Coimbra Initiative Highlighted as Urban Service Design Model
The “Coimbra ST LLM” initiative is being showcased as a model for place-based digital transformation in Portugal. The project leverages digital tools for urban management and citizen services to position the region as a sustainable and smart destination, offering a case study in aligning service design with local, multi-stakeholder needs.
- The project is backed by a €5 million grant from the European Urban Initiative, and was the sole Portuguese proposal selected out of 22 funded projects from 112 applications across the EU. - A central component is a "Labor Observatory" designed to upskill and reskill the tourism workforce, providing over 2,000 hours of training in digital and green competencies to workers, including unemployed individuals and migrants. - The initiative directly addresses the negative impacts of tourism growth in the UNESCO World Heritage area, tackling challenges like urban mobility, service quality, and the perceived decline in residents' quality of life. - The core technology is an AI-powered web portal that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate personalized itineraries from over 300 local tourist attractions and products, with a specific goal of increasing the average tourist stay by 20%. - The project is a multi-stakeholder collaboration between public and private entities, including the Municipality of Coimbra, the University of Coimbra, the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Turismo de Portugal, the Instituto Pedro Nunes, and technology companies Present Technologies and INOVA+. - This initiative aligns with Portugal's national "Digital 2030 Strategy," which aims to position the nation among the top 10 most digitally advanced in the EU by modernizing public services and enhancing digital skills across the workforce. - A key output will be the development of a new international certification model for sustainable tourism, aiming to create a scalable framework for other heritage destinations. - The project is part of a broader digital transformation in the region; for example, the Coimbra Local Health Unit (ULS Coimbra), serving over 365,000 residents, recently implemented a new digital workspace platform to unify communication across 8 hospitals and 26 health centers.
