The Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) www.sete.gr, wishing to strengthen competitiveness and to promote the leading role of tourism in the Greek economy, organizes a Hackathon, the first Marathon for the development of applications in the domain of Tourism. The event, «SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon, Innovating with Opendata» will be held on the 17th and the 18th of October 2015 at INNOVATHENS, the Athens Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, located at Technopolis City of Athens. The SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon will be part of the series Crowdhackathon Innovating with Opendata, an Open Innovation Initiative implemented by the open innovation company Crowdpolicy. The event is supported by Google.
Programmers, designers, analysts, consultants, entrepreneurs, managers of the tourism industry, professionals, students and in general anyone interested is invited to participate in SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon, as to actively contribute in the development of applications that will help and promote Greek tourism, highlight the services designed, improve the quality of life and actively contribute to the national economy. Both the public and the private sector are invited to participate in SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon by providing open data related to tourism .
The next eight to ten years, tourism will be a driving force of the Greek economy. By 2021 tourists visiting Greece from all over the world are expected to reach 22 to 24 million. The average expenses per trip is expected to be increased toο. The total contribution to GDP(compared to 2013) will reach 45-48 bn. Euros (+16 bn. Euro), simultaneously contributing to the market with 1 million job positions (+300 thousands).
According to the Touristic Strategic Planning 2021, the main priority is to establish a strong and diversified portfolio of products. Six «main» products have already been defined as well as a series of «complementary and specialized products.» A specialized plan has been developed for each one of the main products, including the appropriate market strategy, a customer segmentation, an infrastructure development analysis and a promotion strategy.
There is a need for increasement of the average annual investments for the period 2014-2020. A key part of the investments required, concerns the upgrading of the already existing accommodation and the creation of new, high-quality infrastructure for nautical tourism. State and EU funds should be used carefully in order to improve their effectiveness and attract private funding.
The SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon aims to:
- Generate interest in young people, programmers, analysts, designers, experts in communication and customer services, students and professionals, as to co-operate and work in teams and of course to design products and services for the tourism industry, that will offer added value and have a commercial character. This process strengthens the value chain in the industry and creates an incubator of new businesses that have as customer the tourism industry.
- Foster youth entrepreneurship, as through the Hackathon new groups or/and companies result and followingly contribute to the country’s economy.
- Support the design of useful tools, innovative applications and high added value methodologies that, after the contest, will be developed and used by the members of SETE as well as by everyone interested, since the results will be freely and openely available to all society.
- Promote areas of economic activity related to tourism through the various innovative digital applications that will be implemented.
- Support the Touristic Strategic Planning 2021.
SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon will learn the public:
- various things on entrepreneurship, innovation and the benefits of using open public data,
- how new technologies can help improve our lives and the environment we live in,
- how to build added value applications using new technologies,
- to act collectively and for the common good.
Hackathons mobilize human capital in the direction of acting for common good reasons as well as fostering youth entrepreneurship and innovation. The combination of new and innovative applications that use open data contribute decisively to the creation of added value systems for the economy and society.
You can read more about hackathons and open data on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon) and on the European Commission’s portal http://open-data.europa.eu/en/ about.
Topics
The SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon topics are:
- Highlighting tourist destinations
Promotion and support of tourist destinations through innovative applications that concentrate, reuse and provide material and data from popular media and sources and rely on the participation of the public (user generated content or UGC). Such examples are the collection of multimedia content from popular social media (Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram etc.), the design of online interactive maps, the enrichment of repositories, recipes recording as well as reviews recording for the catering industry, collecting comments and ratings for platforms like the booking, tripadvisor etc.
- Tourist destinations of the Strategic Planning 2021
The aim here is to develop different tourist destinations for the strategic planning of SETE 2021. These are SUN & BEACH, City Break, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Excibitions (MICE), Cultural, Naval, Medical (find more at http://sete.gr/media/1910/sete-report_2021.pdf). The different approach may refers to the infrastructure like infrastructure services for people with disabilities, fast internet access throughout the region (social wifi), loyalty schemes and offers from local professionals (peer to peer models), services for vessels, promotion of the traditional kitchen etc. The various facilities should be completed in a way that creates a differentiation of each destination.
- Special types of tourism
The aim of this module is to support and promote special types of tourism through innovative digital systems and applications. These types of tourism can be nature tourism, geotourism, rural tourism, gastronomy tourism, religious tourism, student trips, sports tourism etc.
