Smart Tourism initiative

By joining forces with several like-minded organisations, Infosit aims to inspire and build positive change in the hospitality ecosystem, via digitalisation and long-term destination planning. That's how the Smart Tourism initiative was born.

Developed around the ideas by Ivan Ilijašić of Orioly and Goran Mrvoš of Infosit, Smart Tourism Initiative gathers several specialised companies that have come together and are working to influence change in the ecosystem.

The challenge tourism faced this year presented an opportunity to rethink how it interacts with societies, other business sectors, and natural resources. Opportunities emerged to rethink and redefine how to measure and manage tourism better. It's never been a better time to revisit strategies, think about smart investments, as well as the infrastructure and systems that will enable its sustainable growth in the future.

If our experience has taught us anything, tourism has benefited from digital transformation and will continue to benefit from it in the upcoming years. Digital transformation continues to be an important lever in enabling a wiser use of resources and potential in travel destinations worldwide. It has become imperative for cities, regions, and countries to take an active stance and shape their strategies under the digital paradigm.

When talking about digitalisation, a term that will most certainly mark the travel industry in the coming years, we need to talk about smart tourism. Although there hasn't been a great deal of research into smart tourism, it is agreed that the concept utilises innovative technologies and practices to enhance resource management and sustainability, while increasing the businesses' overall competitiveness.

"Creating a better, new normal tourism is important in both the short and long term. Crises like COVID-19 are an opportunity for a bigger, faster and better change than the one we would launch when everything works ok, in "the old way", and we are lulled into our comfort zone", Infosit CEO and founder Goran Mrvoš said. "It is up to us to encourage destinations to accept digital trends and to be ready to implement them in long-term strategies on which they will actively work" he added, explaining the Smart Tourism initiative goals. Although technology is at the heart of smart tourism, the key is how this technology is used to make the management organisation, tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and campsites operate more effectively.

Adopting smart tourism research and management tools, such as a custom-made tourism flow monitor or a tailor-made CRM programme, can dramatically improve business outcomes. And with the growth of information sharing platforms, tourist entities can also utilise more efficient promotional methods and marketing. The activities of each company in the Smart Tourism initiative are highly complementary. Together they form a complete solution that helps destinations become sustainable, easily digitise, and deliver outstanding value to their guests.

The network is currently made up of five renowned Croatian travel tech companies and their two partners who have jointly developed innovative digital solutions for smart and strategic tourism management. Orioly specialises in IT solutions in the sale and promotion of tours. At the same time, Infosit has years of experience developing integration solutions, applications and web portals for destinations, hotels and other tourism entities. PHOBS developed a platform for managing the entire online sales of hotels and campsites. Equinox Vision holds a platform that directs visitors to specific locations within the destination and offers them interactions with virtual reality in augmented reality. Delta reality creates tourist tours in augmented and virtual reality while Magic4club specialises in tourist destinations' PR strategies. And by our side, we have the leading Croatian tourist B2B portal for tourism professionals HrTurizam.hr.

The realm of digitalisation opens up countless possibilities. Not only does it elevate business, but it also allows us to be more preoccupied with our guests and their experience - if you want to take the first step towards digitising your destination, find out more at www.pametniturizam.hr.