Parking applications, tourist screens and ‘big data’ enter municipal investments for 2022
The Mar Menor coastline becomes ‘intelligent’. Coastal municipalities open the doors to technology to let in ‘big data’, digital sensors and interactive screens to make life easier for tourists. Analog delights will be supported by algorithms. In fact, it will be easier to eat a cauldron on the beach or take a boat ride on the lagoon, after the municipalities implement their new digitization plans to promote commerce and hospitality. The planned investment in technological solutions in San Javier, Los Alcázares and San Pedro adds up to 954,095 euros and will mean a change in what is called ‘user experience’.
For example, tourists will be able to exchange the usual brochure for interactive touch screens, which will inform them about car parking areas, open restaurants, tickets for festivals or ferry tickets. The idea of converting the two telephone booths that remain in La Ribera stands out –the tail end of the 20th century– into tourist information offices with a touch screen for consulting useful information, such as bus timetables, the program of seasonal events or where purchase. It will be one of the technological solutions aimed at tourism that will be implemented by the San Javier City Council, which allocates the largest budget to digitization, 455,000 euros from the funds of the Edusi Sustainable Urban Development Strategy.
Other information screens will display messages of interest at the La Ribera taxi rank, Almansa Park and Paseo Colón. Visitors will find another channel of information in the ‘intelligent points of interest’, which will allow the mobile phone to be connected to a Wi-Fi network to view videos, photos and data on the historical and cultural heritage. On the Paseo de Castillico you will be able to get to know the manor houses better, on Calle Maestre on the Águila patrol and on Calle Pedro Juan on the Ferris wheel and Torre Mínguez. In the Almansa park, the mobile will talk to you about the festivals. Four webcams will also be installed at the aid stations. “They are the most viewed on the municipal website because Internet users are surprised by the good weather in the Mar Menor,” explains Councilor Héctor Verdú.
Los Alcázares wants to promote the website dedicated to businesses with continuous and constant updating of offers
Online shopping’
There will be free Wi-Fi zones in the Plaza de España, the sports center and the Almansa park, in San Javier, and on the La Ribera promenade. Along the 2.5 kilometers of La Ribera beach, ten public address loudspeakers will be installed to issue warning messages. The municipal plan is committed to sensorization to measure air quality at four points, to capture the influx of people and to control the occupancy of parking spaces. The user will be able to consult the data on the informative screens, although the creation of a mobile application that allows the visitor to be guided towards the free places is being considered.
In Los Alcázares they will allocate a similar investment, of 429,000 euros of European funds, to promote local commerce through digital solutions. The City Council wants to promote the web platform dedicated to businesses with constant updates on offers, campaigns and incentives. It will facilitate online shopping with two new services: a last-mile delivery service and lockers installed in the city center for the collection of items purchased at local businesses.
Another internet platform will offer training to store and hospitality employees on customer service and various languages. There will also be informative ‘totems’ with interactive screens, one in front of the Fair promenade and another next to the 525 hotel in Los Narejos. The plan foresees installing sensors in the areas with the highest influx of public and vehicles to report in real time on the occupation of places and the capacity in shops through an application. 96,189 euros are reserved to renew the lighting with low-consumption streetlights. A charging point for electric vehicles will be installed in the car park on Avenida de la Libertad.
In San Pedro del Pinatar, the investment in technological services amounts to 70,000 euros. It includes three columns with tourist information screens, one on the esplanade of Lo Pagán, another in Villananitos and another in La Curva.
The information about the parking spaces will reach the user in the form of a map through the platform ‘Aparcando en San Pedro’, says the mayor Zoilo Ballester. The City Council is committed to video surveillance at the entrances to the urban area to control traffic, activate emergency services in the event of an accident and collaborate in locating wanted cars. Another objective will be to install solar panels in the Consistory, in the sports center and in the security center.