Perugia InApp: Urban and extra-urban routes to rediscover the city

Announcing a new way to discover Perugia, thanks to an innovative project that leverages the town’s strong identity linked to art and beautiful landscapes. All thanks to new ways of enhancing the tourist experience - cultural and for a diffused welcome, updated with new multimedia and experiential approaches, such as 4.0 technologies and Augmented Reality (AR). This is the goal of the ambitious “Perugia InApp” project, strongly supported by the Department of Tourism of the Municipality of Perugia, which aims to enrich the visitor experience using AR for an immersive and engaging impact.

An indispensable tool to learn about and bring to life the history of the city, the app is aimed at tourists and residents, and also to tourism professionals, such as guides, who can use it with their groups for an immersive and complete experience.

Perugia InApp was presented on 7 July in the presence of Mayor Andrea Romizi; the Municipal Councillor for Tourism, Territorial Marketing and Economic Development Gabriele Giottoli; the Regional Councillor for Economic Development and Digital Infrastructure Michele Fioroni; Michela Sciurpa, President of Sviluppumbria; and Gabriele Lena, technical manager of the project, representing the Umbrian company Int. Geo. Mod, specialized in territorial marketing, which created the app. The many tourism partners and associations of the territory that contributed to the development of the contents of the app were also present.

Councillor Giottoli opened by stressing the wide participation that characterizes the initiative. "It is an open process,” he explained, “which is part of an innovative vision of tourism, based on three pillars - digital technologies, reception and signage - integrated with each other to offer a unique experience to tourists in the city."

Councillor Fioroni also spoke about the new digital economy applied to tourism, confirming the Region's support for projects such as the one behind Perugia InApp, which is to be considered a territorial best practice. Perugia InApp will also be promoted thanks to the collaboration between the Municipality of Perugia and Sviluppumbria, which will contribute to the activities of exploitation and communication both in Italy and abroad.

"This is, in fact, the role of the agency,” noted Sciurpa, “that speaks to the territory, interacts with other institutions, and applies its experience to benefit the territory itself."

In conclusion, Mayor Romizi said he was particularly satisfied and grateful for the work done by the Department of Tourism to reopen the city to the surrounding territories as essential components of tourism policies and not only of the capital, as well as the involvement of numerous associations, business and tourism that have contributed to the contents of the app. Romizi also recalled that the administration's project is to make the Arconi library the heart of the tourist Infopoint service, with real-time ticketing, in addition to the integrated system of tourist signs and digital totems at key points in the city.

As Lena explained, Perugia InApp is composed of seven suggested itineraries in the historic centre (Rocca Paolina, Perugia centre, Porta Sole district, Porta Santa Susanna district, Sant'Angelo district, Porta Eburnea district, San Pietro district) with more than 14 km of walking paths and 160 urban points of interest. In addition, there is a section dedicated to extra-urban itineraries, with 4 routes outside the walls for a journey that reaches and passes through the most characteristic areas up to Lake Trasimeno, covering 800 km² of territory with 275 km of extra-urban tours. The guided itineraries, to be covered by car, but in some cases also by bike, are Trasimeno, Settevalli, Silvestre, and Tiber. The project has received a financial contribution from the Umbria Region as part of the notice for the support to the realization dl projects of valorization and development of the territorial offer and services connected to them (ERDF ROP 2014-2020 - Action 8.7.1) and is co-financed by the Municipality of Perugia.

SYNERGIES The project is the result of an intense participatory planning effort involving local authorities, the pro loco, cultural associations of neighbourhoods, districts of Perugia 1416 and private individuals working together for almost a year. All are key players in the creation of a strong model for the enhancement of the territory. Perugia InApp is intended as a virtual guide to promote cultural heritage as a whole, in which users discover stories and curiosities while walking through the streets and squares and admiring the historic buildings and places of art of the city. This synergistic work contributed to the structuring of the app and its multimedia content.

PERUGIA INAPP Perugia InApp is a free application for IOS/Android devices with a high capacity for user interaction (augmented reality, geolocation, map of itineraries, navigator, use of bluetooth for indoor tourist routes). A key feature of the system is that it offers visitors the possibility to download a single app that simultaneously manages guided tours, city routes and outdoor experiences and is able to continuously interface with other online technological infrastructure, based on an open data system. The app also allows use of the visit experiences both online and offline, without the need of continual network access, managing outdoor and indoor itineraries thanks to the integration of the different sensors of the phone. The app offers the possibility of very high spatial resolution, to manage multi-thematic information and different events, with high capacity of future integration. The software that controls and manages the information database is a technological infrastructure made in Umbria, the By-Way™ system, realized with a contribution of Sviluppumbria, through the voucher “New tools to promote the internationalization paths of Umbrian SMEs” within the action 3.3.1 of the ERDF ROP 2014-2020.

The project promotes the Umbria brand through an important partnership and numerous collaborations, including: the Vivi il Borgo association, the Borgo Sant’Antonio Porta Pesa association, the Fiorivano le viole association, the Borgo Bello association, the Priori association, the Porta Eburnea association, the Radici di Pietra association, the Centro Storico Perugia association - Coordinamento, Proponte Velimna, Unpli (Pro locos of Perugia, Corciano, Deruta and Torgiano), the Perugia 1416 association, Sviluppumbria, and MotoTurismoUmbria.

BRANDING Recognizable, simple and iconic: the logo created specifically for Perugia InApp to include the distinctive elements of the city and its colours, with a modern and positive image. The logotype was derived from a graphic reworking of the Fontana Maggiore, the most photographed and well-known monument of the city, but also a synthesis of Perugia’s district contexts. In fact, the seven city-centre itineraries start from Piazza IV Novembre and the Fontana Maggiore. Since the application is a system of navigation and sightseeing, the logo has been framed in a map pin to enhance its function as a guide, flanked by a simple name that is easy to memorize and index, both for Italians and foreigners.

AUGMENTED REALITY An augmented reality application makes it possible to add objects and information to the surrounding environment, through static or dynamic superimpositions, with the aim of giving the feeling that the virtual objects are really present and to see these objects from different points of view. Users need only download Perugia InApp to their devices and point the smartphone or tablet in the direction of the point of interest to obtain, directly on the display, descriptions and images that are superimposed on the perceived “physical world”. Thanks to Perugia InApp it will be possible to see reconstructions, artistic animations, videos, superimpositions of historical photos directly on the monument in question, for an engaging and unique experience. For example, in the Rocca Paolina, the ancient buildings of the Baglioni district which were destroyed to build the fortress, come to life, or the decorations designed but never completed for the facade of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo are shown.

COMMUNICATION Perugia InApp is at the centre of an extensive and detailed communication plan to promote its use among both citizens and visitors. Included in the communications activities are the promotion on the institutional social channels of the Municipality, the creation of some short videos where the protagonists are the city associations and the Pro loco, integrated communications to be placed in strategic locations (Minimetrò stations, infopoints, the terminal of the San Francesco airport), work groups and focus groups with Perugia citizens, tourism professions, merchants, to illustrate the advantages in the use of the app, national and international press tours to enhance Perugia as a place to visit in any season, and finally widespread events to raise awareness of the use of the app.

PROXIMITY MARKER Perugia InApp is based on an automatic system that notifies a user of the presence of a point of interest in the vicinity, through different technologies. These proximity markers serve as a virtual assistant to the visit of the tourist, which also provides navigation along the chosen routes. The App autonomously delivers content even in places without a network or GPS coverage, thanks to the installation of iBeacon antennas, which using Bluetooth technology can signal the presence of cultural points of interest even in underground routes, such as in the Rocca Paolina.