P.ICT.URISM project wins an EU bid to provide tailor-made ICT solutions for the tourism industry

(Brussels, 20 December 2011)  A consortium formed by ECTAA, HOTREC, ITH, Università Bocconi and ZN* have been awarded a European Commission’ service contract to develop a demonstration project to facilitate the creation of a seamless digital environment for tourism in Europe and enable the integration of smaller enterprises in global tourism business networks.

The ultimate goal of the P.ICT.URISM project, - which will be funded by DG Enterprise and Industry, under the EIP program with an 1,95 M Euros budget and will last 30 months -, is to catalyse the interconnection of small and medium sized hospitality, tourism and leisure service providers in destination countries with travel agents, tour operators and distributors in source markets, through the creation of a common technological architecture of business processes and data exchange models. This will enhance the competitiveness of tourism enterprises all over Europe and will help smaller enterprises become international business partners.

The project capitalises, upon relevant work already developed in Spain in order to adapt and expand it at the European level (ThinkTur and Travel Open Apps platform).

The main scope will be to create a common framework for a technological eBusiness environment, i.e. a framework for interoperability among different ICT solutions and systems, building on existing ICT systems and standardisation achievements and joining them in a seamless architecture at European and/or international level. This responds to the current needs of tourism enterprises, SMEs in particular, and enhances their business opportunities. The feasibility of this architecture will be tested in a series of pilot projects involving businesses from destination and source markets. Promotional campaigns are also foreseen.

The P.ICT.URISM demonstration project is part of the Commission’s eBSN policy initiative to promote the smart use of ICT and the integration of EU SMEs in global industrial value chains, with the objective to create a seamless eBusiness environment in Europe and help SMEs better link to larger enterprises. While the focus of these actions remains on SMEs, the ultimate beneficiaries will be the entire European economy. This initiative consists of a series of large-scale demonstration actions, (other relevant actions are currently completed or on-going in the automotive, food, fashion and the transport and logistics industry), with broad SMEs participation, remarkable involvement of reference names, pan-European common frameworks for ICT systems and implementation guidelines, and prospects for broader validation and mass market penetration through the European standardisation organisations and consortia.

In addition, this demonstration project is integrated into the European Commission’s “ICT for Tourism Initiative”, which also foresees the setting up of a High Level Expert Group and an ICT and Tourism Portal that will assist tourism businesses in each step of their decision-making and business processes.

Further information on the eBSN policy initiative “promoting the smart use of ICT and the integration of SMEs in global industrial value chains” as well as the ICT for Tourism Initiative can be found on the European Commission’s website.

* ECTAA is the European association of travel agents and tour operators; HOTREC, the European umbrella association of hotels, restaurants and cafés; ITH, Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero (Spanish Hotel Technological Institute); Università Bocconi (Milano); and ZN, a Brussels-based communications agency.

PRESS CONTACTS:

ECTAA (project coordinator): Paolina Marone, Manager, +32 (0)2 6443450, secretariat@ectaa.org, www.ectaa.org
HOTREC: Anna Torres, CEO, + 32(0)2 5136323, hotrec@hotrec.eu, www.hotrec.eu
ITH: Patricia Miralles, Senior Project Manager, +34 902110784, pmiralles@ithotelero.com, www.ithotelero.com
BOCCONI: Professor Rodolfo Baggio, + 39 02 58365437, rodolfo.baggio@unibocconi.it, www.unibocconi.it
ZN: Olivier Rase, Senior Account Manager, +32 (0)2 5540675, olivier@zn.be, www.zn.be