Mobile World Capital Barcelona provides visitors and citizens with a look at the future of tourism

• Mobile Ready offers citizens and visitors a route through the city’s main downtown hotels, featuring innovative mobile initiatives
• The Hotel Royal Passeig de Gràcia, the Hotel Alexandra Barcelona, a Double Tree by Hilton, the Hotel Condes de Barcelona, the Hotel Eurostars BCN Design, the Barcelona-El Prat Airport and the Hotel NH Collection Barcelona Constanza participate in the program
• With this initiative Mobile World Capital Barcelona exposes citizens and the industry to the potential of mobile technologies to drive development in strategic sectors

February 27, 2015

Today Mobile World Capital Barcelona launched the second edition of Mobile Ready, an initiative designed to offer both Barcelona residents and visitors “smart experiences”. Mobile Ready 2015 focuses its activity on the tourism and hotel/dining sectors to promote the adoption of mobile solutions in these areas, key to the city’s development.

From today until 6 March, coinciding with the week of the Mobile World Congress, different Barcelona hotels will feature mobile solutions at their facilities. The aim is for visitors to discover how these technologies are paving the way for the tourism services of the future.

Mobile Ready 2015 proposes a route through the centre of Barcelona revealing ground-breaking solutions to improve the experience of visitors. Specifically, it is made up of four stops: 

• Hotel Royal Passeig de Gràcia (Passeig de Gràcia 84) – The experience allows you to take in the Barcelona skyline using a mobile device – tablet – and access information on leading tourism landmarks, like the Sagrada Família, the Casa Batlló and the MNAC. The visitor can virtually “enter” these spaces using Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles, which recreate the interiors of these buildings in 3D. Technological developers: Labs4Glass and Avanade

• Hotel Alexandra Barcelona, a Double Tree by Hilton (Mallorca, 251) – Three experiences illustrate new access and service payment possibilities at hotels. Mobile telephones, smart watches and bracelets are the tools used to interact with all of the establishment’s different services. At these facilities visitors can also interact with a cash machine issuing bitcoins – a virtual currency – to acquire and pay with them. Technological developers: Tecnalia, Ikomobi and BTC Point.

• Hotel Condes de Barcelona (Passeig de Gràcia, 73) – The Restaurante Loidi features digital tables through which citizens can read the menu and place their orders. Visitors can also interact with a holographic avatar that functions as an interactive assistant offering information and details on the hotel’s services.Technological developer: DigaliX

• Hotel Eurostars BCN Design (Passeig de Gràcia, 29-31) – Hotel rooms are transformed into an immersive experience by means of projections, domotics and smart objects. Users can personalise the themes and experiences setting the tone in their rooms (image, light, sound, etc.), being transported from the hotel to wherever they like.The hotel’s reception area is also equipped with an interactive Xperience Wall offering information of interest to tourists and on events in the city, and allowing guests to purchase tickets or contract services. Technological developers: Worldline and Broomx

Mobile Ready 2015, in addition, includes a specific activity at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport (T1): an interactive installation that displays digital coupons valid for discounts and gifts in the airport’s shopping area. PromoWall is a pilot project that can analyse customers’ shopping habits and optimise commercial offerings by tracking, via the Wi-Fi network, passenger traffic before the display and in the shopping area.

Technological developers: Worldline and Arcvi

Building a lasting legacy for Barcelona

The NH Hotel Group, Deloitte and Mobile World Capital Barcelona will present, as part of Mobile Ready’s program, a pioneering initiative in the hotel sector, to be permanently installed at the Hotel NH Collection Barcelona Constanza (Carrer Déu i Mata, 69-99).

On 4 March at this establishment a solution will be revealed that makes it possible to outfit hotel meeting rooms with 3D holographic technology, telepresence systems, and the “High Tech Made Easy” service. All this facilitates interactive collaboration between the attendees at a meeting or event. For example, when holding a videoconference in a meeting room we will be able to see a life-size hologram of the person we are talking to.