Proyecto Itinere

As stated before, ITINERE is an extensive ICT platform that makes possible for tourists already "en route" to access & download a wide
variety of tourism contents via different mobile handheld devices (celular phones, PDAs, iphones, GPS devices, etc) regardless of
telecomunications networks (GPRS, UMTS, wifi, bluetooth, etc) they are connected to.

Users having previously registered and accepted ITINERE terms & conditions will be eligible candidates for receiving on-line touristic
data. ITINERE platform will use an on-purpose built communication network (consisting mainly of bluetooth beacons but including also
other components) to establish connection & send personalized info to users mobile devices. In fact, an ITINERE Central Unit will be
constantly monitoring these users, answering their requests for data & also deciding wether or not should send them some more useful
information which has not been specifically requested.

In this scenario ITINERE users can get both general touristic information and/or more customized information adjusted to 2 main
criteria: their personal preferences (as stated by their specific profile, historic data & so on) and the geographical position they are
located on in a given moment.

These customizing criteria also define two main ITINERE technological features:

-Firstly, this ICT platform uses different positioning systems depending on the actual tourist location: bluetooth beacons, wifi, RFID and
so on for micro positioning or micro location (when en route tourist is inside a museum, a sport facility, an historic building, etc), and
more conventional GPS for macro positioning.

-And, secondly, ITINERE platform is a discriminating tool that can choose what kind of information is specially adjusted to an specific
individual on a given moment & place. For doing so, this tool is built on a CRM architecture that helps articulate tourist relationship and
enables public authorities to define & adjust tourism policies in a geographical area, implementing so a highly rewarding "one-to-one"
tourism marketing scenario.

So ITINERE can be included in two of the five Eureka Tourism main thematic areas: firstly in "Content, cretivity & personal
development" and also in "Support to public/private tourist companies & organizations". This project developments are indeed related to
new forms of communication, information & knowledge management & its functional & technological features span practically all areas
in information & knowledge management specifically identified as priorities by Eureka Program: ITINERE is designed as an online
information & booking system, specifically designed as a tool for cooperation in destination & which main strength is its being highly
adapted to this destination natural & cultural heritage (and personal tourist preferences also).

ITINERE can also be considered included in the "Support to public/private tourist companies & organizations" thematic area because of
its being an online business platform trough wich different organizations can offer their tourism products & services on a collaborative
environment.

Original conceptualization of this project is born because of the conviction that sustainable tourism development in Europe has to be
based not on (at least not only on) quantitative growth in numbers of tourists, destinations or resorts but in emergence and
development of innovative business models heavily dependent on ICT.

Tourism is widely considered as one of the industries with biggest growth potential in developed economies. A consideration specially
becoming for Europe, a world reference for the industry: actually almost 60 % of the 680 billion US$ international tourism receipts are
spent in Europe and our continent welcomes more than 80% of world international tourists, being European nations all five most visited
countries (WTO Tourism Market Trends, 2005). Responsible for 6.8-8.0 million direct jobs in Europe and circa 20 million of indirect jobs
(Eurostat, 2004), this industry has to have a significant role in the move toward an "information society" as defined by Lisbon Agenda
2010. Not only because of its huge economic dimension but also because of its being such an intensive consumer of information & ICT
services.

Nowadays we can see in Europe an ever increasing use of ICT-dependent tourism business models and services, where tourism
information, planning and reservation on the web are extremely common. Nevertheless "mobility" is usually quite a side-effect in these
solutions, far from the core application they are built on. Which makes no economic sense because these systems are mainly used by
a new breed of users, keen also on mobility services and, if not willing at least used to, pay premium prices for quality services.
Knowing that, we consider now is right time for an ICT platform as ITINERE because of:

-Firstly, mobility based services, forced to be a minor feature in every tourism chain value ICT solutions when users are not physically
"on the move" (solutions for tourism info, planning & reservation), can only fullfil its huge potential in ICT-based business models
thought & designed for tourists already "en route".

-Secondly, all these business models will be successful only if they can accurately get, select & communicate the unending variety of
cultural, physical or economic contents of the environment that "en route" tourists are experiencing. And all this info heavily depends on
where the user is positioned on a given moment so, by definition, mobility based tourism services are location-based services.

-Thirdly, we face an exceptional market scene where all ICT components needed for building this ITINERE-platform are exceptionally
ready & mature: from the iphone marketing outburst to the deployment of Galileo program or the European annual selling of GPS
devices by the houndred of thousends instead of tens of thousends, all suggest a market momentum unseen before.

We choose the word "ITINERE" as acronim for this project because in latin ITINERE is the ablative form of ITER, meaning "in the way"
or "on the move" which is exactly the feature we most want to lay stress on. ITINERE also stands for Information Technology services
for Incoming En RoutE tourists.

ITINERE consortium initially comprises three companies, all of them SME. Being open to new admittances in the future, this SME profile
will be specially encouraged in potential new partners.