TOWN hall initiative aims to improve visitors’ experiences and enable visits to inaccessible tourist resources. To achieve this, the town hall will install digital resources in local museums and tourist offices. This will allow people to enjoy virtual visits to some of the municipality’s tourist attractions when they are not open to the public, because they are unable accommodate more visitors, or due to them being inaccessible to collectives with reduced mobility.
These include the Peñón de Ifach, which is usually full in the summer, the ‘red wall’ and the archaeological sites of the medieval Pobla de Ifach and Baños de la Reina.
The idea is not only to make these sites more accessible, but also to offer tourists a more attractive and different visit than the traditional one.
“The main aim is to improve the tourist’s visit to Calpe through immersive experiences, since the idea is to connect the tourist with the heritage he or she intends to enjoy and interact with it through the five senses – a more original and different alternative to what we are used to, with which we can provoke all kinds of sensations,” emphasised the councillor for international promotion and next generation, Marco Bittner.
This project is part of the tourism sustainability plan for destinations, with the support of the Valencia region ministry of tourism, and the secretary of state for tourism, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) which is funded by the European Union’s Next Generation initiative.
The plan is currently out to tender for €250,000 and an implementation period of three years. According to the technical specifications, these virtual experiences can be delivered through augmented reality glasses, virtual projections or sensory stimulation devices and other types of advances in interaction with the senses, including ultrasound or vibration. The winning company will have to develop content for immersive and virtual experiences that tell stories and leave an impression on tourists. It will also create audio guides with explanatory narratives in several languages, and video guides in sign language.
This project reinforces the town council’s commitment to inclusive tourism, as it will facilitate access to these tourist resources for people with reduced mobility.
