Page 65 - Smart tourism: A path to more secure and resilient destinations

5.6.3 Definition/explanation of the case:

In Rota, the touristic data such as the influx of tourists or overnight stays, among others, show that
the tourism sector is one of the main economic engines of the municipality. Rota is aware that the
economic and tourist promotion of the municipality requires the incorporation of new technologies
for its transformation into a Smart Tourist Destination, recognized nationally and internationally.

This transformation towards an intelligent tourist destination will allow Rota to increase its
competitiveness and revalue itself as a destination, improve the use of its natural and cultural
attractions, create new innovative tourist resources adapted to the current and future needs that
tourists demand, improving their experience before, during and after the trip, favouring the
interaction of the visitor with the municipality and improving the efficiency of services. It also
enables the generation of opportunities for the business sector under an umbrella of intelligent,
sustainable, innovative and integrated development.

Knowing how the tourist/visitor behaves in Rota and being able to act with the most appropriate
strategy to improve the marketing of the destination and the visitor's experience during their stay,
makes it crucial to know in a systematized way, among others, the following aspects:

• The number of visitors it receives. The location and size of Rota means that access to the
municipality is mostly by road by private vehicle, which has limited information to date on the
number of visitors and other data of interest such as origin due to the limited use of public
transport. The information on which tourism-related actions are defined comes mainly from the
INE and the IEA on hotel occupancy, from surveys carried out at the tourist office, which are not
a very representative sample, and from listening to the RRSS.
• Visitor behaviour: What was visited? Duration of the visit? How long was the stay in the
destination? Which parts of the destination were visited? Was the visit restricted to the historic
centre? Did the visitor visit the most commercial streets? Did the visitor know all the offers? Did
he or she visit as much as possible? What was not visited because of lack of interest, lack of
time or lack of information? These are questions that need to be answered to diversify the offer,
provide a higher quality service, attract more visitors, diversify the destination or undertake any
action seeking to be successful. At present, this information is scarce, dispersed and unreliable.

• Impact on the sector. Knowing the supply of the service sector and its interrelationship with
consumption in the Rota destination is another element that is essential to know. Tourist activity
and the consumption model are related closely to the events that take place in the tourist
destination, one-off events (e.g., festivals, markets, concerts, fairs, gastronomic events), as well
as permanent events.
• Real-time information. Rota currently has a horizontal IoT platform, Elliot Cloud technology
that brings together real-time information from IoT systems deployed in the city.

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