Marseille is a popular touristic destination and the cruise and ferry passenger traffic in the port accounts for 2 million passengers per year. This number represents the 40% of total tourists that visit Marseille. A recent study on the cruise tourists in Marseille highlighted that they spend in average 50,3 euro daily which is mainly directed towards the same economical actors in the city. The study also highlighted a decline in the number of visitors that return to visit the city after their first experience, from 25% in 2017 to just 11% in 2019. This provided the motivation to the port to look at present challenges for visitors and to find ways to make their stay more attractive.
The same study identified that the biggest challenge for visitors was congestion and overcrowding as result of the over-concentration of people on the same spots at the same time. To address this, and as part of the Smart Port Challenge, the GuideMeMarseille digital solution was developed. The application provides hyper-personalised circuits and itineraries to each visitor to the port based on their preferences but also on the current levels of congestion on the various spots of interest. The number of tourists in the different parts of the city is nowadays monitored real time. This generated data-driven investments of private companies to expand operations where needed. Furthermore, for each tourist using GuideMeMarseille one less city map gets printed. GuideMeMarseille proved to address the source of the problem and increased the visitors’ satisfaction levels. Today, the application is used by 1000 tourists daily.