Mobile World Capital Barcelona incorporates IoT and Big Data solutions into tourism management

• The project ‘IoT & Big Data in action, use case: Sagrada Familia’ delves into strategic planning, decision-making and management in the tourism sector.

February 28, 2017

d-LAB, the digital transformation programme of Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), presented today at the GSMA Mobile World Congress the results of the initiative linking the latest technologies in Big Data and IoT with tourism in Sagrada Familia. The project has been carried out in collaboration with Ajuntament de Barcelona, Eurecat, Orange and the support of GSMA. Big Data & IoT in action: Sagrada Familia is the first pilot of the series that d-LAB will carry out throughout the year with the aim of optimising the use of digital solutions in public areas, as well as digital transformation in the health sector, mobile identity for accessing public administration services and tourism, among others.

After launching a pilot test in November, which was presented at the last edition of Smart City Expo World Congress, Bárbara Vallespín, executive director of d-LAB, highlighted the impact and benefits of using technology to improve city management. The proposal has made it possible to collect and analyse information on visitor behaviour and mobility patterns around Gaudí’s temple.

During the presentation, which also included the participation of Marc Torrent, director of the Big Data Center of Excellence at Eurecat, Vallespín explained the different phases of the project and the main conclusions applicable to the management of services, mobility and resources for tourism in Barcelona.

The case of Sagrada Familia, technology applied to a tourist attraction.

The project applies Big Data and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions to the analysis of tourist flows around the church. This study provides information on the mobility dynamics of visitors, the impact of their presence in the environment and the use they make of public transport to get around, among other things.

Data collection was carried out at two levels, macro and micro. The macro phase, based on Big Data technology, collected information on the nature of the visitor: tourist, with overnight stays of at least one night, excursionist, one-day visitor who does not stay overnight in the city, or those who only frequent the city for its nightlife, with average stays between 18h and 06h. Based on these guidelines, the initiative analysed the city’s internal mobility flows. The d-LAB proposal made it possible to transcend the traditional evaluation methodology (surveys) and apply Big Data together with data from an operator (Orange) to be able to analyse these routes of citizen circulation.

This level of analysis found that the routes between districts most followed by tourists in the city follow a stable route between Eixample, Ciutat Vella and Sants-Montjuïc (both outward and return), but to specify the mobility patterns at street level, phase two of the project (micro-analysis) was carried out. To evaluate the micro scope of mobility in the Sagrada Familia area it was necessary to deploy IoT elements. For 4 weeks and via WI-FI, GSM and 3D sensors, it was possible to define the main entry and exit points of the temple, finding that the intersection between Mallorca and Marina streets is the one that concentrates the highest density of movements.

This phase revealed that 50% of tourists are in the Sagrada Família area in less than 40 minutes and that only 20% enter the church. The busiest times for visits are between 10 am and 12 noon, a pattern that is repeated at weekends with an increase in visits during the afternoon.

From analysis to the street

The study, through the application of cutting-edge technological solutions to the temple environment, has enabled the definition of a series of recommendations in the field of municipal and tourism management, accompanied by potential measures for local administrations. Thus, for example, the report highlights the use of Big Data analysis as a tool for understanding everything from visitor behaviour to their urban travel habits. Likewise, knowledge of visitor typology makes it possible to offer them tailor-made content and recommendations to enhance new tourist experiences.

These opportunities also make it possible to establish the future challenges of the analysis of tourist environments with a high level of concurrence. Specifically, it marks the options that will allow real-time monitoring of this type of spaces (with direct applications for the detection of unexpected concentrations of people, predictive analysis of movements in the city, etc.).

This approach to the tourist reality surrounding Sagrada Familia has also raised the importance of developing a methodology that brings together offline and online data to speed up the collection of information at street level and in real time.

Pilot projects with social impact

d-LAB has 3 pilot projects already underway that explore the potential of digital transformation in sectors such as tourism, health and the relationship between citizens and the administration.

The second project, based on the use of the mConnect solution for digital public services, works with the aim of building secure and barrier-free digital environments that allow access to online public administration services. This pilot is already at an advanced stage and involves 3 Catalan city councils – Manlleu, Castellar del Vallès and Esparreguera – which will use the mConnect solution to manage all the digital services they offer to citizens.

The latest pilot is applying mConnect to the private healthcare sector. Specifically, it encourages the adoption of this technological solution as the new standard for digital authentication in the healthcare sector. This pilot will allow each person to access their personal private health folder easily, privately, securely and without passwords via mobile devices.