The Smart Tourism Programme for Dublin, supported by Dublin City Council, Fáilte Ireland and Imaginear have developed a Digital Trail Toolkit, designed to help identify best practice for destinations and businesses who wish to develop digital trails.
The Digital Trail Toolkit is a step by step guide to assist industry in Digital Trail App development. Although there are many different types of app and digital trail developments in the tourism industry, there are few examples of toolkits developed specifically for organisations who are interested in building their own digital trail.
The purpose of the Toolkit is to help identify best practice examples of digital trails and create a path to development for destinations and businesses who wish to develop digital trails. A key focus for the project which began in February 2021, is the growing crossover between tourism, culture and technology. The goal of the Smart Tourism programme is to establish Dublin as a world-leading ‘Smart Destination’ through innovation, research and partnerships.
In Dublin, tourism is a major economic driver attracting millions of visitors to the city each year. Digital Trails offer the opportunity for tourism and hospitality organisations to access new audiences and better serve existing audiences. This can be achieved by designing tailored experiences targeted for new and existing audiences such as; family groups, young people or the elderly.
COVID-19 has also had an accelerating effect on the interest of digital developments. Restrictions have accelerated the adoption of digital technology in tourism. In a post COVID-19 landscape visitors will expect more digital experiences from their destinations.
The Digital Trail Toolkit uses various technologies including bespoke app development, platform based development and immersive technology. These technologies offer the prospect of providing tourists with a digital layer of information to curate and add value to their experience. A digital trail has the potential to offer tourists a more personalised experience and shape the trip according to their interests. This personalised dimension is crucially informative in identifying market segmentation and targeting opportunities for the development of a digital trail. These anonymised insights are invaluable for both the tourism and hospitality sectors to help understand their new and existing customers.
View the Digital Trail Toolkit and Tutorial Video here.