Online Synchronous Model of Interpretive Sustainable Guiding in Heritage Sites: The Avatar Tourist Visit

[EN] The health crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created an unprecedented social situation. In the most critical moments, tourism activities were cancelled or reduced to their minimum operation, creating an extreme situation of separation of a country¿s heritage from residents and tourists. The objective of this work is to propose new options and strategies to reconnect the public with heritage under any circumstance and, at the same time, offer tourism services in healthy, secure conditions. Thus, live-streaming experiences of online interpretative tourist guidance were developed in heritage spaces; those visits were led by real guide-interpreters in a real environment and transmitted for remote visitors. We have called this visiting model the ¿Avatar Tourist Visit¿. It is based on tools associated with Heritage Interpretation, Interpersonal Communication, Filmmaking and Audio-Visual Language, and Information and Communication Technologies. The methodological development of this tool was based on Design Sciences Research as the creation of a new procedure was pursued. The result is a sustainable, immersive, interactive, inclusive, unique, and resilient tourism product designed not only for times of crisis but also to connect the public with heritage at all times and ensure universal access to it. In addition, this activity constitutes a marketable experience as a specialized and customizable tourist product.This study is part of the research project "Analisis y desarrollo de la integracion HBIM en SIG para la creacion de un protocolo de planificacion turistica del patrimonio cultural de un destino" (ref. PID2020-119088RB-I00), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; and has also been funded by Generalitat Valenciana and Fondo Social Europeo through the postdoctoral program APOSTD/2020/004.Viñals Blasco, MJ.; Gilabert Sansalvador, L.; Sanasaryan, A.; Teruel Serrano, MD.; Darés, M. (2021). Online Synchronous Model of Interpretive Sustainable Guiding in Heritage Sites: The Avatar Tourist Visit. Sustainability. 13(13):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137179118131

Logics Hindering Digital Transformation in Cultural Heritage Strategic Management: An Exploratory Case Study

Museums play an important role in tourist flows, especially in cities that are famous for their cultural heritage. To valorize their role, these cultural institutions should open themselves to visitors as vectors of social, educational, and entertainment values. In particular, museums need to reinvent how they transmit information about their collections and how they engage visitors, keeping in mind the opportunities triggered by digitalization. Digital technologies could in fact be a powerful tool to assist in adopting a visitor-oriented approach and to stimulate a two-way communication. This article aims to analyze the extent of digitalization that should be integrated in museums' communication strategies, and to recognize the logics hindering digital transformation in cultural heritage strategic management. We developed an exploratory case study, focused on museums in Turin, Italy, gathering online data through institutional reports, museum websites, and social media, as well as onsite data mainly from semistructured interviews with museum managers. The research shows that most of the interviewees understand the strategic role of digitalization for museum development; however, the level of digital readiness remains low. Alongside the well-known systemic financial deficit of cultural institutions, there are other critical factors that hinder the integration of digitalization processes in the cultural heritage management. Common barriers include the presence of institutional pressures, and the lack of organizational and managerial coordination between different departments and functions that should be involved in the development of digital strategies and their integration in the strategic planning systems of museums. This research offers insights to tackle these challenges, allowing museums to compete in the international context of the cultural and heritage tourism

Metaverse as a driver for customer experience and value co-creation: implications for hospitality and tourism management and marketing

Purpose: Metaverse blends the physical and virtual worlds, revolutionizing how hospitality customers and hospitality organizations facilitate the co-creation of transformational experiences and values. This paper aims to explore the opportunities and challenges that Metaverse introduces for hospitality and tourism management and marketing as part of the customer experience and value co-creation process. This paper also discusses how the advent and development of Metaverse can potentially transform hospitality customer experience and value co-creation. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to explore conceptual developments on Metaverse and best practice examples from around the world. Findings: Metaverse not only opens many exciting opportunities for hospitality and tourism but also poses some great challenges. Hospitality and tourism organizations need to use the Metaverse strategically to customize and co-create hybrid virtual and physical experiences, allowing consumers to engage with them and also with other customers before, during and after their visit. A range of research opportunities also emerge for the adoption and operationalization of Metaverse. Research limitations/implications: This paper critically analyzes the early applications of Metaverse in hospitality and tourism as well as promotes future solutions for hospitality and tourism management and marketing. The conceptual model in this study can help different stakeholders better understand the flow, logic and potential of Metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry. Originality/value: The paper defines and conceptualizes the potential of Metaverse in hospitality customer experience and value co-creation. Besides putting forward a research agenda for further exploiting the full potential for both hospitality customers and hospitality organizations, this paper elucidates the impacts of Metaverse on hospitality management, rooted in the previous literature in value co-creation and technology-enhanced experience

