TourKhana and the new Tourism paradigm

Published Date

TourKhana significatively helps the entities in charge of the exploitation of touristic resources in their efforts to conceive competitive destinations.

It is not a secret that Tourism is one of today's most dynamic and stable sectors. Last years have demonstrated that in spite of the reduction in the economic activity , Tourism has revealed itself almost as a crisis-proof sector. Perhaps the crisis has caused changes in the preferences of tourists and yes, the numbers tell us that there has been an impact on arrivals and incomes, but the fact is that the levels of occupation have resisted quite well these turbulences and 2010 has already meant the start of the recovery. In this new competitive scenario where new attractive destinations are arising year by year, exploitation entities, public and private, have sensed the need for developing a new conception of the sector.

Among the objectives of these entities, it is crucial to migrate from a Tourism paradigm based on:

• Resources availability, either natural or man made.
• Availability of infrastructure enough to cope with visitor needs.

To a new paradigm based on:

• Rational, sustainable and efficent exploitation of touristic resources.
• Boosting  the capabilities of current resources.
• Harmonizing resources and infrastructure so that the result is an integrated offer.
• This integrated offer should define the destination positioning.
• The offer must include differenciating elements to make it unique within its segment.
• Replacing the concept of "visit" as the use of certain resources and infrastructure with the concept of a personalized and satisfactory experience in the context of such an integrated and differenciated offer.

As a consequence of this evolution, it is expected the dynamization of local economies and not only of those directly related with touristic resources themselves. Another consequence, hand in hand with marketing actions targeted to promote the destination, must be the expansion of the awareness of the destination to the highest level in order to increase its target as much as possible.

How does TourKhana contribute to achieving this paradigm evolution?

• Exploitation of touristic resources. TourKhana immerses the visitor in a multimodal experience, allowing him/her to live the destination in all its fullness. It makes him/her see, hear, interact, know the site and its most significant elements: the places, the heritance, the people and the characters, the stories and legends...what it is there and what it was there....
• Integration of resources and infrastructure. TourKhana provides the user with common Tourism guide features, either in map view or in augmented reality view. But it goes far beyond this: it integrates local business (hotels, restaurants, shops,...) into the same story the user is living. Business play thereby their part in the TourKhana experience.
• Provision of a personalized satisfactory experience. Thanks to TourKhana, the entity in charge of the exploitation of touristic resources gets to connect to visitors in the key of the differentiating mix it wants. In fact, TourKhana is a part of that mix since it becomes a remarkable communication channel with tourists. Embedded technologies in TourKhana are aware of the user profile and they present him/her the destinatio offer tuned with his/her preferences, thereby ensuring such personal and satisfactory experience.

For the above reasons, TourKhana contributes to the dynamization of local economies, not only by empowering the exploitation of the resources but also by making local businesses a part of it. In addition to this and thanks to the sistematic connection of TourKhana with the most important social networks, the user spreads its experience to a virtually global level thus helping to achieve the commercial goals of the destination.

Through its contribution to the change of Tourism paradigm, TourKhana unleashes the value and profitability of touristic resources.