Track: Industry 4.0 - Special Track

Abstract

ECOPACAYA 4.0 is a Tourism 4.0 project carried out by an eco-lodge located in the Peruvian Amazon. The eco-lodge has been on the market for more than fifteen years and owns a private reserve of one hundred and thirty hectares that shelters great biodiversity of flora and fauna. The project's objective was to facilitate the entry of the ecolodge into the “experience economy” by the creation of memorable experiences for its visitors through focused and innovative tourism products and services. In this sense, five themed routes called Eco trails (ethnobotanical, mythological, fauna, worldview, and an interactive game) were developed to provide visitors with expert knowledge about the biodiversity and culture of the area. For this purpose, an intelligent platform was designed and implemented using Industry 4.0 technologies such as augmented reality (AR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing. This platform allows visitors to experience the following through mobile devices: 1.) Get automatic assistance on positioning while touring each Eco trail. 2.) Get an integrated view of digital information (virtual guides and characters) with the eco-lodge private reserve´s physical environment in real time. 3.) Online connection of visitors with their social networks. This posed the great challenge of implementing a complex and efficient communications system to make it possible for such a remote and previously unconnected area to finally get integrated into the digital world. Another achievement of the project is the Biodiversity Portal, a collaborative site that allows researchers, students, and academics to access qualified scientific information on the biodiversity of the area, thus facilitating their research efforts. Finally, we highlight that we are currently in the process of packaging this experience not only to optimize its use in the ecolodge but also to expand its use to other environments.