Deploytour
Deploytour is a project co-funded by the EU's Digital Europe Programme, with support from two European Commission departments responsible for internal market and digital policy. It is a strategic initiative to strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the tourism sector by creating a trusted, shared European space for tourism data.
What was the goal of this research?
Deploytour will build the technical foundations for a shared European tourism data space, and prove its value through five pilot projects covering a wide range of tourism destinations and types. These pilots will tackle key challenges such as managing visitor numbers, improving sustainability, and responding to emerging trends. The project will also draft a basic set of shared rules for data use, and help grow the wider community of organisations willing to share tourism data, by building new partnerships and collaborations. An interministerial committee set up during earlier projects will be expanded to include all EU countries, so that it can produce recommendations for policymakers and develop a strategy for putting the project's results to use.
By improving access to tourism information, the project aims to boost productivity, sustainability, new business models and skills development across the sector. It will help destinations align what they offer with what tourists expect, adapt their services to new types of visitors, and better predict busy periods, making it easier to plan resources and open up new business opportunities. The project brings together a partnership of 43 organisations from 13 European countries.
What method was employed?
Deploytour is building and testing the European Tourism Data Space through five real-world pilot projects, in the Alpine region (Austria-Slovenia), the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and the Canary Islands (Spain), the Paris region (France), Syros Island (Greece), and Lapland (Finland). Each pilot explores a different tourism challenge, from sustainability to supporting small businesses, and feeds practical requirements into the design of the shared data space. Alongside this, the project has drawn up an ethics charter to guide the safe and responsible use of data and AI, defined a first working version of the technical architecture, and set out clear roles and responsibilities for everyone involved in managing the data space.
What findings did we uncover?
So far, the project has published its ethics guidelines, designed the first version of the technical set-up, and built an early working version of the data space. It has also agreed who is responsible for what in managing the system. Progress reports on the five pilots show they are moving forward as planned. Since the pilots are still running, the real-world results and benefits will follow as the project continues.
Who is the Project Team?
Nina Nesterova, Ivar Neelis, Eke Eijgelaar, Elisa van den Heuvel, Carlos Santos, Jens Hagen, Elavendan Rajendran, Suryashree Aniyan
What is the timeline of this project?
October 2024 – September 2027
Who is our main collaborating partner?
Led by Any Solution, as part of a wider partnership of 43 organisations
Who is our funding partner?
The European Health and Digital Executive Agency, through the Digital Europe Programme
Want to read more?
Go to the website of this research project.
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