More effective marketing, a large database on the tourist market throughout the Insubrica region and three new digital services for guests: these are the main results achieved by the important project called "DESy" (acronym for Digital Destination Evolution System) launched in 2019 by the project leaders Ticino Turismo and the Lakes Tourist District with the partners Agenzia Turistica Locale Novarese and the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola. The initiative makes use of the important scientific collaboration of the Institute of digital technologies for communication of USI and the Dalle Molle Institute for studies on artificial intelligence (USI-SUPSI) of Manno and falls within the scope of the Interreg Italia window -Switzerland which aims to enhance the resources available to the border areas in a network logic.
Presenting the results obtained, Stefano Rizzi, Director of the Economics Division of the Department of Finance and the Economy (DFE), highlighted how the DESy project both on the one hand the demonstration that by joining forces across borders it is possible to obtain useful results for the entire economy, both in Ticino and in the Italian border area and, on the other hand, the confirmation of how much the tourism sector, focusing on the development of increasingly innovative and personalized products and services, can go in the direction of satisfying the needs of an increasingly demanding, connected and international clientele.
Angelo Trotta, director of Ticino Turismo, pointed out that «in the face of important structural changes in the sector, the tourist is increasingly informed, connected and demanding. The competition between destinations, especially in the digital sphere, is very strong. This project, carried out over a four-year period, has allowed Ticino and the other partners involved to take significant steps forward towards a real turning point in the field of digitalisation. Today the tools in our possession allow us to launch very targeted digital marketing campaigns, created through the creation of specific content and the constant monitoring of data and results. At the same time, thanks to the DESy project, three new generation services were born for the promotion of the territory».
Going into the merits of the results already achieved, the destinations have equipped themselves with a market-leading platform, capable of providing users with better content based on their behaviour. This translates into personalized communications in form and content, in tailor-made suggestions on attractions and activities to be carried out and in a tourist product which, in the future, will also be "shaped" on the basis of the important information acquired.
Thanks to the DESy project, more data on the tourism market has been collected for destinations and their partners. In detail, over 50 establishments have acquired the HBenchmark hospitality intelligence tool, thanks to which they can compare their performance with that of the hotels in their area, thus providing destinations with occupancy data for the entire region. In addition, project partners now have access to aggregated short-term rental property information from Airbnb, Homeaway, Tripadvisor and Booking, available for the first time across the entire region.
All this data flows into a dashboard updated in real time, through which to measure supply, demand and turnover in the area. This allows operators to implement promotional actions based on the fluctuation of bookings. The information collected is not aimed at promotion alone, but represents an objective data base that allows for optimization of investments which will also translate, in the future, into better efficiency in transport planning and in the ability to measure the performance produced.
All professionals and institutions involved in the development of the tourist region (agencies, tourist organisations, hoteliers, restaurateurs, etc.) will be able to benefit. The target sector of the project is large: in the macro-region considered there are over 700 hotels (over 35.000 bed places), more than 80 campsites and over 30.000 bed places in para-hotel structures. The hope of the partners is also that the availability of such detailed information can favor the birth of new commercial and entrepreneurial initiatives.
The last year was also dedicated to the planning and launch of new services: the Itineraries to listen to (stories that speak of the area through a sensory journey, made up of scents, flavours, music and tactile sensations), the Welcome Kit (a package welcome which is provided to the tourist in digital form, to be received via e-mail and in physical form, to be collected at a tourist info point) and the Experience Finder (multilingual digital virtual assistant present on the web portals of the destinations which, through questions targeted, indicates to the tourist the best experience for him). Thanks to these services, destinations will be able to collect new data on the preferences expressed by tourists in interactions with the tools. At the same time, visitors will receive concrete and tailor-made advice for them, and will have the opportunity to be inspired by a sensory exploration of the area.
Lorenzo Cantoni, now Vice Rector of USI, where he heads the UNESCO Chair and the Master in International Tourism, said: «We are proud to have contributed to this important digital transformation project by offering the experience of our research centers in the fields of artificial intelligence and digital communication applied to the tourism sector. The results of the project have been shared with the international scientific community interested in eTourism, Smart Tourism and personalization in tourism communication. What makes this project particularly interesting is the fact that data collection is only a starting point: with the use of innovative research methods and tools, these data have been analyzed to propose solutions that aim to help both tourist than the tourists themselves".
