Turismood wants to renew the personal experience of any tourist, but with special emphasis on Accessible Tourism. Due to to the study and analysis of the European tourist offer, we seek to adapt the best tourist products to our area of action, as well as create our own new ones. This will make it possible to generate innovative accessible spaces and improve the accessibility of existing ones, always acting in accordance with the Universal Design framework.
Local
Spain
To begin with, the area of action will be the Autonomous Community of Galicia, focusing mainly on the province of Lugo as well as on its homonymous capitals.
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Turismood is a tourism product development company project that has a clear objective: the creation and development of tourism products focused mainly on Tourist Accessibility.
As a target we do not rule out any type of tourism, but we want to focus mainly on those who suffer from physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities, as well as those who need other types of accessibility, such as those traveling with animals, children or hospitalized patients.
The business model will consist of analysing cutting-edge and innovative tourism products, both national and international, that have some accessible advantage and that manage to improve and promote the dissemination of tourism heritage, in order to implement them in our geographical scope, but always with the idea that they can be extrapolated to any part of the world. Likewise, we will also develop our own products with the same objective. These products will be carried out, whenever possible, with local companies, always seeking the least impact on our carbon footprint and favouring the local economy in order to help reinforce the symbiosis between territory and economic development.
Right now, Turismood has collected two product ideas:
- The creation of an app for Lugo (can be extrapolated to any territory) that allows tourists to know the resources that they can access without any kind of barrier depending on the tourism they want to do: accessible tourism, pet friendly, MICE, etc. This project currently has the positive assessment of INCYDE Foundation (Spain) and Dinnorah Suárez Lesmes, CEO of Canarias Sostenible S.L.
- The implantation of archaeological windows such as the one in Heidentor (Austria) to offer a vision of the reconstruction of the Roman wall of Lugo 'in situ', together with a relief copy for people with disabilities.
The financing we seek is mainly (but not only) public, with the aim of involving the Local Administration in the development of Lugo as an inclusive city and leader in tourism.
Tourism Renewal
Full Accessibility
Design for All
Circular Economy
Sustainable Development
In terms of sustainability, we have two objectives: to turn Lugo into a leading sustainable tourist destination and to raise awareness of the environmental responsibility that a tourist acquires. To do this, we design our products based on the circular economy, advising ourselves with experts on it, and working with the sustainable search engine Ecosia. Likewise, we will always opt for local products or services, also known as zero-kilometre products.
As a company, Turismood adheres to the defence of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In this section we highlight our commitment to SDG 13 (Climate Action), since this project will be developed seeking the minimum C02 emissions and will make tourists aware of their carbon footprint -through products such as our app or our website-, allowing to compensate it in coalition with environmental NGOs that work in the areas of the planet where the ecosystems are most damaged. We are also committed to SDG 15 (Life on Land), since we are obliged to respect, with our action, the various ecosystems in the city of Lugo and to disseminate the need to respect them and keep them intact.
Lugo, understood as a city and as a Galician province, lacks sustainable tourism projects. Spain, in turn, does not have any tourism product development company focused on sustainability. That is why we want to be the first company in Spain to work in this area and, with this work, put Lugo on the list of sustainable destinations in the Biosphere system created by the Responsible Tourism Institute. Subsequently, this would allow us to export our products to any geographical point, whether local, regional, national or international.
The products designed by Turismood seek not to break or alter the aesthetics of Lugo. Those products that are related to the historical and cultural heritage of the city will be designed in a way that does not destroy its nature, perception or integrity.
One of our objectives in this desire not to deteriorate what is the object of tourism promotion is that, as far as possible, our work generates a tourist flow that is not massive. For this, the promotional campaigns and the design of our products will be oriented to favor the deseasonalization of tourism and, whenever necessary, limit the number of participants, always in accordance with a previous tourism impact study.
The design of our material products will be carried out with the obligation to combine the modern with the patrimonial heritage of Lugo, promoting, in turn, an interactive tourist experience that will facilitate access and dissemination of the patrimonial legacy of our city.
If we focus on the experience, we want it to be unique. Our differential factor here, after carrying out an in-depth analysis of the competition at the national level, is in the project that consists of developing an app that allows 100% personalization of the tourist's visit. In it we highlight two unique functions in any application at the national level: the resource search engine that allows the user to know what resources are available to them depending on the type of tourism they wish to carry out and the digital tourism section, in which they can visit various tourist resources digitized in 3D and enjoy their explanation thanks to the implementation of audio guides in it. This allows us to promote non-mass tourism, obtain cultural benefits by exporting the cultural experience of Lugo beyond its natural borders and continue offering a tourist experience for our destination that will last even in the face of another sanitary confinement such as the one recently experienced by coronavirus.
