Laboratory MugiLab (The CICtourGUNE laboratory)

Like so many other sectors, the impact of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is changing the face of tourism. Tourism has evolved from a labour-intensive industry to an industry based on the intensive use of information and knowledge.

More and more tourists are relying on the Internet as a source of travel information. However, since tourists are people who, by definition, move outside of their regular environments, mobile devices - phones, PDAs and GPS devices, just to mention a few - are becoming increasingly important. Mobility today presents both a major challenge and key opportunity for providing tourism services. Until recently, however, the challenge has not been adequately addressed.

Our equipment

The CICtourGUNE lab is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment to serve a sector that represents a large percent of the country´s GDP and with considerable potential for developing new projects (other than the classical "sun and beach" tourism). The results of the research conducted by CICtourGUNE will be applied in the tourism sector through the use of new mobility-enabling technologies, thus creating added value to the tourism products and services.

According to the 2006 CITIC report (technology monitoring report on mobility applications for the tourism sector), tourism services should ideally be personalised, available in the tourist´s language, accessible 24/7, and provide current updated information and flexible services. These requirements can be met totally or in part with the use of ITC, lowering costs, increasing the functionalities provided by the services and achieving levels of satisfaction among users. The multimedia and data processing capabilities of mobile terminals can provide sophisticated services. Moreover, mobile terminals can now provide personalized content and services that were never possible before.

The laboratory promotes mobile solutions for tourists based on the following principles: Choosing what to do. One factor that can influence people´s decisions are the opinions expressed by a particular virtual community, or the use of "collective intelligence". This phenomenon is very common in the Internet and can be extended to mobile tourism services (Web 2.0 phenomenon).

• Orienting activity. Traffic, weather and transportation are generally areas of particular interest for tourists. Some mobile services already support recommendation functionalities.
• Book and buy. Transactions via electronic payment are very common; e-commerce and payment management are gaining momentum.