Rethinking the role of ICTs - Digital transformation and Culture enjoyment continuity

This document will analyse recent trends and evolution of the use of ICTs in the field of cultural heritage from a different standpoint, the service provision in the age of digital transition and pandemic. The initial focus is on the usual approach in the field of goods, proper design to elicit a positive feeling by potential customers. Recently a new type of good has been identified, service. Services grown up incredibly in the pandemic, goods delivery, food delivery, and more. So, thinking at services like a good we must design them to better the appreciation by customers as since the early XX century the people did with objects and merchandise. Appling the same approach to digital services a design phase is required together with all the different components that will provide a positive feedback from the user, this means to deal with interaction design, user centred approach, usability guidelines and the overall concept of positive user experience. Recent trends and reborn technologies like the path from edutainment to serious games and gamification, the new approach to immersive interactive technologies in a nonintrusive format. Last but relevant the need to take the momentum to ensure the culture enjoyment continuity in case of crisis

Museos virtuales y entorno construido: narrativas y experiencias inmersivas vía centros de geodatos multitemporales

[EN] Our built environment is nowadays considered as a dynamic complex, stretching and transforming across space and time, with the interaction of human, social and economic dimensions. It needs to be safeguarded as living places for the future taking into account such complexity. The general aim of this work is to contribute to the comprehension of landscape values, enhancing participation processes by tourists and local communities, considering the built environment as a system: the sum of natural transformation, ancient artefacts stratification and human activities, partially covering the tangible traces, and functioning as a vehicle for the comprehension of intangible values. Multi-temporal, multi-scale and geospatial datasets can play an important role in such knowledge transfer processes by means of narratives and immersive experiences in a multimedia museum approach. In particular, the cartographic heritage, in the form of metric and non-metric maps, can be progressively used as a source of information for innovative narratives. Virtual Museums (VMs)are additional "channels" to disseminate content and to provide knowledge about cultural heritage; they have emerged from the crossbreeding process between museums and digital technologies. Investigating how digital storytelling may support communication and understanding of complex systems, such as the built environment and landscape, it is relevant because cultural awareness may foster the sense of belonging and identity construction of which Europe is thirsty, contributing to the safeguarding of fragile sites. The paper provides useful information for museums that would like to follow this pathway. It retraces the main steps of storytelling production and presents interesting examples of immersive narrative models based on geospatial data and a virtual hub, helping people to retrieve and access information and to recognize places of memory mostly unknown. Moreover, it offers an evaluation of existing tools that can be adopted for this purpose. Eventually, by virtue of the research carried out for the case study of the Virtual Museum of Como Lake Landscape, the paper aims at ascertaining which kind of stories and experiences can be designed, the potential of these tools and possible weaknesses or constraints that deserve future researches.[ES] El entorno construido se considera hoy en día como un complejo dinámico, que se extiende y transforma a través del espacio y el tiempo, con interacción de dimensiones humanas, sociales y económicas. Debe salvaguardarse como lugares donde vivir el futuro teniendo en cuenta tal complejidad. El objetivo general de este trabajo es contribuir a la comprensión de los valores paisajísticos, potenciando los procesos de participación de los turistas y de los autóctonos, considerando el entorno construido como un sistema: suma de la transformación natural, de la estratificación de artefactos antiguos y de actividades humanas, cubriendo parcialmente los rastros tangibles, y vehículo de comprensión de valores intangibles. Los conjuntos de datos multitemporales, a multi-escala y geoespaciales pueden desempeñar un papel importante en dicho proceso de transferencia de conocimiento a través de narrativas