UNWTO Ulysses Awards for Innovation announced

The 2013 UNWTO Ulysses Awardees for Innovation distinguished in the four categories were: UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance: Responsible Tourism Project at Kumarakom, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, India ;UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Enterprises: Arromanches 1944, Biplan, France ;UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations: From Charity to Social Entrepreneurship, Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies (BEST) Society, Malaysia ;UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Research and Technology: 3D AR Visual Portal, DSP Studio & Momentum Studio, Croatia

The 2013 UNWTO Ulysses Awardees for Innovation distinguished in the four categories were:

• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance: Responsible Tourism Project at Kumarakom, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, India
• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Enterprises: Arromanches 1944, Biplan, France
• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations: From Charity to Social Entrepreneurship, Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies (BEST) Society, Malaysia
• UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation in Research and Technology: 3D AR Visual Portal, DSP Studio & Momentum Studio, Croatia

The Croatian tourism and ICT project '3D AR Virtual Portal', designed by Momentum Studio and DSP Studio from Zagreb. Nenad Obrenovic of DSP Studio, which authored the script of the project's digital contents, received the award at a special ceremony organised by the UNWTO and the international FITUR fair in Madrid on Wednesday. Momentum Studio and DSP Studio said their project was an example of application of the augmented reality technology and was realised in three locations in the coastal city of Sibenik - sculptor Ivan Mestrovic's monument to George the Dalmatian (Juraj Dalmatinac), the Cathedral of St. James, and UNESCO's cultural heritage commemorative plaque. Installing the AR application into a mobile phone or tablet enables the user to get, by directing the phone/tablet camera towards the AR location, a 3D image of George the Dalmatian. The image addresses the user, giving information about the history of construction work on St. James' Cathedral, its builder George the Dalmatian and UNESCO's inclusion of the cathedral into the world cultural heritage list.