Published on 14 Sep 2023
In this new episode of the Meet TExTOUR series, we will listen to Pedro Pereira from UNINOVA and learn about TExTOUR Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform.
TExTOUR designed an ICT platform to promote a collaborative work methodology for cultural tourism development based on the experience of the project’s eight pilots.
The platform is meant to be a social innovation tool, and in this interview, Pedro Pereira from Nova School of Science and Technology (UNINOVA) explains what is the structure of the platform, who can use it, and what services it offers. The platform is accessible at this link or from TExTOUR’s homepage.
Pedro is part of TExTOUR’s ICT team, and developed the platform together with its colleagues from UNINOVA. As he explains, the platform has three distinct sections.
The first is a virtual space where all the data collected by TExTOUR’s eight pilots can be uploaded. The data concerns the pilot’s innovation actions and even though only the project’s original pilots can access this section of the platform, in the future it will be open to everybody as long as their contribution is approved by the platform moderator. This feature is important to guarantee that the experience gained by present and future pilots is not lost.
The second section of the platform helps pilots and scalable territories to monitor the progress of their cultural tourism innovation actions, assessing their results.
The third section of the platform is open to everybody and is dedicated to tourists. This is where they can find all the information they need about the different localities, heritage, touristic routes, and much more.
The platform offers many services. An example is represented by the routes. These are touristic paths identified by the pilots and promoted through the platform. Across each route, it is possible to identify different points of interest and to upload videos, audio, and images to support tourists through their visits.
Pedro and their colleagues from UNINOVA hope that the ICT platform will help remote areas to fully understand and valorize the potential of their heritage. At the same time, the experience from the TExTOUR project will guide the new territories towards a sustainable tourism model, protecting and empowering local communities and their territories.
If you are curious to learn more about the people behind the project, don’t miss the other interviews of the Meet TExTOUR series on YouTube.
