The kick-off meeting of the project Investment – INnovatiVe E-Services for booSting Tourist economy and Multimodal public Transportation, funded for 857.000 Euros by Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme 2014 – 2020, was held in Patras on 4-5 July 2018, at the Patras University Campus.
The Lead beneficiary is the University of Patras – Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, while the project partners are: the Regional Development Fund of the Region of Western Greece, the Province of Taranto, Tecnopolis Science and Technology Park of Bari and the Municipality of Ostuni.
The project aims to deliver an e-platform as a unique point of reference for transport companies, agencies, public administration authorities, to create a network between the public transportation data (locations of public stops, timetables) in the Region of Western Greece and Puglia (Bari, Taranto, Ostuni).
Thanks to this project, it will be easier to travel for tourists, because the e-platform will support a multimodal tourist tour planner (web and mobile app) that allows to receive personalized recommendations for visiting the most important attractions, using public transport services to move from a location to another.
In addition, the citizens will enjoy improved public transit services with less bottlenecks and minimal waiting time, because the e-platform will develop a multimodal public transit route planner, computing and visualizing optimal end-to-end routes (from any point A to any point B, e.g., from Taranto to Olympia) using different modes of transportation (bus, train, ferry, walking).
Efficiency and interconnectivity at regional and crossborder level are the key words of the project that will help public transportation operators, planners and policy makers to make closer Greece and Puglia.