How the Rise of Smart Cities is Impacting Travel and Tourism
Photo Credit: The new GoLauderdale mobile app launched in December with augmented reality functionality. Civic Resource Group
Skift Take
This is the first time we've been able to make a direct causal link between smart city infrastructure and a cohesive consumer-facing tourism application leveraging the Internet of Things. This is the future of travel.
The exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the surge of open data platforms provided by city governments worldwide is providing a new foundation for immersive, travel-related mobile products and services.
All of that new IoT infrastructure and previously inaccessible data is what's driving the development of smart cities as digital platform economies. The real value comes when third party developers build new mobile-first, cloud-first digital platforms for new users on top of that rapidly expanding IoT grid and open data ecosystem.
In the travel and tourism sector, Civic Resource Group is an example of one of those third party developers. In the simplest terms, city agencies and private businesses are storing more and more digital information in the cloud. Companies such as Civic Resource Group develop IT systems like the CivicConnect platform that collects and remasters that cloud data to create smart travel apps.
"Open data policies are becoming
