Tourism remains a key economic strategy to boost the development of many cities, as rapidly it brings in tourism receipts and creates good jobs, while building the city’s reputation. Smart city technologies help improve the functionality of a city or province such as in its traffic, cleanliness, and air quality, and make a city safer for tourists and citizens alike to enjoy. Yet, a tourism sector needs much more than smart technology to truly thrive.
Eden facilitating a breakout discussion with NTT teams
Eden Strategy Institute was recently invited to East Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia, to support its government on developing a smart tourism strategy for the province. East Nusa Tenggara (or “NTT”, Nusa Tenggara Timur in Indonesian) is the southernmost province of Indonesia comprising over 500 islands, with the largest being Sumba, Flores, and the western part of Timor that borders the separate nation of East Timor. The province is focused on growing its tourism sector, and counts attractions such as Komodo National Park, Mount Kelimutu with three crater lakes of different colours, pink beaches at Padar Island, and unspoilt dive sites at Alor among its treasured attractions.
When tasked to develop a smart tourism plan, one might expect to see a discussion on capabilities that might need to be built, that could include various sensors, actuators, analytics, and control centres. Instead, our assessment of the full potential that tourism promises for the province was that even before discussing suitable technologies, we need to start with a statistical analysis of the major trends and transitions in source countries of tourists that have visited NTT, and that of neighbouring destinations such as Bali, against the outbound tourist psychographics that might be amenable to visiting NTT.
NTT Governor Viktor Laiskodat with his advisors
Cities often believe that tourists will come simply because they invest in developing and marketing attractions, and setting up supporting infrastructure. This is akin to producing souvenirs associated with local cultures and hoping that these will sustain enough livelihoods. We instead challenged ourselves to create tourist value propositions that are so unique, so superior to everything else in their category, that they are absolutely compelling to the target segment. For example, “snorkeling at an Asian beach” may be interesting, but a “snorkeling experience with manta rays at a unique volcanic beach with pink sand” could be irresistible to some tourists.
We then worked with NTT teams to articulate the corresponding considerations it would take to realise these unique tourist value propositions, using Eden’s SMART tourism framework: What is the Strategic innovation; the investments required for Market development, including smart technologies; the Allocation of resources; Risk management; and how the province would Track impact. Seeing all the topics on a single sheet not only allows different departments to see all the issues at a go, but identifies areas of synergy where departments need to work closely together.
Eden SMART Tourism Canvas
In the meantime, Eden continues to work with NTT to develop the incredible tourism assets of the province, but we hope that this tool is useful for different planning teams to have a consistent frame of reference to build tourism in their own cities.