Information and communication technologies (ICTs) is one of the 21st century trends and rapidly transforming the global landscape. The notion of “smart” has established by European Union to describe sustainable development strategies by utilizing ITCs. Thessaloniki represents an interesting case for studying that concept as recently initiated an open data platform and became member of “Smarter Cities Challenge” program by IBM. Driven by this challenge this study seeks opportunities for smart tourism development in Thessaloniki and proposes a framework for integrating and leveraging diverse of the existing mobile services related to the city for enhancing visitors experience. In the theoretical part the recent trends and challenges regarding smart tourism development are discussed and analyzed. Grounded on that analyses, is decided to adopt a research approach based on the existing mobile applications services in Thessaloniki. The applications were classified considering their integrated services that can enrich tourist experience during the trip and then they evaluated, based on selected indicators. The analysis of the results answers the following questions;
1. Which of the current apps help tourists to reach inclusive information about Thessaloniki? 2. How easy is for the tourist to find those information that meet his/her unique needs, here and now? 3. To what extend the information are presented in an interactive and meaningful way?
Some visitors needs that are not covered adequately by the current application products reveal. Finally, a framework is proposed to integrate multiple application services during the trip with the purpose to optimize the delivery of mobile services.
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