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Advanced information technologies for
promoting tourism in municipalities in
Crete
Education team
Computer Center
University Of Crete
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made possible by the
INTERREG IVC programme
The contents reflect the author's views. The Managing Authority is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein

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ICT in tourism promotion
• The promotion of tourism through ICT technologies is one of the most
difficult areas.
• The reason for this is the involvement of public administration, local
businessmen, and development policies established by the existing needs of
the economy of each place.
• The basic design and methodology used in this scenario comes from the
best practice implementations that already exist in the tourism industry.
– interactivity
– local development promotion
– tourism promotion.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
2

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Background and funding of the program
Project Title:
“Innovative services for the promotion of the cultural heritage and argo-tourism in
regional municipalities of Crete”
Sub Project Title:
“Development of a system including :
a) Web 2.0 services for information sharing
b) SMS-3G services
c) GIS application
d)data “digitalization”
Partner municipalities: Nea Alikarnasos (head municipality), Zaros, Paliani,
Temenous, Sfakion.
Funding:
80 % EU funding : Operational Program “Information Society” and 20% National funds
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
3

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Problem addressed and its importance
• Based on the analysis of the state:
– Lack of targeted information for cultural heritage and
natural environment.
– Insufficient cultural, agro-tourism promotion.
– Lack of a well organized web portal with advanced
services, free to every visitor.
• Importance: Designing and developing a new portal
– principles of Web 2.0
– advanced ICT services
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
4

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Objectives
• Promoting cultural heritage and Developing Tourism Resources
• Promote alternative type of tourism
• Ease of access to information of cultural traditional and historical
value
• Provide innovative services to visitors as well as residents
• Assist local entrepreneurs to present their small business with no
cost.
• Personal experience sharing + validated information sharing
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
5

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Operational approach
• Develop a user-oriented approach
– Both front and back office platforms
• Store once, multiple use
– Efficient organization of data
• Compliance to interoperability
– Use of web services
– Implemented via modular programming
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
6

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Service developed and innovation
Services
• Interactive services for the visitor
– Calendar of events
– Share experiences
– Comments on map
• Receive personalized information (MMS, SMS, mail)
• Easy access to structured and thematic information
• Using maps with points of interest, routes, and ability to
interact with the users.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
7

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Service developed and innovation
Innovation
• Linking content with points of interest and routes on maps
• Inform the visitor through various ways (email, SMS) with
personalized information
• Provide Web 2.0 services to visitors and entrepreneurs
– Allow pre-travel planning and information gathering as well as sharing post-travel
experiences
– Allow user to upload multimedia content
– Allow users to comments on maps
– Allow users to share personal experiences via forum application.
– Allow entrepreneurs to register and promote their business.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
8

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Penetration and market acceptance
• Action has been taken for promoting the project
– public awareness
– printed material
– conferences
• The implementation of Kallikratis project
– slowed down penetration process
– Slowed down market acceptance
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
9

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Transferability of the services
• Developed an open source product
• Use open source DBMS
• Platform independent
• No licenses required
• No installation required
• Fully accessible through web
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
10

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Technological approach followed
• Attempt an open source approach for the
implementation.
– Improve interoperability
– Use web services
• Develop a secure custom CMS to match the project
needs.
• Display portal content through the map application.
• Create a robust on-demand information platform.
• Develop middleware software to bridge a commercial
GIS application with the portal
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
11

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The ICT architecture of the method followed
Multitier architecture – the commonly used three-tier :
• A front-end web server serving static content, and cached dynamic
content.
• A middle dynamic content processing and generation level
application server.
• A back-end database, comprising both data sets and the database
management system software.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
12

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Open issues and future challenges
• Include more areas
• Add services
– Connect with social networks
– Wikis
• Develop dedicated mobile applications
• Content validation
• Add multilingual content
• Cooperation between local authorities under the
directions of Crete Region.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
13

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www.explore-crete.gr
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
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Backoffice 2 frontoffice
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
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Thank you
dev-team@edu.uoc.gr
2810-393353
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and made
possible by the INTERREG IVC programme
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