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Efficient Electronic Services for Tourist in Action

Objectif

The ESTIA project aims to provide the means for mass adoption of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce in the tourism sector. The project is introducing value-added services over the next generation access medium of E-Business: Mobile Networks, in order to efficiently support individuals and vendors in the tourism economy.

More specifically, this project will provide the following tools and services:

Easy and cost efficient access to travel information (and all associated info) during the actual holiday trip.
Brokering tools and platforms for locating, reserving and purchasing domestic products & services better matching their needs.
Personalised services including recommendation and bundling services that best complements their tourist plan and schedule and matches their tourist identity and travel profile.
On line virtual communities of groups of people that belong to their target segment, travelling along them that build virtual trails in order to be easy located from other un-informed travellers and people at home.

Objectives:
As On-line Commerce evolves, services will become increasingly supportive, cost efficient and consumer-oriented in order to add value to current business practices. Also in the Tourism industry, suppliers are offering innovative useful services, by making use of the Internet. However the focal point of the Tourism business, i.e. the tourists demands during their travel, remains insufficiently addressed. It is clear that the mobility of travellers urges the development of new mediation platforms that will focus on supporting them at their destination place and building-up exploitable relationships, which will be maintained after the actual trip.

The ESTIA project aims to contribute to the economic development of the Community by providing the means for mass adoption of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce in the tourism sector. The project is introducing value-added services over the next generation access medium of E-Business i.e. Mobile Networks, in order to bring closer and efficiently support, individuals and vendors in the digital tourism economy.

Moreover, the project aims at:

Enhancing the traditional and digital value chain of the tourism sector by extending the traditional business models around new type of mediators.
Introducing new market opportunities for the active players in marketing (i.e. advertising and promotion), merchandising, reservation, customer support processes of E-Tourism.
Improving the quality of life for European citizens by having on-line access to international markets through mobile access devices and enabling previously passive tourists to become active participants.
The main objective of the project is to introduce advanced B2C oriented E-Services upon intelligent mobile access devices, enabling full interactivity and personalisation, in the tourism value chain and to attract tourists in active digital marketplaces. To this end, the project will develop a supportive mediation and brokerage system between product/ serv

Work description:
In ESTIA we will use the incremental development process engineering methodology. This implies that we will built parts of the system as a prototype early in the project, and get feedback of the users. This is more likely to result in a system that truly addresses the needs of the users. We will start with requirements elicitation both from the end-users and domain experts. In parallel, we will survey particular aspects of the tourism domain. Then, follows the specification of an overall system architecture and the initial design of its relevant components. The end of the initial design will be accompanied with the delivery of a mock up demo that will be presented to the users in order to validate the specification choices, and demonstrate the user functions.

The user assessment about this demo will provide early feedback for the implementation and design process of the ESTIA prototypes. This is important since the end-users will have the opportunity to put their figures on a prototype that is very close to the real system and provide on the spot valuable feedback on all aspects of the proposed system.

Finally, a new iteration of re-design and implementation activities will take place taking into account the evaluation results of the initial prototype and the same time the demands of the market stemming from the marketing activities scheduled in the project, leading to the final implementation of the ESTIA system and the definition of the plan for its commercialisation.

Milestones:
In the initial phase the project will provide the functional specification and design of initial ESTIA prototype and market analysis. This is followed by the delivery of the final ESTIA prototype and the consortium's exploitation plan. ESTIA will publish its Technology Implementation Plan within the scope of the project.
1. Personalised tourist services. Tourist vendors offering their services via the ESTIA brokering platform may generate additional revenues by better complying to the needs of the tourists.
2. Integrated System. ESTIA software applications / components can be marketed as a whole or separately.
3. Technology. Technical know-how acquired during the project and can be marketed to companies interested in the technology fields involved in ESTIA.
4. Technical Services. As more and more EC potential users are switching to Mobile Network technologies there will be great demand for consulting, engineering, training and support services based on the know-how that will be acquired in ESTIA.
5. XML standards & Typology and Frameworks.
ESTIA results include the contribution to standards in the Tourism sector that can be exploited by other ventures or R&D projects that willing to extend their technology and service boundaries. Collaboration in EC projects FETISH and HARMONISE.

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Régime de financement

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinateur

ATOS ORIGIN SA
Contribution de l’UE
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Adresse
CALLE DE ALBARRACIN 25
28037 MADRID
Espagne

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Dernière mise à jour: 13 Juin 2005

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/IST-1999-20962/fr

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