti stand out among other suppliers, is our system combines all existing parking data, meaning, not only data from garages but also on-street and off-street parking. This is the key factor to reducing traffic & emissions. 

Where can you currently find Cleverciti’s parking guidance systems?

Cleverciti is operational in 20 countries around the world. Also in major tourism destinations: in the heart of Dubai, Banff Canada, and now also in Lübeck Bay to name a few. The sensors and digital signage have therefore proven themselves to perform equally well in all types of environments and weather conditions.

Wrapping up

After answering a few more questions from the audience, Mr. Stellmacher had one final thought he wanted to share with the audience:

“Visitor guidance systems using parking sensors; it’s very simple, they just work. It’s existing technology put together in a new way that is worth your consideration.”

Interested to learn more about the project in Lubeck Bay? Read our recently published case study going into detail on the project. 

Or watch the full ITB presentation below:

In Lübeck Bay, a popular tourist region on the northern coast of Germany, Cleverciti has helped to effectively steer the visitor traffic flow by implementing Cleverciti Sensors and the Cleverciti Cockpit to monitor and generate real-time data for over 100 parking spaces along the coastline. 

Scharbeutz

The customer

With approximately 1.5 million overnight stays and 1.5 million day visitors per year, Lübeck Bay is one of the most popular tourist regions in Germany and one of the top destinations in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Due to its close proximity to the city of Hamburg, it is a beloved trip for people that want to escape city life and enjoy some quality time at the beaches of Scharbeutz and Timmendorf. The Tourismus-Agentur Lübecker Bucht is responsible for the promotion and sustainable development of tourism along the entire stretch of the coast. The agency is made up of representatives of three adjacent municipalities – Scharbeutz, Neustadt, and Sierksdorf – to enable a coordinated smart tourism approach.

The case

Lübeck Bay welcomes a high volume of guests especially in the summer, resulting in traffic congestion as tourists search for available parking spaces. One of the main challenges of the area is the lack of information regarding the occupancy status of the various parking lots near the seaside. The local tourism agency wishes to manage the visitor flow alongside the coast more efficiently. To be able to do that, Cleverciti was selected to implement smart parking systems to monitor the real-time occupancy status of two parking lots near a popular beach.

The Cleverciti solution

Cleverciti monitors approximately 100 parking spaces divided over two parking lots via 9 overhead Cleverciti Sensors, which were easily installed to the existing lamp posts. The occupancy data generated by the smart parking sensors are made available to the tourism agency via the Cleverciti Cockpit, a comprehensive parking management dashboard. 

Cleverciti Sensor in use in Lübeck Bay

“Cleverciti has implemented the project in an excellent way. They have fully responded to our wishes and needs and have delivered high quality. We are looking forward to the next steps,” says Paul Stellmacher, Deputy Chairman of the Tourismus-Agentur Lübecker Bucht.

The result

The Cleverciti parking system was installed and deployed quickly and easily. The operation of the sensors is now running without any administrative or operational effort by the tourism agency. The live parking data is integrated into various websites, reducing parking search time for tourists and improving the quality of life for local inhabitants. 

In addition to that, the Tourismus-Agentur Lübecker Bucht has been awarded the German Tourism Award 2020 for its concept to better direct visitor streams. The agency was one of five nominees out of 158 applicants. Due to its ongoing success, the Cleverciti system will be rolled out to other parking lots in Lübeck Bay.

Download the full case study below.

During these difficult times when public health is of the highest priority and traveling is difficult or impossible, most of us have come to realize just how much we appreciate visiting new destinations. It’s become such a big part of our lives, and now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it turns out to be one of the things we miss most. 

Typically, tourism is one of the major components of economic growth for communities worldwide, but the pandemic has hit the tourism industry hard. The industry has been forced to find new ways to come back from this setback stronger. Right now, more than ever, it is important for the tourism sector to think differently and embrace innovation in preparation for the inevitable influx of visitors. 

Innovations and initiatives are on the rise in the area of ‘smart tourism’. But what is smart tourism exactly? According to the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, a smart tourism destination is:

“A destination facilitating access to tourism and hospitality products, services, spaces, and experiences through ICT-based tools. It is a healthy social and cultural environment, which can be found through a focus on the city’s social and human capital. It also implements innovative, intelligent solutions and fosters the development of entrepreneurial businesses and their interconnectedness.”

Founded in 2019, the European Capital of Smart Tourism is an initiative that aims to raise awareness about smart tourism tools, measures, and projects implemented in cities across four categories: sustainability, accessibility, digitalization, and cultural heritage and creativity. In 2019 and 2020 two European cities were named European Capital of Smart Tourism and four cities have been awarded a prize in one of the four above-mentioned categories. 

