Sensors to analyze the flow of people in real time, a winning proposal for the challenge to move towards sustainable tourism in the Eixample

• The project of Affluences wins the challenge launched by the Digital Future Society and Barcelona City Council for its use of technology to measure the concentration of people in public space in real time.
• The aim of the call was to find innovative solutions that would contribute to one of the three defined areas: obtaining data on the concentration and flows of people, promoting the diversity of heritage and local trade to diversify tourism and strengthen intelligent communication with tourists from the district.
• This project will receive a financial contribution of up to 40.000 euros from the tourist tax fund (IEET) to implement the pilot
• The initiative is part of the InnovAcció 2030 program, promoted by the Commissioner of the 2030 Agenda to launch different challenges at city and territory level.

June 22, 2022

The proposal of the French company Affluences, which offers a smart solution for accounting and analyzing the influx of people in public space, has been the winning project of the challenge to move towards sustainable tourism in the Eixample district. Digital Future Society, a program of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), and Barcelona City Council, through the 2030 Agenda Commissioner, the Eixample District and the City Department of Tourism and Creative Industries, have chosen Affluences as an innovative digital tool that will improve the sustainability of tourism activity in the city and reduce its externalities.

In this sense, the winning initiative offers the possibility of collecting, analyzing and visualizing data on the concentration of people through a control panel, which will improve decision-making in the development of public policies on tourism in the district. The challenge, which is part of the InnovAcció 2030 program, has been very well received internationally with a total of 40 proposals received from 10 different countries (Argentina, Germany, Austria, Canada, Colombia, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, France and Romania).

Tourism, a key challenge to work on

The project selected by the jury stands out for its 2D, 3D and infrared sensor technology to measure in real time the flow and agglomerations of people, bicycles or vehicles both indoors and outdoors, an innovative proposal that responds to the current needs of the Eixample. The aim is for this data to be useful both for mitigating the effects of tourist overcrowding on people living or working in the district and for improving the tourist experience.

In addition, this information can contribute to the decision-making process on municipal services provided in neighborhoods, such as when reporting cleaning service schedules, lane widening, or street pacification, among others. The initiative, which will initially be developed in tourist areas of the Eixample, has scalable potential in other areas or sectors, such as libraries or museums, which will be assessed according to the results of the pilot test.

From the challenge to the streets of the city

The winning idea of ​​Affluences will receive financial support of up to 40.000 euros thanks to funding from the Tourist Tax Fund (IEET) to implement the pilot and face management challenges and the redistribution of visitor flows in the district.

It responds to the desire to make the most of technological tools that play a key role in meeting the challenges that help to improve the quality of life and, at the same time, boost the city’s economic activity.

Technology, an essential key to imporve

Among the projects presented, in addition to the winner, technological solutions are identified for the gamification and promotion of the diversity of cultural heritage through augmented reality, communication by segmentation and/or geolocation, the detection of patterns of behavior of tourists, among others.

All the proposals have gone through a two-phase evaluation process, from the selection of 12 semi-finalist and six finalist projects, respectively, to the selection of the winner, which has been determined by a committee of experts from the promoters of the call. The committee based its assessment on criteria of innovation, relevance to the issue, feasibility of implementation and potential for scalability.

InnovAcció 2030: 8 challenges  to meet citizens’ needs

The InnovAcció program has launched 8 challenges in different areas of the city of Barcelona. In addition to the Eixample challenge, the Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda and the Digital Future Society, together with the IMPD and the Les Corts district, have launched a challenge, which is already being developed, to make the Guitard games room more accessible.

These challenges at the district level are in addition to those promoted jointly with B:SM at the city level to achieve a more inclusive visit to Park Güell and the Barcelona Zoo, improve the management of booked parking spaces on public roads or by create flexible and low-cost electric charging points to promote electromobility.