Use Case

Managing tourist traffic by suggesting unusual itineraries within the city’s neighborhoods and metropolitan area, bringing tourists closer to local experiences in order to learn more about the city and its characteristic features, promoting a form of sustainable tourism and, at the same time, providing residents with a tool for staying up-to-date on events and initiatives.

This is “Feel Florence”, the new city branding project that emulates “Be Berlin” and “I Amsterdam”, suggesting to both tourists and residents the best way to experience Florence, rather than just visiting it.

The project, a product of Almaviva’s digital partnership with the Information System division as well as Florence’s Tourism and Technical Services Departments, focuses on the development of the mobile App and Florence Town Hall institutional tourism website, which will replace the six different websites and three Apps used up so far, responding to two main objectives:

Are you traveling alone, as a couple, or as a family; how many days are you visiting for; what method of transportation are you using; are you interested in art & culture, food & wine, or something else? Feel Florence assists tourists as they start planning their trip. It allows them to indicate their preferences and interests and to prepare a travel diary with the various stages of their visit. And while staying in the city, the app suggests the best ways to experience Greater Florence: thanks to the “Skip the Line” function, by analyzing turnout data (from sensors, cameras, and statistics) the app is able to show how crowded a location is and, if necessary, suggest less crowded destinations in the surrounding area.

Next Step

Feel Florence has a setting that suggests routes and experiences to visitors, and detects attendance in real-time, thus letting visitors know which areas are the most congested at that moment and which can be enjoyed without having to deal with overcrowding.

In the near future, the increase in sensors within the city and the implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms will allow the Tourism Office to better manage tourist traffic.