SMART PANORMUS

Name of the Organisation
City of Palermo
Target group addressed
Tourists and citizens with and without disabilities
How can the GP be replicated?
Other cities throughout Europe could implement this good practice to enhance the accessibility of their cultural heritage sites and offer the same experience to people regardless of their abilities.
How does it contribute to SMART II?

The practice owners focus on using the latest digital technologies and developing solutions to encourage Palermo’s growth linked to key issues such as mobility, social inclusion, eco-sustainability and the digital agenda.

How can it be transferred?

It could be replicated by developing a comprehensive framework that includes the technologies and community engagement strategies so that the project can be adapted to the specific cultural and infrastructural context of a new location.

Short description

Palermo developed the use of augmented and virtual reality for the enhancement and improvement of accessibility to the historical and cultural highlights. ApParnormus is the informative and orientation mobile APP created for the Municipality of Palermo. It is structured as an interactive multilingual guide in Italian, German, English and French, with geo- referencing of attractions. It is using augmented reality multimedia content to accompany visitors in their discovery of three different itineraries: the Arab-Norman itinerary, the Genius of Palermo one, and the Discover Palermo route.

Long description

Over the past few years, Palermo has begun to enjoy a favourable period of tourist development, thanks to a series of events such as “Palermo Capital of Culture” and the inclusion of the Arab-Norman route and all its monuments on the UNESCO World Heritage List. All of this has triggered a dynamic of development that involves showcasing the city’s monumental and artistic heritage. The historic centre of the city of Palermo contains a large number of cultural assets, some of which are easily accessible, while others are not always easily accessible for various reasons (management problems, lack of suitable staff, state of conservation, lack of simplified access systems for disabled people, etc.). The measures being considered involve an increase in the range of services based on technologies and their innovative use. The idea is to use augmented and virtual reality to enhance and improve access to the historical and cultural treasures of Palermo’s historic centre and, in particular, to the monuments along the Arab-Norman route.

Thanks to multimedia applications based on three-dimensional visualisation and virtual and augmented reality, it is possible to virtually navigate along a cultural itinerary or inside a cultural asset such as museums, historic buildings or archaeological sites, in their current layout or in a three-dimensional digital reconstruction. This can now be done using web applications that run on both PCs and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Thanks to this project, everyone can enjoy the experiments regardless of their abilities.

Country
Italy
Source
Leading Examples of Smart Tourism Practices in Europe from the 2023 European Capital of Smart Tourism Competition and organisation website
Link to more information (organisation website) if applicable
https://turismo.comune.palermo.it/palermo-welcome-app-panormus-dettaglio.php?tp=141&id=6#
https://www.comune.palermo.it/js/server/uploads/_15052020140904.pdf