y experiencias inmersivas en el enfoque de un museo multimedia. En particular, el patrimonio cartográfico, en forma de mapas métricos y mapas no métricos, puede utilizarse progresivamente como fuente de información para narrativas innovadoras. Los Museos Virtuales (VM) son “canales” adicionales que permiten difundir contenido y proporcionar conocimiento sobre el patrimonio cultural; surgen del proceso de mestizaje entre museos y tecnologías digitales. Investigar cómo la narración digital puede apoyar la comunicación y la comprensión de sistemas complejos, como el entorno construido y el paisaje, es relevante porque la conciencia cultural puede fomentar el sentido de pertenencia y la construcción de identidad de los que Europa tiene sed, contribuyendo a la protección de sitios frágiles. El artículo proporciona información útil para los museos que deseen seguir este camino. Describe los principales pasos que deberían considerarse a la hora de producir narrativas y pone ejemplos interesantes de modelos narrativos inmersivos basados en datos geoespaciales y centros virtuales, que ayudan a las personas a recuperar y acceder a información, y a reconocer lugares desconocidos o vagamente retenidos en la memoria. Además, ofrece una evaluación de las herramientas existentes que se pueden adoptar con este propósito. El objetivo es aclarar, finalmente, en virtud dela investigación desarrollada en el caso de estudio del Museo Virtual del Paisaje del Lago di Como, qué tipo de historias y experiencias se pueden diseñar, el potencial de estas herramientas y las posibles debilidades o limitaciones que merecen futuras investigaciones.We thank Stefano Della Torre (Head of Polimi dABC) as Sc. Responsible of the Advisory within the PORL FESR 2007/2013 ‘Multimedia system for the presentation and participated recognizing of the environmental values of the landscape of the Lake of Como’; and Leoni Marco (Director of the Museum of Como Lake Landscape) for the concession of museum’s data and his support in developing the PhD research of which this paper presents a summary of preliminary findings.The research leading to the results of this paper is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the European Community (CIP) GA no. 620400.Brumana, R.; Oreni, D.; Caspani, S.; Previtali, M. (2018). Virtual museums and built environment: narratives and immersive experience via multi-temporal geodata hub. Virtual Archaeology Review. 9(19):34-49. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2018.9918SWORD3449919Bedford, L. (2001). Storytelling: The real work of museums. Curator: the museum journal, Vol. 44, Issue 1, 27-34. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb00027.xBarazzetti, L., Brumana, R., Oreni, D., & Roncoroni, F. (2013). Recognizing landscapes: can we change the point of view of geographic data? Journal of Mobile Multimedia, Vol. 9(1-2), 39-52. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb00027.xBarazzetti, L., Brumana, R., Oreni, D., & Previtali, M. (2014). Historical Map Registration via Independent Model Adjustment with Affine Transformations. In ICCSA 2014 (pp. 44-56). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-09147-1_4Barazzetti L., Brumana, R., Cuca, B., & Previtali, M. (2015). Towards a Virtual Hub for a wider Open Data community. In Geomatics Workbooks n° 12, "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015" (pp.1-12).Brumana, R., Cuca, B., Oreni, D., Prandi, F., & Scaioni, M. (2010). Integration of old cadastral maps into up-to-date geodatabases for urban planning. In Core spatial databases - updating maintenance and services. From theory to practice (pp. 90-95). Haifa, Israel.Brumana, R., Oreni, D., Cuca, B., Rampini, A., & Pepe, M. (2012). Open Access to Historical Atlas: Sources of Information and Services for Landscape Analysis in an SDI Framework. In ICCSA 2012 (pp. 397-413). Springer Int. Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-31075-1_30.Brumana, R., Oreni, D., Van Hecke, L., Barazzetti, L., Previtali, M., Roncoroni, F., & Valente, R. (2013). Combined Geometric and Thermal Analysis from Uav Platforms for Archaeological Heritage Documentation. In XXIV International Cipa Symposium (pp. 49-54). Strasbourg, France.Brumana, R., Santana Quintero, M., Barazzetti, L., Previtali, M., Della Torre, S., Roels, D., & Capitani, M. (2015). A geo-swot chart, using a values centered approach and multitemporal-maps for landscape assessment and multimedia ecomuseum. In ICOMOS International Symposium "Heritage and Landscape as Human Values, Theme 1 "Sharing and experiencing the identity of communities through tourism and interpretation" (pp. 186-191). Florence, Italy.Bedford, L. (2001). Storytelling: The real work of museums. Curator: the Museum Journal, 44(1), 27-34.