Kraków’s Innovation In The Tourism Market

We need new technological solutions in every area of life. Also in tourism. Kraków, a city visited by several  dozen million or more tourists every year, seems a perfect place to implement them. The mission of Kraków5020 is to create the image of the city as the best place for tourists.  To make it easier for them to communicate in the capital of the Małopolska region, we are initiating tests of an electronic translator in cooperation with Vasco. The devices will serve foreigners utilising the InfoKrakow tourist information network points and attendees at ICE Krakow Congress Centre events, and will be placed in select hotels.

In 2021, Kraków was visited by 670,000 foreign tourists. Most came from the UK (15.9%), Germany (14.7%), France (13.5%) or the Netherlands (10.9%). ‘Our role is to take care of every tourist, whether they come for a one-day business trip or for longer to explore the sights and attractions. We are committed to facilitating communication that builds mutual trust and encourages further visits. Approximately 15% of our city’s population earn their living by tourism and tourism-related services, but basically all Cracovians benefit from tourism’, says Izabela Błaszczyk, President of Kraków5020.

Direct communication with foreign tourists can be facilitated by innovations that are emerging in the city. Kraków5020 has just entered into a partnership with Vasco Electronics, a manufacturer of electronic translators. ‘We are committed to partnerships that can be beneficial for the city. Electronic translators are a technological trend that we want to support right from the start. In the case of this collaboration, we are not only involved in promoting an innovative solution, but we are also using our infrastructure for a pilot programme to test the product’, explains Paula Fanderowska, Vice-President of Kraków5020 for Marketing and of ICE Krakow. Translators will be used by the staff of the ICE Krakow Congress Centre during international events, by the staff of InfoKraków points handling requests from tourists and in Kraków hotels affiliated with the Kraków Network initiative.

‘The primary objective of the established cooperation is to test the devices in different situations and different locations. I am delighted that we can support the development of Kraków, the city in which our company was founded and has its registered office. Tourism is one of the pillars of the city’s development and we believe that electronic intelligent translators will contribute significantly to this’, adds Maciej Góralski, CEO of Vasco Electronics. Vasco Translator V4 is an intelligent translator: an electronic device that translates and understands 108 languages. The translator has free and unlimited internet access.

One of the arguments for testing this kind of innovation in the city is the digitalisation of visitor relationship management, which is one of the tasks recommended in the Sustainable Tourism Policy for Kraków in the years 2021–2028.