Smart tourism plays a vital role in the development of smart cities, as initiatives to attract tourists can cause a significant increase in people and cars in even the smallest of towns. This, in turn, greatly affects the traffic in the location in question, with more and more people searching for parking spaces. The average tourist aims to park their vehicle in the city center or as close to major tourist attractions, such as beaches or ski resorts, as possible. The resulting search traffic not only increases congestion and traffic hazards but also influences the quality of life of residents and visitors alike. Smart parking solutions can remedy the situation and considerably enhance the experience that smart tourism provides. 

There are 9 cities in Europe that have already been praised by the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative for their smart approach to tourism. When the time comes, and we are able to travel again, perhaps visiting one of these 9 European smart tourism destinations should be high on your list:

1. Gothenburg, named European Capital of Smart Tourism 2020 and winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2020 in the category of Sustainability.

Gothenburg, according to the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, has implemented far-reaching measures, to ensure future generations can continue to enjoy the city. The recently released Smart Map encourages citizen engagement by gathering all the places you can rent, exchange, borrow, share, give and get in Gothenburg. Min Stad is a 3D city model that can be used by developers, architects and planners to host public consultations, anticipate the impact of future development and make better-informed decisions. Gothenburg bases 60% of its district heating on waste/recycled heat. In Gothenburg, 90% of all buildings are heated using district heating, while the corresponding figure for the EU is 12%. The city was a pioneer in issuing green bonds and was one of the first places to set consumption-based emission targets. 92% of the city’s hotels and 100% of meeting facilities are now environmentally certified and events that take place in the city benefit from the “Event Impact Calculator”, a tool that has come as a result of local tech and science partnerships that forecasts potential environmental impacts and supports organizers to value events from an economic, social and environmental point of view. It is because of these initiatives that, for the past three years, Gothenburg has been named the world’s most sustainable destination, by the Global Destination Sustainability Index.

For more details, visit www.goteborgco.se/en/ and www.goteborg.com. 

2. Málaga, named European Capital of Smart Tourism 2020 and winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2019 in the category of Accessibility. 

Málaga has been awarded by the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, because - in their own words - “Málaga has been incorporating the concepts of sustainability, innovation, and culture into their strategic plans for many years. There is a constant exchange between visitors and the government’s tourism services so that Málaga can do more to meet the needs of visitors. In terms of sustainability, Málaga works in all spheres – it has installed public LED lighting, offers over 20 bike hire stations, and created bike lanes that now add up to over 40km. The city has installed smart watering systems for parks and gardens in order to save water and has introduced an Air Quality Sectoral Plan to reduce air pollution, monitor pollen levels, and improve noise quality. Málaga has also upgraded street cleaning equipment and has worked on better waste separation in the city center.” The city has a fully-adapted bus network, vast pedestrian spaces including the refurbished Alameda Principal, plus 50% of Málaga taxis have been upgraded. Digitalization forms an essential part of the tourism experience in Málaga too and the city has a high-profile digital sector. This includes the Polo Digital at the Tabacalera and the Andalusian Technological Park (PTA). Over the last 15 years, the city has transformed into the “City of Museums” with well over 30 museums to visit. 

For more details, visit: www.malagaturismo.com/es/site/smarttourism

3. Breda, winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2020 in the category of Accessibility. 

Examples of initiatives from Breda include the use of technology and ICT to improve the visiting experience in Breda and to measure those results. For example, animations are used to illuminate iconic buildings in the city, such as the Spanjaardsgat and the castle of Breda. In addition, sustainable LED lighting puts locations such as the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk and Willemstraat, the smartest street in Breda, in the spotlight. Various further developments are also planned for 2020. For example, Breda will focus on smart experience, maximum accessibility, and hospitality during the Vuelta a Holanda. There will be a special stand for people with a disability and route maps in Braille for the blind. The Vuelta will be the living lab for testing new digital technologies of flow, crowd management, and digital experiences.

4. Ljubljana, winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2020 in the category of Digitalisation ánd winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2019 in the category of Sustainability. 

According to the European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, Ljubljana’s proactive approach to sustainability has meant it has been able to exceed its own tourism quota for the period of 2014 – 2020. Over 90% of local residents agree that developing tourism leads to development for the city. As one of Europe’s green capitals, 20% of the city consists of protected natural areas, and new initiatives are helping to turn degraded areas into even more public space. There has also been a push to get more local produce into hotels and restaurants, supporting the environment while promoting Slovenian food, wine, and beer. The jury was particularly impressed by Ljubljana's various smart solutions including the official tourism website with its rich content and a series of apps - especially the Tap water app for locating water fountains all around the city.

5. Karlsruhe, winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2020 in the category of Cultural Heritage & Creativity.

Home to Germany’s oldest technical university and Europe’s largest IT cluster, Karlsruhe has long been a digital hub and innovation hotspot. Karlsruhe is working on the consolidation and digitalization of all offers in a unique “digital@KA” app to simplify visitors’ experiences with cultural programs, local transport, and citizen services. From the Karlsruhe NaturRADtour, which invites visitors to explore Germany’s most bicycle-friendly city, to the “Kombilösung” project to improve accessibility, the City of Karlsruhe has implemented several projects and innovative mobility technologies to cultivate an accessible and sustainably managed city for locals and travelers alike. 

6. Helsinki, named European Capital of Smart Tourism in 2019.

The city’s smart public transport system enjoyed a rise in user satisfaction over the last two years and Helsinki isn’t standing still. An ‘Uber boat’ system is under consideration and driverless buses are being trialed on open streets. Helsinki ranked second at the Accessible City Awards in 2015. And, if you do need any extra help, multilingual ‘Helsinki Helpers’ are stationed at main attractions to offer assistance.

Visitors will see first-hand some of the 143 measures in place to help Helsinki become carbon neutral by 2035. The Helsinki Road Map prevents overcrowding and supports local business as it guides tourists around the city, while 75% of hotel rooms are certified environmentally friendly. Helsinki is also increasing the share of cycling, walking, and electric cars and trains.

Powered by its open approach to public data – available free for all since 2009 – Helsinki has become a hotbed of software innovation. One of the major successes is the MyHelsinki.fi website, an ad-free service platform featuring recommendations from the people who know the city best – the locals. Read more about it here: Helsinki’s Preliminary Programme of Activities as 2019 European Capital of Smart Tourism.

For more details, visit myhelsinki.fi.

7. Lyon, named European Capital of Smart Tourism in 2019. 

Lyon has won several accolades for accessibility — including the 2018 Access City Award — having put its plan at the center of urban life. Visitors with disabilities and reduced mobility can move around the city with complete autonomy, taking advantage of a completely adapted transport network and smart signage. Lyon’s museums offer adapted tours — those with hearing impairments are allowed to touch works of art — and many restaurants provide speaking menus.

This year, 40,000 visitors to the city experienced the benefits of the Lyon City Card, which provides users with free public transport, entrance to 23 museums and other attractions, discounts, and more. In the future, visitors will be able to take advantage of the ONLYLYON Experience, receiving live geo-located tourist information direct to their smartphones to reduce congestion.

Read here: Lyon’s Preliminary Programme of Activities as 2019 European Capital of Smart Tourism

For more details, visit ONLYLYON.com.

8. Copenhagen, winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2019 in the category of Digitalisation. 

The European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative chose Copenhagen because of the following reasons: On arrival in the city, the innovative Copenhagen Visitor Service is the first point of call, where tourists can grasp everything the city has to offer, through moving posters, robotics, or even by putting on a pair of VR goggles and experiencing the city’s best attractions through the eyes of a couple, locals, a family or seniors. Once tourists leave the visitor service they can make use of the city’s app, which guides users between attractions. Within the app, a tracking module that asks users for consent before activation gathers data so that the authorities can better understand movement patterns both around the city and at attractions on the outskirts. The data that is collected is helping to continually improve services.

9. Linz, winner of the European Capital of Smart Tourism Award 2019 in the category of Cultural Heritage & Creativity. 

Among other reasons, Linz was selected by the Initiative, because it boasts 43 galleries and exhibition rooms and 13 cultural centers, the most prestigious of which are located on the Kulturmeile (culture mile), a popular route for tourists that traces the bending Donau river. Whilst these spaces boast world-class collections, art in Linz isn’t just confined to galleries. Innovative formats such as Höhenrausch (loosely translated as “high jinks”), an art exhibition on the rooftops, are typical of the city’s creative approach. In addition to the art on display, Höhenrausch visitors will also be able to glimpse signs of Linz’s impressive industrial heritage, in the form of the factory chimneys that pierce the city’s skyline. Linzers are conscious of incorporating this aspect of history into the city’s cultural repertoire: the Voestalpine Stahlwelt museum pays homage to the steel industry that has been the backbone of Linz’s economy for almost a century; the Tabakfabrik is now a hub for the creative industry and the Mural Harbour is an industrial port turned blank canvas for graffiti artists from around the world.

These are the 9 European smart destinations to watch and learn from as smart tourism will become increasingly important over the next few years. Will your city be next?

Curious to see a real-life example of a smart tourism destination solving parking search and visitor congestion?