Digital tools for tourism during a pandemic

From a demand perspective, tourism is a global phenomenon: in Switzerland, it accounts for nearly 3% of GDP and 4.4% of total employment. The pandemic severely impacted the sector with a decrease of nearly 60% in international arrivals.

The pandemic acted as an accelerator for the inevitable digital transformation that the sector must address to optimize local offerings and the distribution of international demand.

This Flagship was designed to proactively address the challenges of digital transformation by providing the travel sector as a whole with:

  • Reliable data for empowerment,
  • New business models, processes, and experiences,
  • Tools to design resilient tourism systems,
  • A platform for reflection, valorization, and orchestration of ongoing projects and experiences will be provided, fostering mutual enrichment among communities of practice.

The Icare research institute is involved in sub-projects 1 and 3 for a duration of 4 years, during which we will apply our expertise in software architecture, inter-system interfaces (API), artificial intelligence, and technology watch. Objective: to make tourism information systems more resilient.

Flagship Innosuisse PFFS-21-07

Research Partners:

  • École hôtelière de Lausanne member of University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO)
  • Institute of Tourism (ITO) and Institute of Entrepreneurship & Management (IEM),
  • Institute of Information Systems (IIS) of HES-SO Valais-Wallis, member of University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO),
  • Research Center for Tourism and Transport at the Institute for Systemic Management and Public Governance at the University of St. Gallen
    Institut für Tourismus und Mobilität (ITM),
  • Institute for Tourism and Leisure Research (ITF), University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons
  • Center for Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Simulations, Big Data and Visualization, University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons,
  • Icare Institute of Computer Science Research

Exploitation Partners:

  • Amt für Wirtschaft und Tourismus, Graubünden
  • APG SGA
  • ASE AG
  • Basel Tourism
  • Fondation the Ark SA
  • Crans-Montana Tourism
  • Davos-Klosters
  • Discover.swiss AG Discover
  • Federal Office of Transport FOT
  • Federal Statistical Office FSO
  • Fördergesellschaft IMP-HSG
  • GastroSuisse
  • Graubünden Ferien
  • Guidle AG
  • HotellerieSuisse
  • International Federation of IT in Travel and Tourism, Swiss Chapter
  • Intervista AG
  • Jungfrau Regio Tourismus
  • Lucerne Tourism AG
  • Sisag AG
  • State Secretariat for the Economy SECO
  • Swiss Cablecar Association
  • Swiss Federal Railways AG
  • Swisscom
  • Switzerland Tourism
  • Thomann Hospitality Management AG
  • Ticino Turismo
  • Tourism office of Nendaz
  • Tourism office of Sierre-Anniviers
  • Tourism office of Zermatt
  • Vaud Promotion
  • Valais/Wallis Promotion
  • Zurich Tourism

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