Slovenia takes the lead in digitally enriched tourism
Inspired by a Tourism 4.0 research paper, the Slovenian Ministry for Economic Development and Technology stepped up to lead the charge, making Slovenia one of the leading countries in Europe in digitally enriched cultural heritage tourism. Skill-building workshops, guidelines, and technical specifications prepared by Tourism 4.0 experts paved the way for collaboration between the tourism and cultural heritage sectors in digital interpretation.
From 2019 to 2022, Arctur worked on projects that blended product development, storytelling, digital interpretation of cultural heritage and cutting-edge technologies such as 3D digitisation, AR/VR, holographic projections, touch-screens, mobile and web apps, and video mapping. Our focus on user experience design and collaborative co-creative processes resulted in inspiring results - take a look at some of our projects.
While Arctur has been engaged in site-specific projects, we have also always kept the bigger picture in mind. Mindful of the importance of reuse,we created an online platform showcasing 114 units of digitised cultural heritage objects and 31 unique local tourist experiences.
A 3D digitisation revolution on the horizon
The European Commission has set ambitious recommendations for EU Member States to step up their 3D digitisation efforts, inviting them to digitise in 3D all monuments and sites deemed at risk and 50 % of the most physically visited. This would mean increasing the collection of 3D assets currently available in Europeana from a mere 0.03% to a staggering 16 million 3D assets by 2030. Cultural heritage is poised for a 3D digitisation revolution, and Arctur is determined to support this process. Ultimately, we aim to help society pass on cultural heritage in the digital, mixed-reality era.
Arctur’s main contribution in this process will be in enabling storage and online viewing of large 3D models, a journey started within the WEAVE project and forthcoming 3D Heritage portal. We have started in 2022 with the first batch of 114 high quality 3D models of Slovenian immovable cultural heritage - from castles, churches and palaces to shepherds’ huts and mining facilities - that have been aggregated by Photoconsortium to Europeana.eu. These contents even made their way to the Slovenian Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. Increased visibility and findability of 3D data has already resulted in reuse by various initiatives, including 3D printing for personal use, dissemination and promotion activities, integration in larger physical sculptures, exploration of concrete 3D printing and more.
Moreover, Arctur actively participates in the conceptualisation and development of the Data Spaces for Tourism and Media, as well as the 5Dculture project. Through research and development projects, we are bridging the world of cultural heritage and advanced technologies (XR and especially webVR & AR, AI and machine learning, High Performance Computing and more).