State of the Art
The economic growth of Portugal is strongly tied to tourism, with 2023 highlighted as 'the best year in the history of tourism in Portugal,' according to Nuno Fazenda, Secretary of State for Tourism, with a growth of 10% compared to 2019. In this context, the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) has set the ATT agenda (Accelerate and Transform Tourism), aiming to implement disruptive and innovative solutions at various points throughout the tourist experience. The Trailblazer project is part of this agenda, focusing on resolving challenges related to the management of tourist destinations.
The central issue involves the vast amount of data present in tourism processes, with a particular focus on aggregating this data in isolated locations to facilitate decision-making regarding activities, infrastructure, transportation, among other aspects. The platform seeks to address existing challenges in tourism support systems, where services are scattered across various platforms, resulting in inconvenient management and difficulties in data analysis.
Additionally, Low Population Density Areas face specific challenges in managing tourist destinations, including infrastructure limitations, sparse population, and incompatibility with mass tourism models, hindering the promotion, marketing, and visibility of their tourist destinations.
In the evolving landscape of tourism management, Destination Management Systems (DMS) emerge as essential tools, transforming the competitiveness and attractiveness of tourist destinations. Technological integration in DMS, encompassing Big Data, IoT, AI, and machine learning, plays a crucial role. These technologies enable real-time analysis, adaptive responses, and the transition from traditional approaches to more dynamic, data-driven strategies in tourist destination management.
When comparing our Trailblazer project with established tourism systems like VisitPortugal, Expedia, and Booking, notable differences stand out. While Trailblazer adopts an innovative destination-centric system, ensuring isolated systems for each locality, Booking and Expedia operate without such isolation, managing all bookings across various locations. All systems, except VisitPortugal, offer personalized recommendations. Moreover, Trailblazer stands out by incorporating innovative features such as auto-tagging on activity pages, sentiment analysis in user comments, and predictive analysis to anticipate tourist trends, features absent in other compared systems. These innovations position Trailblazer as a unique proposition in the landscape of tourist destination management systems. It's worth noting that Trailblazer also allows for the direct booking of services within the system, a functionality shared with Expedia and Booking but absent in VisitPortugal.
Related Work
The accompanying paper provides a systematic review of the role and architecture of Destination Management Systems (DMS) in regions with low population density. It highlights the significant impact that integrated advanced technologies such as Big Data, IoT, AI, and machine learning have on the performance and capability of DMSs. The review, which covers literature from 2013 to 2024, underlines the need for DMSs that are scalable, maintainable, and adaptable. These technologies are critical in enhancing the competitiveness and attractiveness of destinations, thereby supporting sustainable tourism development in less populated areas. The insights gathered from this review are instrumental in informing the development of the Trailblazer project.