Reengineering the way tourists interact with heritage: a conceptual IoT based model

Tourism is an information-intensive sector and today's tourist is hungry for information about everything that surrounds him and is increasingly demanding about the mechanisms that are made available for access and interaction with information. This new reality requires rethinking many of the existing solutions. In this context, the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the way we think, design and implement Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions for the tourism sector, opening up unprecedented opportunities in terms of how we can provide information and services. This new reality is enabling reengineering the interaction-process between tourists and its surrounding space. For heritage spaces, typically visited by countless tourists, there is an opportunity to rethink the entire process of supporting the interpretation and fruition of heritage, carried out by tourists. In order to understand how this reengineering can be carried out, a review of the state of the art is carried out with regard to how the IoT has been applied in the context of tourism. Then, the methodology that governed the creation of a conceptual model based on IoT is clearly defined, capable of transforming the way physical spaces of tourist interest can be interpreted and how their fruition can be improved. Particular importance is given to the contextualization of the experience, since the information provided must be adjusted to the visitor, according to their profile, which may necessarily reflect different types of interest or prior knowledge about the space. Finally, this article presents a conceptual model where its components are described and where it is discussed how the model can transform the experience of visiting touristic spaces and how tourists can access information and services that entities promoters of these spaces wish to make available. In the dissertation carried out, important aspects of the model and the gains it may generate for the revitalization and promotion of heritage are discussed.