Benidorm is making progress with its Heritage Signage Plan to highlight its historical, cultural, and landscape resources

Benidorm City Council continues to progress in implementing the Smart Directional Signage Plan linked to Historical Heritage, a project framed within the Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan "Benidorm DTI + Seguro" (Benidorm DTI + Seguro). The project aims to advance the city's conversion toward a smart model and improve the quality of the experience for visitors, highlighting the city's historical, cultural, and scenic resources. The Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer, emphasized that "we continue to implement elements to roll out this ambitious signage plan, which covers a total of six pedestrian routes and 27 points of interest, with accessible and accessible information for all types of citizens and visitors."

The project has a budget of €546,600.10 and is one of the latest initiatives being developed within the Benidorm DTI + Seguro (Benidorm DTI + Seguro) PSTD (PSTD), a €2.9 million plan funded by the State Secretariat for Tourism, Turisme Comunitat Valenciana (Valencian Community Tourism), and the City Council itself, to boost the recovery of tourism activity after the crisis generated by COVID-19. As part of this project, 19 actions have been developed, distributed across four distinct axes: Infrastructure, more accessible and sustainable connected tourism resources;

Sustainable, environmental, and socioeconomic growth; Competitive transformation; and Hygienic and Health Safety, most of which have already been fully implemented.

Ana Pellicer recalled that before drafting the project, "we analyzed the various heritage and technological resources available to us and defined 27 points of interest in the city, from which we created the six pedestrian routes that will connect the main points of interest." Specifically, the historical route, the landscape route, the Urban Art Spaces route, the viewpoints route, the parks route, and the museum-cultural route were created.

With all these points now identified, the City Council is executing the second phase of installing the physical elements included in this project, which will allow for the deployment of all the digital content. Specifically, the installation of the 77 pedestrian directional posts has been completed, and the completion of the installation of the 27 panels identifying the points of interest and seven information stands is underway, all equipped with QR codes and the NaviLens system—an auditory guidance system for people who are blind or have low vision. These will be joined in the coming weeks by two digital screens, one on Paseo de Poniente with Jaime I and another on Paseo de Levante; an interactive totem pole; and five interpretive tables in Tamarindos, Paseo de Levante and Paseo de Poniente, El Castell, and Rincón de Loix.

Once the installation of all these physical elements is complete, all the digital content that has been developed in parallel will come into operation and will undoubtedly be "the differentiating aspect of this Plan, which embraces new technologies and makes them available to the destination and its users to add an extra appeal to their experience, keeping in mind that this experience can be enjoyed by all," the councillor emphasized. This content, which will be deployed through a website and an app, includes the application of augmented reality elements and the expansion of avatars, which will act as guides, similar to the one already in operation in El Tossal de la Cala. These new avatars will be launched in El Castell, the Torre de les Caletes, and the Torre de Morales, and will operate with geolocation and a historical description of the period to which each heritage element belongs. A contemporary avatar will be activated anywhere and will convey the history of Benidorm from the 1960s to the present day.

Augmented reality will also be used to visualize landscapes, historical recreations, places, and buildings as they were in their time, for example, inside the Hort de Colón. Furthermore, all these actions and elements will be complemented by the launch of a dedicated space and app, which is also already being developed and is ready to begin operating soon.

The 27 points of interest

The 27 points of interest established in this Plan include the Morales Tower; the Tossal de la Cala archaeological site; Tamarindos Promenade; Poniente and Levante promenades; Ponent, El Campo, Els Tolls, El Carrasco, Hispanitat, and El Pont urban art spaces; the parks of Elche, Foietes, Aigüera (with its amphitheatre and auditorium), and Séquia Mare; the Route of the Viewpoints; the Castell; Church of Sant Jaume and Santa Anna; Boca del Calvari Museum; Hort de Colón; Bullring; the Town Hall; the Cultural Center; Aula del Mar; La Cruz viewpoint; Torre de les Caletes; and the island.