Broadly understood digitisation is a priority area supported by the National Centre for Research and Development. One of the measures in this area is the INFOSTRATEG programme developed to support the growth of Poland’s artificial intelligence potential. The Centre’s focus in the programme is on bringing together the potentials of science, business and public administration so as to address the country’s strategic challenges and make the developed technologies capable of responding to the real needs of the economy and citizens. 

Today, Poland needs not only access to the AI technology but also the capacity to develop and implement it independently in different areas of strategic importance for the state. INFOSTRATEG demonstrates that the public administration can be an active partner in the development of modern digital solutions, rather than merely their passive user. It is also important that money for the development of artificial intelligence is spent in a wise way. Thus, I am pleased that we have built a coordination system that allows us to invest funds where we see the greatest potential, 

– said Dr Krzysztof Gawkowski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitisation.

The aim of the programme is not only to develop innovative data-driven tools but also to strengthen national technological competences. 

Today, the key role in building competences for the future is played by universities and research institutes. Projects in the area of artificial intelligence not only develop research teams and train highly qualified specialists but also strengthen the potential of Polish science in the field of new technologies. This is what we do under the INFOSTRATEG programme – we invest in the development of universities and finance projects that do not end at the research stage but find practical application and are implemented at the national level. This way we support economic development and, in this specific programme, the development of the tourism sector, 

– added Dr Eng. Marcin Kulasek, Minister of Science and Higher Education. 

AI in tourism 

In Poland, tourism is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the national economy. It covers millions of tourist visits per year, generates billions of zlotys in turnover and provides thousands of jobs. 

An effective tourism policy must be based on reliable data. We want to know not only how many tourists visit Poland but also what places they visit, how long they stay in individual regions and what will be the market trends in the future. The currently developed solution will, for the first time, reflect the tourist traffic in a comprehensive manner and in near real time. Thanks to this we will be able to more effectively plan development measures, support investment projects and make better use of Poland’s tourism potential,

– underlined Jakub Rutnicki, Minister of Sport and Tourism.

The 8th edition of the INFOSTRATEG competition, organised by the National Centre for Research and Development in cooperation with the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and public data for the development of modern tourism. The aim is to develop advanced AI tools and algorithms making it possible to better analyse tourist flows, predict trends, support public administration in decision-making, and provide businesses with up-to-date data required to better plan their operations. 

The state’s tourism policy requires modern analytical tools for managing the tourism sector effectively. Dynamic changes in tourist flows, seasonality, shifting trends and the need for effective promotion campaigns and sustainable development require taking decisions based on diverse data volumes. We therefore approached the National Centre for Research and Development with the idea of developing a solution that is innovative on the European scale, that will make it possible to better understand tourists’ actions and needs, and will support regional development in a more informed and responsible manner, 

– said Piotr Borys, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. 

Notably, the Ministry of Sport and Tourism will be the recipient of the research results and is committed to implementing them. We guarantee that the developed solution will not be shelved but will be put into practice, 

– said Ireneusz Raś, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. 

Competing projects 

The 8th edition of the INFOSTRATEG competition is not a standard grant scheme. The beneficiaries are, in a sense, competitors. Ahead of them is a several-year competition in the field of technology and organisation, divided into several stages. The resulting solution has to be ready for practical application. Only one beneficiary will progress to the third and final stage. 

The competition model draws partly on the proven mechanisms used by DARPA agency from the US. The aim is to ensure conditions for the parallel development of competing technologies by different teams, with the focus on achieving a specific strategic objective for the state. The approach motivates beneficiaries to achieve increasingly better results and develop increasingly better functionalities, 

– explained Prof. Jerzy Małachowski, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development. 

The overall amount of 44 million PLN to be allocated to the contractors is an investment not only in the development of AI technology but also in building competences and delivering long-term benefits for the public administration, businesses and people in Poland,

– added Prof. Małachowski. 

The National Centre for Research and Development will monitor and compare the progress of the projects, the results achieved and the practical usefulness of the developed tools. Of importance will be the quality of the AI technologies and their suitability for use by the public administration, businesses and citizens. 

The developed solution should be ready for implementation by the end of 2029.
 
Monitoring, analysis and forecasting 

MAPTur: A Smart Platform for Monitoring, Analysing and Forecasting Tourist Traffic in Poland is the first project selected for funding. It is implemented by the University of Warsaw in a consortium with the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków. The project addresses the challenges caused by the lack of integrated, accurate and robust tools for the comprehensive analysis and forecasting of phenomena taking place in the tourism sector in Poland.

The key challenges addressed by our project include the scattered nature, low spatial resolution and sporadic nature of currently available data; the lack of models for precise forecasting of phenomena taking place in the tourism sector across time and space; and the lack of knowledge of the profiles and specific actions of visitors in different places, 

– explained Dr Franciszek Rakowski, project R&D manager at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw. 

Our team includes specialists in research on population dynamics and phenomena taking place in the tourism sector, as well as persons with extensive experience in mathematical modelling of complex population systems,

— added Dr Rakowski.

The MAPTur project will be implemented in stages. It will involve building a stable data feed for the system that is resilient to gaps and disruptions, followed by mapping the spatial behaviour of the real population in a secure synthetic environment (a digital twin). Next, the team will focus on using deep neural networks (transformers and diffusion models) to make short and long term forecasts of tourist flows, as well as on empirical surveys and integration with available public statistics in order to verify and fine-tune the algorithms. The final stage will involve developing a user-friendly interface for communicating the results. 

The MAPTur platform results are going to be broadly applied both in the public and commercial sectors.
 
Smart analyser of tourist activities

The second project selected for funding is exPLo AI –Tourist Activity Smart Analyser, carried out by the Kielce University of Technology in a consortium with the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Kielce-based company Altar. Its aim is to develop a smart and innovative system – a platform for comprehensive analysis and advanced prediction of tourists’ activities across Poland. 

The system is planned to enable in-depth analysis, forecasting and interactive visualisation of the spatial distribution of the load on tourism sites as well as tourist flow patterns in near real time. Key indicators that have a decisive impact on the formation of trends and patterns in the tourism sector will be taken into account. The exPLo AI system will employ advanced proprietary artificial intelligence solutions and machine learning algorithms, supported by Big Data analytics methods,

– explained Dr Mirosław Płaza, project manager at the Kielce University of Technology. 

Various types of data will be examined e.g. from mobile network operators, payment service providers, publicly available booking portals, tourism databases, the analysis of trends in web browsers and social media platforms, as well as infrastructure and environmental data. 

The fundamental problem on which we are focused is not only the lack of data but also the lack of the capacity to integrate it and comprehensively analyse it. The data is there – in telecom operators’ networks, pay card transaction systems, on booking platforms, social media and in public administration registers. Yet, nobody has developed a system combining those disparate data streams, processing them and transforming them into useful, reliable insights into what is happening in Polish tourism today and what will happen in it tomorrow. The exPLo AI project fills the gap, 

– added the project manager.