EnterCY: Enhancing Tourist Experience In Cyprus

About the project

According to the Smart Specialization Strategy for Cyprus (S3CY), the tourism sector is considered as the “spearhead” for the economic development of Cyprus having a significant contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product. S3CY experts, however, pointed out that the traditional “Sea and Sun” tourism development model is obsolete and there is an urgent need for new strategi models for attracting new forms of tourism. The EnterCY project aims at developing an integrated virtual and augmented reality platform utilizing cutting-edge Information and Communication Technologies for promoting Cyprus as an attractive destination by (a) informing potential visitors about the rich cultural heritage, variety of activities and wealth of sightseeing locations of Cyprus through a spatio-temporal virtual exploration before their visit, (b) enhancing tourists experience and satisfaction by providing visual and audio guidance, navigation, as well as entertaining and learning by story-telling through augmented reality with location-awareness during their visit in both indoor and outdoor sites, (c) offering an after visit experience through immersive reality technologies, by providing tourists with a personal 360 video of their on-site tour after their visit as a memento and (d) allowing tourists to share their experience in real-time through the platform integration with social media. In all stages of the EnterCY platform, personalization will be employed for presenting the tourists with information and suggestions tailored to their personal interests and needs.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Achievements:

  • ECTN Awards - 3rd Prize - European Cultural Tourism Network

Publications:

  • Soteris Constantinou, Andreas Pamboris, Rafael Alexandrou, Christoforos Kronis, Demetrios Zeinalipour-Yazti, Harris Papadopoulos and Andreas Konstantinidis; "EnterCY: A Virtual and Augmented Reality Tourism Platform for Cyprus", 23rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (IEEE MDM 22), 6-9 June, 2022.

People:

  • Andreas Konstantinidis - Director - Coordinator

  • Christoforos Kronis - Lab Assistant - Developer

  • Rafael Alexandrou - PhD Student - Researcher

Image Gallery: