The president of the Balearic Islands Port Authority (APB), Joan Gual de Torrella, and the Palma City Councillor for Tourism, Commerce and Employment, Joana M. Adrover, presented the Welcome Palma app this morning at the APB headquarters. This tool, developed by the APB in collaboration with the Palma 365 Tourism Foundation and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), is designed to provide personalized information to cruise ship tourists disembarking in the Balearic capital, improve visitor satisfaction, and enhance infrastructure management.
The application uses data collected through the port and city of Palma's Wi-Fi network, allowing it to track visitor traffic in real time. This information enables personalized guidance for cruise passengers, enhancing their experience, promoting satisfaction, and contributing to a more even distribution of tourists across these points of interest.
Welcome Palma lets visitors know in real time which places are most crowded and helps them plan their itinerary, while also providing additional information: cultural events, public transport, and even weather. The app will begin its trial period tomorrow, Tuesday, with passengers on the Costa Diadema, which will last between four and six weeks and is dedicated to collecting and analyzing data obtained from the Wi-Fi network. It is expected to be available to all users by Easter.
Among the most innovative aspects of the application, it is worth highlighting some such as the location of the so-called "hot zones" or places with a greater influx of visitors and the "conversational bot", a chat that allows interaction with "Sebastià", a virtual guide named after the patron saint of the city, who advises the tourist and guides him in making decisions.
Cruise passengers are also provided with clear and simple information about their cruise's port of call time and the means of transport available to them to return to the ship before it sails to another destination.
The recommended way to access the application is through Facebook, since this way the tourist can receive personalized information, based on aspects such as the popularity of each place, real-time congestion, proximity and even user tastes, although it can also be accessed through the web portal or the application.
APB Contribution
The president of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB), Joan Gual de Torrella, explained that Welcome Palma is the port's contribution to the Palma 365 Tourism Foundation, of which the APB is a member. Gual emphasized the importance of managing and optimizing the new tourism product that cruise tourism represents, as well as the collaboration available from the cruise line association CLIA to address challenges similar to those faced by other cruise destinations such as Barcelona, Venice, and Dubrovnik.
The Councillor for Tourism, Commerce and Labor of the Palma City Council, Joana Maria Adrover, thanked the APB for its involvement as patron of the Palma 365 Tourism Foundation and highlighted that this project aims to facilitate coexistence between residents and cruise ship passengers, as well as recommending other points of interest to visitors beyond the most emblematic ones, thus contributing to distributing the wealth from this tourism.
Pedro Homar, manager of the Palma 365 Tourism Foundation, explained some technical aspects of the application and stated that "it is a tool to help manage Palma's success" as a tourist destination. Homar explained how to access it via the internet or Facebook and emphasized its ability to prevent overcrowding in the city center, thus allowing for greater appreciation of certain locations.
For his part, the head of Quality, Environment and Innovation at the APB and responsible for the project, Jorge Martín, detailed the technical aspects of the application and thanked the company Connociam, the UIB and the University of Girona for their involvement in the creation of the app.
