TAAS

Aiming at adding on Smarter Europe achievement, 9 (TAAS) areas (South Aegean Region,GR; Tampere,FI; Aspres Community of Municipalities,FR; Ljubljana,SL; Fano,IT; Donegal,IE, Stockholm,SE; Zuid – Limburg, NE; Ungheni, MD) with a special interest on tourism transformation, join forces to accelerate tourism digitalization and improve related policy instruments supporting smart and sustainable development.

In this transformative journey of enhancing smart tourism, the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas / Hellenic Institute of Transport stands as the horizontal mentor and advisory lead partner for TAAS areas, leveraging digital and smart solutions to pave the way for innovation and sustainable growth.

TAAS experience exchange supports identifying innovative digital tools and channels at the different stages of a trip (‘TAAS cycle’) that can act simultaneously as economic and sustainability boosters.

TAAS cycle approach takes into account the whole trip experience;
• Phase A; Imagining the trip (digital tools supporting area selection, e-channels able to generate interest and create digital tourist concept - digital tourists are indeed candidate physical tourists that contribute to revenues generation in the traditional way we are used to see tourism)
• Phase B; Planning the trip (tools for booking, organizing, and managing services)
• Phase C; During the trip (integrated smart city passes, micromobility apps, single info e-gates, personalized e-agents)
• Phase D; Empowering to influence (social media trip experience sharing can act as ambassador for the areas).

TAAS has a ‘tourism as a whole’ approach; mobilizing digital tools for ensuring that needs and concerns of all tourism-related stakeholders and users are addressed respecting sustainability principles, training involved actors to be responsible and making effective tourism related decisions (innovative tourism planning & governance) are vital TAAS features.

TAAS focuses on tourism related policy instruments improvement & relevant capacity building is crucial for ensuring project’s long-term impact. By enhancing tourism-related (9) policy instruments, TAAS can contribute and has the potential to be a model for other areas seeking the creation of smarter, more sustainable, and more resilient tourism destinations.