Digital Twin to Promote the Development of Tourism Competitiveness and Complementarity: the Use Case in Latgale region

Project number: lzp-2022/1-0350

Project period: 01.04.2023. - 31.03.2026.

Project manager/coordinator: Dr., asoc.prof. Lienite Litavniece

The aim of the project: is to elaborate a method & technological solution for competition & complementarity monitoring of the tourism region to make recommendations for the region & tourism product managers by combining data analysis, capability modelling, the digital twin paradigm, knowledge management, a recommendation system based on a semantic ontology, geospatial analysis & the smart decision-making paradigm. 

Project annotation: 1)the complementarity of tourism products is weak in Latgale region, which reduces the overall competitiveness of both individual tourism products and the geolocation; 2)tourism companies perceive other tourism service providers as competitors rather than opportunities for cooperation to promote tourism complementarity in the geolocation; 3)a lack of a precise definition of the category of tourism products does not contribute to the application of complementarity to tourism products in the geolocation; 4)strategic tourism management in a geolocation requires context data, capability maps and actor networks to develop complementarity and respond to changes in the tourism region; 5) tourism organizations are not able to follow and take into account all data on the region in order to make an optimal decision; therefore, they need a digital tool that can give data-based recommendations; 6)the complementarity of tourism in Latgale region and the competitiveness of tourism products could be measured quantitatively in order to develop a digital twin for monitoring the situation and giving recommendations that promote the willingness of companies to cooperate. 

Project tasks: 1) to develop an ontology of tourism competitiveness & complementarity, which structurally supports the LightCDD meta-data model of the digital twin; 2) to develop a digital twin (NewStarT) that imports the ontology developed; 3)to demonstrate the NewStarT digital twin technology (TRL6); 4)to disseminate the project results; 5) to manage, coordinate & supervise the project

Project results:

• Data set
• Prepared at least 3 scientific articles published in Scopus or WoS indexed Q1/Q2 level scientific journals
• Participation in at least 2 international scientific conferences
• Participation in at least 1 conference organized by the Latgale Tourism Association with a presentation
• Defended 1 master's thesis on the topic of the project
• NewStarT digital twin technology-based tool (TRL6) developed

Partners: Lead partner: Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Associated partners: Latgale Tourism Association 

Project budget: 300 000 EUR

Project funding source: Latvian Council of Science

RTA staff involved: L.Litavniece, J.Lonska, A.Zvaigzne, I.Dembovska, I.Silicka, S.Kodors, I.Zarembo, Students: D.Zeps.