MED-GAIMS
Gamification for Memorable Tourist Experiences

Today's demanding and discerning tourists don't wish to just observe, they wish to experience places. This experiential tourism trend is common to all involved territories, spans all niches and segments and is very relevant to off-season travellers (who choose this time not only to lower costs but to avoid crowds and increase chances for authentic interactions with locals).

The GAIMS project is funded by the European Union through the ENI CBC MED Programme. The project uses gamification: applying game design to create experiences for tourists. Offering such experiences can give a necessary competitive edge to the attractiveness of less known sites. But gamification is culturally sensitive – we do not all have the same sense of what is fun – so multicultural, cross-border evaluation of the initiatives is essential before opening them up to international tourists.

Some 40 games for 12 tourism sites in Lebanon, Jordan, Italy, and Spain will be developed. This includes physical (treasure hunts, crafts, etc.) as well as digital games (VR experiences, apps etc). Local games can be linked to encourage the exploration of more sites, longer stays, return visits. Public and private actors go through a structured process in the project, working and thinking together as tourism innovators and game entrepreneurs.

The project heavily relies on local communities to conceptualize and implement games, through self-employment or startups, for both high (technological) and low-skilled (manual, organizational) individuals, providing employment opportunities for both young and women. Local resources, priorities and goals for different tourist segments (social interaction, education, entertainment) will guide decisions in game selection. Strategic choices will be reflected in 8 destination plans.

Expected changes:

Change will take place on different levels. On a strategic level, destination managers will be more aware of the international phenomenon of experiential tourism and use of integrated game design. The gamification approach will impact visitor days, which in turn will have an indirect, trickle-down effect on tourist-related businesses, affecting their investment and employment –perceivable but hard to quantify and directly attribute to project actions. On a more direct level, the involvement of international and local game entrepreneurs in the design of games will result in a quantifiable number of short and mid-term contracts. Furthermore, the continued management of these games will develop into long-term employment and business contracts; especially where games are developed and managed by game entrepreneurs from local communities, and initiative-takers are guided by the project's experts in business administration, in order to ensure that they are based on viable business models.

Total budget: € 2 381 238.04

European Union's contribution: € 2 143 114.24

Partners

• Lebanon: The American University at Beirut- AUB
• Lebanon: Directorate of General Antiquities - Lebanon
• Jordan: Jordan University of Science and Technology - JUST
• Jordan: Department of Antiquities of Jordan
• Italy: Fondazione Alghero Musei Eventi Turismo
• Spain: Entitat Pública Empresarial Local Neàpolis
• Spain: Fundació privada i2cat, internet i innovació digital a Catalunya

Contacts:

Dr. Ahmad Freewan, Project Coordinator at JUST

Faculty of Architecture and Design

Tel. +39 06 321 54 98

E-mail: aafreewan@just.edu.jo

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The 2014-2020 ENI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme is a multilateral Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) initiative funded by the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). The Programme objective is to foster fair, equitable and sustainable economic, social and territorial development, which may advance cross-border integration and valorise participating countries' territories and values. The following 13 countries participate in the Programme: Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia. The Managing Authority (JMA) is the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy). Official Programme languages are Arabic, English and French. For more information, please visit: www.enicbcmed.eu.