The INNOVATOUR research project (Sustainable management of needs-based tourism mobility requirements through data innovations) addresses tourist mobility as an important field of action in transport planning. The aim of the project is to develop and analyze previously unused The aim is to develop new types of mobility indicators from a variety of data sources in order to better understand mobility behavior in tourism and reduce car use. This involves a variety of, previously unused or hardly used tourist data, such as overnight stays, booking data and admission tickets, are evaluated.
In Salzburg und der Steiermark werden praxisrelevante Use cases for needs-based mobility services in the environmental network. The promotion of smorenaffordablen and sustainablen mobility offersn in the tourism context and more inclusive access should be the outcome of the project.
From soil sealing to C02 emissions, mobility and tourism are two important pillars in the effort to achieve a climate transition. A new iSPACE project combines these two areas. Tourist mobility is one of the biggest problem areas in future transportation planning and research. Although it is known that arrival and departure as well as on-site mobility account for 75% of tourism-related CO₂ emissions, there has been a lack of reliable data to describe tourist mobility behavior in detail. 
The INNOVATOUR research project aims to change this and develop new, innovative data sources in order to derive spatio-temporally finely resolved tourism mobility indicators and close this data gap. The derived indicators should provide an evidence-based data basis to enable the planning of gender-appropriate, barrier-free and demand-oriented mobility offers.
Project prepares new data sets
The project draws on a broad network of partner institutions that provides access to numerous tourism data sources that have not yet been fully developed. This data includes:
- Precise temporal breakdown of overnight stays at municipal level
- Booking data
- Data from tourist guest and admission tickets
INNOVATOUR brings this data together and places it in a mobility context in order to derive reliable, innovative tourism mobility indicators in a standardized way. To this end, indicators such as the daily number of overnight stays, movement patterns of local tourist mobility and tourist accessibility potentials of points of interest (PoI) are examined. In this context, PoIs are locations, facilities and destinations that are relevant to the research purpose, such as museums, hotels, sights, etc.
Salzburg and Styria as application examples
In Salzburg and Styria, practical use cases for needs-based tourism mobility services in the environmental network are being developed together with regional partners. The derived mobility indicators are integrated into the existing operating and planning systems of mobility service providers. An accompanying stakeholder process is also developing a concept for the Austria-wide scalability of data innovations. The aim is to improve safe, affordable and sustainable tourist mobility options and thus create more inclusive access to recreational and leisure activities.
Broad-based consortium
The Institute of Road and Transportation Engineering (ISV) at Graz University of Technology is the consortium leader of the project and is therefore responsible for project management. In addition to Studio iSPACE, Invenium Data Insights, Österreich Werbung, Salzburger Verkehrsverbund and Feratel media technologies AG are also partners in this research project, which is also supported by a broad network of partner institutes.
In the project, iSPACE is responsible for data indexing, harmonization and intersection, as well as for the development of GIS-based methods. Existing indicator sets on mobility demand and accessibility in everyday life (commuters, school commuters, residents) can be expanded to include new tourism components in the context of sustainable mobility. The use cases in the state of Salzburg are also coordinated by iSPACE.
INNOVATOUR thus makes a decisive contribution to the promotion of sustainable, safe and safe and inclusive mobility offers in tourism.
