SAP® City Connect Aims to Help Transform the Tourist Experience for the City of Barcelona
SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today unveiled a showcase solution, aligned with Barcelona City Council smart initiatives, envisioned to be Barcelona's next-generation interactive mobile travel platform: Barcelona for You Tourist Network (BCN4U). BCN4U is expected to run on top of SAP® City Connect, a new solution designed to simplify the way people experience a city by seamlessly connecting people, places and things through an easy-to-use mobile app. Visitors at Mobile World Congress, being held March 2–5 in Barcelona, will be able to interact with the new smart city showcase solution and experience how the real-time, analytic capabilities from SAP can help to connect businesses and the City of Barcelona with people to transform and ultimately simplify the tourist experience.
In a hyper-connected world, individuals, businesses and societies are becoming interconnected in real time, leading to more collaborative, intelligent and efficient interactions. Designed with interactive features tailored to user needs, the BCN4U Tourist Network showcase demonstrates how the mobile solution intends to provide visitors a new way to explore the City of Barcelona by delivering to users personalized recommendations, special offers and information on sightseeing attractions, events, transportation, lodging and dining. SAP City Connect also marks a milestone for the SAP Urban Matters program, which is based on the premise that improving livability, simplifying government and nurturing local economies are essential for a city's long-term success.
"SAP City Connect is another great example of how SAP's technology leadership and experience make us uniquely suited to help businesses unlock the value of contextual data to help the world run better," said Rick Costanzo, executive vice president and general manager of Telco Industries & Mobility Solutions, SAP. "Our ability to handle large amounts of data in real time makes it possible to deliver personalized information and offers to end users at the right time and right place. The intent is to give tourists and citizens a better experience as they move around the city, and provide local businesses and agencies with new opportunities to connect with customers."
The showcase demonstrates how BCN4U Tourist Network aims to use the Internet of Things to improve the tourist experience by offering customized activity suggestions while reducing long wait times by guiding tourists to attractions with the shortest queues. Location-aware, personalized coupons and offerings would also help to promote special deals on attractions or with vendors near the user. Additionally, secure payment transactions and deployment of offers and coupons may be handled by a mobile wallet. BCN4U Tourist Network could also include smart games such as a treasure hunt for certain attractions to enhance the sightseeing experience for children and families.
The BCN4U Tourist Network showcase demonstrates how this technology can help people get quick access to the nearest attractions, restaurants, museums and events in one of the world's most exciting travel destinations. It also has the potential to help cities like the City of Barcelona transform their relations with businesses by establishing an urban network that will allow small business owners to gain direct access to customers through low-cost distribution channels.
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