PLOCAN collaborates in the first tourist data analytics competition on the destination of Gran Canaria, launched by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, through the Society for the Economic Promotion of Gran Canaria (SPEGC), with the participation of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC).
The Datathon will be held from September 17th to 19th and will have two challenges differentiated by levels. The first challenge is called Ocean Challenge and it is focused on caring for the oceans, one of the priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals that directly affects the competitiveness of Gran Canaria as a tourist destination, and the second challenge is called Smart Destination Challenge.
In the Ocean Challenge, participants will use a dataset of great scientific and general interest from the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), which includes photographs and videos of the seabed. With this material, the teams will have to solve a series of tests using current analysis techniques based on artificial intelligence, which allow optimizing the search processes in databases of high-resolution recordings of large volume, shortening the traditional processes of analysis.
In the Smart Destination Challenge, participants will access the Tourist Intelligence and Analysis Platform (PIAT), developed by SPEGC, to create smart applications in order to turn Gran Canaria into a Smart Tourist Destination. It is a dataset that allows obtaining reliable information for the sector from more than 30 sources such as AENA, the National Statistics Institute, the Canary Islands Statistics Institute, Aemet or Exceltur.
The ultimate goal of this tool is to allow decision-making based on truthful information to the destination managers and the private sector and, thus, be more efficient and competitive to turn Gran Canaria into a first-rate tourist destination.
Registration for the Datathon is open until September 15th. The activity will be free and will combine the in-person with the virtual modality. The Bandama Hall of Infecar will be available for teams that prefer to develop their solutions to the challenges in this space.
The activity is framed within the European Smartdest project that seeks to prepare and evaluate a proposal for a strategy and development of tools for the conversion of Gran Canaria as a Smart Tourist Destination, making participants face challenges related to different areas of the sector.
Registration is available here.
