On October 10, the Department of Tourism and Economy of the Faculty of Economics in Split organized an expert meeting and panel discussion on the topic “Digital transformation in the function of sustainable tourism development. For the last two years, the members of the department have been working on international EU-funded projects based on digital technologies and data, and this year’s theme of the World Tourism Day “Tourism and Digital Transformation” was the occasion for presenting the results. projects. The focus was on the current BluTour System project, led by Ca’Foscari University, with a budget of € 1.037.050,00. The aim of the project is to develop innovative solutions for decision support systems (Decision Support System, acronym DSS) in tourism, improve the skills and capacity of stakeholders to develop cross-border tourism networks, business ecosystem and use open innovation systems through the so-called. quadruple Helix model. The first part of the conference presents very interesting experiences of actors from the private and public sectors from different spheres of tourism on the application of digital technologies in their fields of work. Prof.dr.sc. Lidija Petrić, Ph.D. Ante Mandić from the Faculty of Economics in Split presented innovative solutions to support decision-making in tourism developed within international EU projects in which the Faculty participated – Tourmedassets, ShapeTourism and BluTour System. In essence, it is a system of data and indicators for the Mediterranean NUTS 2 regions, which includes statistical indicators, the results of stakeholder surveys and the so-called. Big Data data. They enable an overview of the positions of individual regions by a number of elements and their mutual comparison, they are open access and can be used by all interested stakeholders as a basis for making development decisions. Mrs. Vera Jergović Bolanča from the Šibenik Fortress of Culture presented the experiences of applying augmented reality in tourism. She particularly referred to the significant role that technological solutions have played in putting Šibenik fortresses on the tourist map and in the public focus, as well as the results of the work, ie the number of visits to the fortresses themselves.Mr. Marko Bartulić from the public company Split parking doo presented the SMART parking application and the results of its application. Traffic at rest is a burning problem of the city of Split, and the application is one of the ways to solve it, and analyzes of data collected through the system showed that, contrary to the public image, parking lots are very rarely completely filled. The application was primarily developed for the needs of the local population, and Mr. Bartulić also commented on its use by tourists. It is interesting that some tourism workers in the panel and in the audience said that they did not know that they would be happy to recommend it to guests, which tells us that we need to further improve communication. Mr. Josip Rikić from BlueSun Hotels & Resorts presented the technological solutions they use to improve hotel processes. The first solution is a mobile application for efficient management of all hotel areas and hotel staff. The application saves up to 20% of working hours, increases the billing of the mini bar by 90%, reduces inventory costs by 15% and increases reported breakdowns by 300%, which results in lower unexpected costs. Another example is Smart Scales that allow real-time monitoring of food consumption and production. The main benefits of the application are 5-10% lower food consumption, 85% reduction in kitchen administration, 25% increase in complaints to suppliers and significantly higher control standards, and the scale collects various useful data that can be given in the form of reports (eg return of finished food throws, the frequency of food exports and the quality of raw products). Mr. Mladen Tomić, director and owner of Hotel Split Podstrana, commented on green technologies in the hotel industry, giving examples of the same that he applied in his facility, which is one of the first certified hotel facilities of energy class A in Croatia. In addition, he commented on what technology brings for tourism and hospitality in the future, emphasizing that it will reduce the routine tasks of employees, and thus open additional space for the crucial host role of staff to increasingly demanding guests. In his last presentation, Mr. Martin Bućan, from the Split-Dalmatia County, presented projects for the application of advanced analytics and e-mobility in tourism. The first refers to the results of the Interdmodal project in which the County was a partner in which the so-called Heat Maps, insights based on the analysis of mobile network data that allows understanding the way of movement / behavior of the target socio-demographic population, ie the segment according to the desired points of interest. The key applications are in the field of tourism trends by monitoring the number of foreign tourists at defined points of interest, their segmentation by nationality, monitoring trends on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, comparison with selected desired points of interest which is a very useful input for tourism marketing activities. Another application is in the area of traffic monitoring at desired points of interest (whole city or selected hotspots), which is the basis for traffic optimization models. Sustainable tourism and digital transformation – challenges and opportunitiesThe meeting ended with a dynamic panel discussion on “Sustainable Tourism and Digital Transformation – Challenges and Opportunities” in which the exhibitors were joined by Assoc. Maja Čukušić from the Department of Business Informatics, and the discussion was moderated by Assoc. Smiljana Pivčević. It was pointed out in the discussion that digital transformation is a much broader concept than the application of technology in business and includes strategically committed to digital technology as a basis for business development, products / services and / or revenues. It is precisely the strategic framework that is often lacking in practice while occasional, sporadic activities dominate, which certainly needs to change. The panelists agreed that funding is not a problem for good projects because there is money from various sources, and the precondition is quality and well-developed ideas. In this context, they especially emphasized the importance of well-educated staff who should have a broad education, developed team spirit / work, creativity and hospitality.The view is that technology in tourism will not displace man but will change his tasks and roles, reducing routine ones, and a message has been sent to young people that lifelong learning is imperative.It was also pointed out that in a tourist destination, the key cooperation of all stakeholders who form a kind of destination “puzzle”. When asked whether in the future the digital transformation will be more a lever of mass / unsustainability or just the sustainability of tourism, the conclusion was crystallized that it inevitably carries potential for both, and all the actors of the destination “puzzle” (public bodies, service providers, local population) to act in the direction of sustainability through their activities. The Faculty of Economics in Split is the oldest and leading institution for research and higher education in tourism in the Dalmatian region and offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies in tourism. He has been conducting education and exams for tourist guides for 42 years, and for 21 years for branch managers. Members of the Department of Tourism and Economy work on research, application and professional projects, of which currently 3 are funded from EU sources. In their work, they nurture and develop cooperation with all sections of the tourism sector through organized internships, student scholarships, socially useful student projects, guest appearances and visits to tourism entities, professional projects and expertise, professional gatherings and education.
read more