In terms of inclusion, at Turismood we are in contact with the main associations that work with people with disabilities in Lugo to design our products.
Our most ambitious project, the accessible tourism app, is designed based on the seven principles of Universal Design and interviews and conversations with specialists from these associations. Thus, the app choose allows the type of tourism that you want to do (accessible, sports, family, pet friendly, etc.), promoting Equitable Use, and see on a map the corresponding accessible resources (hotels, restaurants, museums, monuments, etc.), thus responding to Perceivable Information. Each resource group will be assigned a colour, but we are looking to add a colourblind feature that allows you to change the colours for optimal perception for everyone (Flexibility in Use and Simple & Intuitive Use).
Continuing with the inclusive design, we believe that adding a virtual tourism function, previously explained, represents a differential factor by allowing tourism to be carried out with a minimum economic expense for the tourist, making it available to many people. In addition, we will develop a 100 percent free version so that it is available on the computers in the rooms of public hospitals, so that it can be used by hospitalized patients. Tourism is NOT a privilege but a right that must be made available to EVERYONE.
Another differential factor is that we are working to also add to the application those resources that have a bathroom for people with an ostomy (Low Physical Effort), so that they can do tourism naturally and with the necessary dignity and tranquillity.
We also want to highlight that all work means savings for local and regional Governments by being able to offer our viable and endorsed tourism projects, thus lightening the workload of Tourism Technicians.
The population of Lugo can benefit greatly from the implementation of the project that Turismood entails.
Firstly, in economic terms: tourism in Lugo is in an upward trend, but this is not translating into benefits for the local economy, according to studies carried out, due to the short average stay of tourists in the city. Turismood, if it gets started, can change this situation by making visible, thanks to products like our app, the huge number of businesses that feedback from tourism such as accommodation, shops or the hotel industry, famous in Lugo – and receptive to continue being exploited- with the slogan "E to eat, Lugo" (and to eat, Lugo). This visibility will be carried out thanks to the inclusion of businesses that want it in our app and thanks to their advertising that we can insert into said application.
Likewise, new businesses can be created in Lugo that a company like ours demands and that, today, do not exist in Lugo or are scarce. For example, tourist consultancies or digitization companies (of buildings, monuments, etc.).
But our work with society does not end here, as we are interested in the training and education of future generations that can maintain the momentum that we want to give to tourism. That is why we want to offer paid internship scholarships to students of Degrees and Masters in Tourism, since in Lugo there is currently no such educational offer and we believe that it is beneficial for the student, for our company and our geographical centre of action. In this line, we believe that we can also create new job opportunities for students in training cycles such as drone pilots. Their participation in the scanning of Lugo's heritage and in the creation of innovative virtual video tours thanks to the use of the drone represent a differential factor.
In our project we found three main interested parties: accessibility applicants, the Public Administration and the population of Lugo.
Accessibility applicants committed to this project when, through the Final Master's Project mentioned in the Cover Letter, they learned about the work that this project wants to implement in Lugo to improve accessibility. To this end, they facilitated, through their representatives, the demands made by users and accessibility experts in our city.
The Public Administration of Lugo knows this idea from the moment it finished the practices that are also mentioned in the Cover Letter. They have always been in favor of promoting the accessibility of the city and giving impetus to new tourist projects that improve the current tourist reality of Lugo.
Finally, the population of Lugo has been asking for improvements in accessibility issues through public channels for some time, which we want to take advantage of in our favor to provide them with the solution they want.
The added value of this commitment is knowing what Lugo needs in terms of accessibility and tourism -thanks to the reports of the Public Administration- from the mouths of users who will benefit directly or indirectly from Turismood products. In this way, we are designing products that are really necessary and that offer a real solution to a problem that is too widespread in a city with a very high tourist potential.
There is, therefore, a synergy favorable to the creation of a company that can be a leader in its sector and in the social and economic development of our city.
Three large fields of knowledge are concentrated in this ambitious project. In the first place, that of the Humanities and that of the Social Sciences. They are reflected in its tourist nature and in the objective of disseminating the entire artistic, patrimonial and cultural legacy of Lugo, making it available to a very broad, carefully studied and analysed target.