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb00027.xBarazzetti, L., Brumana, R., Oreni, D., & Roncoroni, F. (2013). Recognizing landscapes: can we change the point of view of geographic data? Journal of Mobile Multimedia, 9(1-2), 39-52.Barazzetti, L., Brumana, R., Oreni, D., & Previtali, M. (2014). Historical Map Registration via Independent Model Adjustment with Affine Transformations. In ICCSA 2014 (pp. 44-56). Guimaraes, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09147-1_4Barazzetti, L., Brumana, R., Cuca, B., & Previtali, M. (2015). Towards a Virtual Hub for a wider Open Data community. In FOSS4G Europe 2015(pp.1-12). Como, Italy.Brumana, R., Cuca, B., Oreni, D., Prandi, F., & Scaioni, M. (2010). Integration of old cadastral maps into up-to-date geodatabases for urban planning. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XXXVIII, 4-8-2/W9, 90-95.Brumana, R., Oreni, D., Cuca, B., Rampini, A., &Pepe, M. (2012). Open Access to Historical Atlas: Sources of Information and Services for Landscape Analysis in an SDI Framework .In ICCSA 2012(pp. 397-413).Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31075-1_30Brumana, R., Oreni, D., Van Hecke, L., Barazzetti, L., Previtali, M., Roncoroni, F., & Valente, R. (2013). Combined geometric and thermal analysis from UAV platforms for archaeological heritage documentation. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, II-5/W1, 49-54. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsannals-II-5-W1-49-2013Brumana, R., Santana Quintero, M., Barazzetti, L., Previtali, M., Della Torre, S., Roels, D., & Capitani, M. (2015a). A geo-swot chart, using a values centered approach and multi temporal-maps for landscape assessment and multimedia ecomuseum. In ICOMOS International Symposium "Heritage and Landscape as Human Values", Theme 1"Sharing and experiencing the identity of communities through tourism and interpretation" (pp. 186-191). Florence, Italy.Brumana, R., Santana Quintero, M., Barazzetti, L., Previtali, M., Banfi, F., Oreni, D., Roels D., & Roncoroni, F. (2015b). Towards a virtual hub approach for landscape assessment and multimedia ecomuseum using multi temporal-maps. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XL-5/W7, 49-56. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-5-W7-49-2015Bruner, J. (1991). The Narrative Construction of Reality. Critical Inquiry, 18 (1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1086/448619Caquard, S. (2013). Mapping narrative cartography. Progress in Human Geography, 37(1), 135-144.https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132511423796Caspani, S., Brumana, R., Oreni, D., Previtali, M. (2017). Virtual museums as digital storytellers for dissemination of built environment: possible narratives and outlooks for appealing and rich encounters with the past. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-2/W5, 113-119.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W5-113-2017Castells, M. (2000). The construction of European Identity. Retrieved October25, 2017, fromhttps://www.chet.org.za/files/CASTELLS%202004%20European%20Identity.pdfCouncil of Europe. (2000). European Landscape Convention. Retrieved October25, 2017, from https://rm.coe.int/1680080621Cuca, B., Brumana, R., Scaioni, M., & Oreni, D. (2011). Spatial Data Management of Temporal Map Series for Cultural and Environmental Heritage. International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research, 6, 97-125.https.//doi.org/10.2902/1725-0463.2011.06.art5Cuca, B., Previtali, M., Barazzetti, L., & Brumana, R. (2017). Benefits of using Open Geo-spatial Data for valorization of Cultural Heritage: GeoPan app. In 19th EGU General Assembly (p. 19101). Wien, Austria. Retrieved June 20, 2018, from https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2017/EGU2017-19101.pdfGiaccardi, E., & Fogli, D. (2008). Affective geographies: toward a richer cartographic semantics for the geospatial web. In AVI 8 Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces (pp. 173-180). Napoli, Italy. https://doi.org/10.1145/1385569.1385598Hooper-Greenhill, E. (2005). I musei e la formazione del sapere: le radici storiche, le pratiche del presente. Milan: Il Saggiatore.ICOMOS. (1996). The Declaration of San Antonio. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.icomos.org/en/charters-and-texts/179-articles-en-francais/ressources/charters-and-standards/188-the-declaration-of-san-antonioICOMOS. (2008a). Charter on cultural routes. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.icomos.org/images/DOCUMENTS/Charters/culturalroutes_e.pdfICOMOS. (2008b). Quebèc Declaration on the preservation of the spirit of place. