Support to a Middle East Commission for the digital transformation of a world heritage site into a smart digital tourism destination

Scope of work

Our client, a Saudi Arabian Commission, wanted to transform a major cultural heritage site into a global tourism destination by 2035 whilst preserving the natural landscape and contributing to the local community.

Therefore, we were tasked to support the commission by developing an appropriate planning framework and digital index in line with the ambitions and strategies of the project.

As part of the solution and in hopes of centralizing future management, we created a digital index to provide a tool to the client for tracking and measuring the efforts and results of the project. Within the digital index, each sublayer involved specific indicators and KPIs allowing a weighted score to be attributed to each dimension.

We then developed the guidelines and the design review process through which they are administered to promote the preservation of the historic, cultural, and architectural resources that reflect the history of the Smart Region.

Additionally, we described and developed several user journeys to ascertain needed digital services. Starting with the definition of users and their digital life cycles, customer journeys have been mapped through related touchpoints, relevant use cases, and digital services.

We concluded with a plan detailing the appropriate next steps that the Commission must undertake to continue with the project and its objective and provided research that specifies best practices to be used by the Commission for future smart city projects.