TourPack generates the next generation of technologies for e-Tourism that can be easily deployed in the hospitality industry and needed to ensure visibility, interaction, and access to tourist services. Specifically, TourPack aims at providing pragmatic technology for online touristic service offer production atd its efficient and scalable multi-channel online communication and booking through a multitude of channels (i.e. web sites, wikis, social media channels) through various mobile devices. The major TourPack technical objectives are:
- design and implement a scalable online service packaging and provisioning solution based on machine-processable semantics. Scalability is achieved by introducing a layer of abstraction over all communication channels as well as a layer for capturing customer domain information. These two layers can then be dynamically mapped and connected, depending on the particular use case and direction of information propagation (publishing of messages or collection of feedback).
- deliver the technology for interacting with this multi-channel solution through various and heterogeneous mobile channels. We will develop a mobile toolkit that can be used to develop adapters, integrate and use mobile channels into the TourPack framework.
- provide support in service packaging, such as accessing, interacting, and value exchange (i.e., booking) of tourism services and their combinations through this infrastructure, using linked data as a global integration platform. We would like to support the hospitality industry in optimizing their revenue and profit management through easy and liquid booking in numerous channels and through numerous devices. We provide support in empowering the service provider towards low-fee (e.g., direct) booking opportunities to reduce the share of the income that is taken by external booking providers.
- validate and apply the TourPack research and development outcome in pilots focusing on the booking of tourism services. We will show how TourPack technology will enable tourism enterprises to simplify and automate their communication activities, to engage possible customers via this multitude of channels, to gain visibility and in the end to increase their income by gaining more direct booking but also by saving on fees that are required by some of the booking channels.