In line with this is the third field: Health Sciences. Thanks to him we were able to carry out the study on accessibility, knowing the demands made by professionals who work with people with disabilities, sick people or diverse functionalities, and adapt our products to a reality that all of them need.
The interaction between the representatives of the three fields mentioned arose, as I deepen in one of the attached documents, from the writing of the Final Master's Project of the Master of Tourism by the University of A Coruña. In it arises the analysis on the tourist accessibility of Lugo, in which both tourism teachers and health professionals and in accessible topics contributed their knowledge. With it comes this opportunity to design tourism products designed for the real needs of people who still cannot find a satisfactory response to their demand.
The added value, in addition to the above, is also found in a wide list of contacts and good relationships with which to continue counting for future projects, research or products.
The innovative character of Turismood extends from its conception as a company designed for the design and creation of tourist products from an accessible perspective to the products themselves, previously mentioned, which reflect this reality.
As we want to reach the whole world, the first product designed has been the accessible tourism application. In the competition analysis carried out, we have seen that it is a unique concept, since there is, up to now, no such ambitious application that contemplates such a wide degree of accessibility and that allows covering all the accessible points of the same destination in the same project (in addition to allowing tourism to expand beyond its physical limits with our idea of including virtual tourist visits). Everything analysed is either very incomplete or limits accessibility to physical disabilities too much.
But I think that the most innovative aspect of this product is the possibility of creating a version of the application specially designed to be implanted in the computers that patients admitted to SERGAS (Galician Health Service) have in their rooms. This section of virtual tourism would be implemented in it to give them the opportunity to overcome the physical limits that a hospital admission for tourism entails. We firmly believe that tourism is a RIGHT and not a privilege, which is why each of our products, including the tourist windows in the Roman wall of Lugo, will be accessible and understandable to as many people as possible.
Let's remember that Turismood considers accessibility as something that all people need or may need in our day or at a specific moment in life. But not as a limited factor and intended solely for the sector of people with permanent physical or sensory disabilities (since cognitive disabilities are still excluded in many aspects).
One of the great and differential advantages of the Turismood project is that practically all the aspects that make it up can be replicated, transferred or extrapolated.
The business idea itself is the first of the replicable concepts in any field. A company dedicated to the development of tourism products that looks for full accessibility is an important asset for any territory.
However, the easiest and most profitable to extrapolate are, possibly, the designed products. Our application, although it was devised with the city of Lugo in mind, can be perfectly adapted to any city in the world, since it only requires a good tourist study of the area, knowing the possibilities and demands that exist in terms of accessibility and a team development to put it into practice. The same is true of the tourist windows project: any architectural remains or site in the world can benefit from our visual reconstruction work plan.
It is necessary to underline that we are committed to designing all our products with the idea that they are easily transferable to any terrain.
Our work philosophy is also transferable to any sector. Both local, regional or national governments as well as any public or private institution can –and must- work to generate full inclusion for all citizens. In this way, applying the previously exposed concept that Turismood has of accessibility, the implementation of the principles of Universal Design would be encouraged.
Turismood mainly addresses four global challenges directly related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, our work helps to achieve the following:
SDG 4, Quality Education: Our work is not unrelated to the educational field. We want to create school material and offer visits so that the students of Lugo feel close to their heritage and learn to take care of it, interpret it and get to know it. In this way we want to guarantee that future generations continue to show interest in protecting and disseminating the cultural legacy of our city.
Likewise, the creation of an annual scholarship will make it possible to create an agreement with the Galician universities that offer a Degree or Master's Degree in Tourism, such as those of A Coruña and Vigo so that at least one student can carry out paid internships with us in the field of tourism development and accessibility.
SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth: by increasing the number of tourists in our city, we will be able to increase tourist spending, which will be reflected in a greater benefit for the economy of Lugo. In addition, our policy commits us to work with local companies to promote economic growth and industrial synergies in the city.
SDG 13 and 15, Climate Action and Life on Land: we work under the Circular Economy principles to extend the life cycle of all products as possible. In the same way, through our website and products such as our app, we want to make tourists aware of the environmental impact of tourism and the need to care for the ecosystems of Lugo. For this reason, we want to implement a carbon calculator so that each visitor can know how much they have polluted and how they can compensate for it. For this we work to establish agreements with NGOs that work with the environment.
Finally, we want to help tourism not be a privilege, but a right, a principle that is seriously compromised due to the current European economic situation derived from the war in Ukraine.
