What does the city of Eindhoven have to do with some tourism hot spots in Mallorca? At first glance, not much, but tourism is now experience sharing good practices everywhere. Eindhoven is best known around the world for Philips. It is not known for its tourism. But it is a city, like the others, with a nightlife. And this is where the link with Mallorca can be made.
Segittur is a Spanish public company dedicated to the management of innovation and tourism technologies. Its objectives include improving tourism competitiveness thanks to new technologies and thus to the promotion of Spain’s image as a tourist destination.
Below the picture is how people behave – certain people – and also where these people behave, like tourist resorts of international importance due to the interest in them abroad.
In Eindhoven, they created something known as “Public Sound Sensor Safety”. It is an “intelligent surveillance system” which detects everything type of conflict from the analysis of the sound picked up by sensors on streetlights. This real-time sound detection is monitored at the police command center.
A sound heat map is created, while artificial intelligence is used to differentiate incidents, whether they are arguments or acts of aggression. Security cameras complete the surveillance. The operational decision-making of the police is thus optimized. In Eindhoven, there is a quick response to brawls and there is a quick response to prevent brawls in the city’s nightlife district.
I cannot say how effective this system is, but for Segittur it is an example of good practice, which can be found in a report of “fifty digital good practices for a new generation of destinations”. This is a timely report, it is fair to say, as it provides examples of what the digitization of tourism means. Now referred repeatedly in public statements, this digitization represents a panacea for the future, not only for tourism, but also for entire economies and lifestyles. A panacea, and yet what do most of us know about it?
Digitization is a word, a concept that is constantly circulating. We get the basics because we are aware (or should be) of daily digital existence, but digitization, as experts and politicians (which are not necessarily the same) talk about, has a deeper connotation. It will essentially govern our lives whether we like it or not.
The big bet of the European Union, via the sumptuous Next Generation funds, is on this movement, allied as it is to sustainability and the green economy. Resource management is one aspect of digitization, and resources include cops. The Eindhoven police, if they were lucky enough to have a a whole army of officers, would probably be able to stand guard in the nightlife district. But the strength of the city, like that of other cities or municipalities, can never be so great. Therefore, it is about being smart, and “smart” is used interchangeably with “smart” when it comes to the digitization of tourist destinations.
A Mallorcan hotspot, Punta Ballena, is periodically visited by an expeditionary force of law enforcement officers. But they cannot be permanent. The Eindhoven sensors could therefore be an app for the remaining period where Punta Ballena is a problem before it is finally transformed in something akin to Palma’s Born, and where the sensors will therefore only need to be tuned to detect the noise of motorcycles rented by Neapolitan gang members determined to snatch Rolex watches from the wrists of returning millionaire tourists. at the five star hotel beach club.
“The time to digitize is now. This is the title of page 13 of Segittur’s long report. The European digital decade, to which the report refers, offers a “huge opportunity for our (Spanish) tourism in the years to come”.
Among the major challenges are “capturing strategic tourism segments”, “increasing spending and traveler satisfaction”, “visitor retention” and “managing the overload of public services. created by tourism”. The latter signifies the likes of cops, while the other three – one might say – all apply to Punta Ballena and a digital transformation to accompany a physical transformation in Magaluf.
Additional challenges have been added due to Covid. The only example of good practice in the Balearic Islands, but also in Barcelona, Benidorm, Gandia and Salou, concerns “smart beaches”, for example the smart beach. application with real-time capacity data. Spain provides a number of the 50 good practices, which have also been collected from around the world. To name a few – Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Argentina and the Netherlands in the case of Eindhoven sensors .
The tourism revolution is here. It is being digitized. And that includes you.
