Tourism is a key economic driver in many communities but poses environmental challenges. While many communities dependent on tourism struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, it resulted in a re-evaluation of common practices, boosting the investment in creative alternatives to traditional tourism.
The growth of Smart Tourism arose in response to these needs and utilises ICT-based tools, including products, spaces, experiences and more, to enhance access to tourism and hospitality services. These tools, such as real-time local recommendations, real-time route mapping, or experiencing cultural sites through augmented reality on smart phones, can increase engagement, manage traffic flow and crowd control.
Many of these digital ICT tools require high resolution images and high accuracy location services to develop 3D views, augmented realities or virtual tours, all of which are heavily reliant on current and future generations of satellite technology.
The pause in tourist activity during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the scope and scale of tourism’s impacts on the environment. The sector not only contributes to pollution and resource depletion, but high traffic areas also harm local biodiversity and cultural sites, emphasising the urgent need for sustainable practices and regulations.
Space-based technologies can support the transition to sustainable travel with location-based services (smart guides) for remote areas and community-based travel projects. These real-time services provide details on landscape, history and location services including emergency alerts, reliable maps, weather reports, avalanche warnings and live tracking.
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