- Useful tools and applications for tourism businesses
The module aims to develop and apply digital tools for Greek tourism enterprises in order to provide better services, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Such tools can be promotional and advertising systems such as Google Adwords, bookings, contact management and interconnection with communities, CRM and marketing, use of social media, payment through alternative electronic networks, resource management, evaluation and rating services, visibility, integration and use of popular communications platforms , IT infrastructure tools like Google Apps etc.
- Transport and communications
The aim of the module is the development of applications addressing to visitors, that can provide useful information for the transportation of each destination as well as for different spots constituting a destination path. For example the information may refer to information about finding the appropriate means of trasportation in order to go to the selected destination, information on how one can reduce the transit time, notification for the visitors for various points of interest etc.
- Use of open data
The aim of the module is the implementation of applications based on data visualization through their design and/or dynamic infographics and the design of information and feedback mechanisms. The development of applications that will be useful for supporting policymakers and contribute in decision making (business inteligence) are strongly suggested.
Horizontal features
- The applications that will be developed is suggested to follow a combination – and integration – of ideas and characteristics from different sections.
- The applications should be responsive both for desktop screens and for smart phones.
- Technological innovations such as big data analysis, open hardware, sensors, use of APIs etc are strongly suggested.
- Applications should follow a business model that can be commercial and directs to a revenue model. The applications refering to a social purpose, should have an expandable and sustainable character.
- Applications should take into account the Strategic Planning for Tourism 2021 and the general strategy of SETE.
The event will provide the participants with the basic technical specifications and with the suggested data sources, platforms and tools that can be used for the applications. All relevant information will be available on Crowdhackathon’s platform .
Participation
The participation is open and free for everyone. There are certain positions per role, so the model “first come first served” is applied. In order to be able to take part in the contest you shoulf first make your registration at the platform http://crowdhackathon.com/tourism/.
You can participate in SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon having one of the following roles:
- Developers: they design applications. The role refers to the contestants and they can be programmers, analysts, designers, consultants etc.
- Mentors. They will guide and support the contestants.
- Volunteers which will support the whole organization.
- Visitors. They maybe companies, public entities or/and NGOs. They do not take part to the contest but they can monitor the development of the applications, the presentations and, of course, all the side events.
- Data providers. The role refers to all entities (public or private) wishing to provide open data for the development of the applications.
- Journalists.
You can find all the aforementioned types of tickets at the registration page. Participants will be provided with fast internet, working tables, supporting material, food, soft drinks, though they must have their own computer and power strips.
The participation is strongly suggested to be organized in groups (up to 5 persons).
Awards
The groups will be awarded with cash prizes as well as with services and goods. The awards will be announced on the platform of the organization http://crowdhackathon.com/tourism/.
Procedure – Schedule
- All information about the SETE Tourism Crowdhackathon will be published on the platform http://crowdhackathon.com/tourism/ and on facebook http://facebook.com/. All interested parties may get informed about the updates through these links.
- The participants (contestants, mentors, volunteers, visitors, data providers or journalists) should register through the online form available on the platform. The positions per role are specific so the model “first come first served” is applied. Registrations close two days before the event, that is on the 14th of October.
- The organization team will announce the technical specifications of the contest on the 28th of September. The specifications will be defined after a consultation process that will be held until the 12th of October , when the final technical specifications will be announced. Meanwhile, anyone wishing to send suggestions or/and comments on the technical specifications is welcome.
- The awards will be announced on http://crowdhackathon.com/tourism/.
- The mentors will be selected by the organizational committee based on their experience in similar actions and their general technical and professional knowledge. Both mentors, the jury and the organizational committee will co-operate to finalize the technical specifications and in general the contest’s framework. The mentors and the jury should be present during the two-days Hackathon and support the applications development.
- Final technical specifications: 14 October.
- End of registrations: 14 October, 23:59.
- 17 & 18 October: the contest is being held at Innovathens, the Athens Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, located at Technopolis City of Athens (Metro Line 3, Kerameikos Station). A detailed programme will be published on the contest’s platform.
- On the evening of the 18th of October all participants shall present their applications. The evaluation process will start, the awards will follow.
- Three of the contestants will be awarded and followingly present their application in a conference that SETE will organize on the 19th-20th of October.
Location – Dates
- 17 & 18 October 2015
Innovathens, the Athens Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, Technopolis City of Athens, 100, Pireos str., 118 54, Αthens, http://crowdhackathon.com/tourism/#location