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.icomos.org/quebec2008/quebec_declaration/pdf/GA16_Quebec_Declaration_Final_EN.pdfICOMOS. (2014). The Florence Declaration on Heritage and Landscapes as Human Values. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.icomos.org/images/DOCUMENTS/Secretariat/2015/GA_2014_results/GA2014_Symposium_FlorenceDeclaration_EN_final_20150318.pdfMacdonald, S. (2013) .Memorylands: Heritage and Identity in Europe Today. London: Routledge.Monti, C., Achille, C., Brumana, R., Musumeci, S., Oreni, D., & Signori, M. (2009). Perspectives on the 3-D analysis through the cadastral map series (XVIII -XX sec.) and the first geodetic large scale map of Milan realized by the 'Astronomidi Brera' (Astronomers of Brera): toward an advanced portal. E-PERIMETRON, 4(2), 86-100.Nativi, S., Craglia, M., & Pearlman, J. (2013). Earth science infrastructures interoperability: the brokering approach. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics. Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 6(3), 1118-1129. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2013.2243113Pierdicca, R., Malinverni, E., Frontoni, E., Colosi, F., & Orazi, R. (2016). 3D visualization tools to explore ancient architectures in South America. Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15), 44-53.https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2016.5904Pini, L. (2003). Tremezzo il paese dove fioriscono I limoni. Tremezzo: Silvana Editoriale.Previtali, M. (2017). Geopan atl@s: A brokering based gateway to georeferenced historical maps for risk analysis. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-2/W5, 583-589.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W5-583-2017Redweik, P., Cláudio, A., Carmo, M., Naranjo, J., & Sanjosé, J. (2017). Digital preservation of cultural and scientific heritage: involving university students to raise awareness of its importance. Virtual Archaeology Review, 8(16), 22-34. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2017.4629Scazzosi, L. (2003). Landscape and Cultural Landscape: European Landscape Convention and UNESCO Policy .World Heritage papers, 7, 55-59.Scazzosi, L., (2004).Reading and assessing the landscape as cultural and historical heritage. Landscape Research, 29(4), 335-355.https://doi.org/10.1080/0142639042000288993ViMM. (2018).Virtual Multimodal Museum. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.vi-mm.euV-MUST. (2015). D. 2.3c State of the art on Virtual Museums in Europe and outside Europe: Report. Commissioned by the V-MUST project. Retrieved October25, 2017, from http://www.v-must.net/sites/default/files/D2.3d_StateArt_VirtualMuseums_2015.pdfWong, A. (2015). The whole story, and then some: 'digital storytelling' in evolving museum practice. In MW2015: Museums and the Web 2015, Chicago, United States. Retrieved October25, 2017, from http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/the-whole-story-and-then-some-digital-storytelling-in-evolving-museum-practice

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

Outlines a community education movement to implement Knight's 2009 recommendation to enhance digital and media literacy. Suggests local, regional, state, and national initiatives such as teacher education and parent outreach and discusses challenges

Using AR and VR characters for enhancing user experience in a museum

Museums and cultural heritage institutions have used technology to create interactive exhibits and pedagogical tools that help spark visitors’ interests. The rise of Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality Systems has further enabled the creation of a new generation of immersive experiences that can engage and educate visitors. These technologies can be used to develop digital characters that can serve as virtual tour guides and improve user engagement by answering questions and forming social bonds with the users. While such tour guides have been deployed as exhibits at many museums, the implementation is usually limited to a single exhibit or a section of the museum space. We believe that visitors will be better served if the virtual guide not only enriches the onsite experience but also provides a take-home experience for users to encourage future visits. This thesis explores the enhancement in user experience that such a system can bring by offering onsite and offsite AR and WebVR technologies to create a virtual tour guide that assists visitors at the Genesee Country Village & Museum through interactive dialog as they explore the historic village on the museum campus