Summer Is Here: How EU Space enhances travel and tourism
As we begin to think about our summer holidays, many of us are already searching the internet, asking friends and dusting off the guidebooks. Some may even give AI a try at itinerary planning. But space? Now that’s a new one.
No, we’re not talking about space tourism (yet!). We’re talking about the increasingly important role EU Space plays in the travel and tourism industry.
“From deciding where to build a hotel to monitoring pollution and environmental risk factors, even managing golf courses, space data and services are behind the scenes working to ensure that your next holiday is enjoyable, safe and sustainable,” says Chiara Solimini, Space Downstream Market Officer at EUSPA.
EUSPA championing the travel and tourism industry’s adoption of space technology and services. “From funding to business support, prototype development and commercialisation, EUSPA supports the entire innovation pipeline,” adds Solimini.
Supporting rural tourism from space
For many entrepreneurs working in the travel and tourism industry, that pipeline starts with an idea. Take Caius, for example. Having won the CASSINI Hackathon, the team went on to build AI-powered solutions that use EU Space technologies to support rural tourism.
Caius’ core technology is ‘Caius paths’, an AI-based mapping system that automatically identifies road and trail networks in rural areas. “By combining Earth Observation and GNSS data for geospatial AI analysis, we help local and regional authorities plan tourism and transport use cases,” explains Caius CEO, Georgios Mendrinos.
The solution is already being used to map uncharted forest trails and integrate them into regional tourism strategies.
From here, the company launched Druiter, a consumer-facing travel application that helps tourists explore destinations by providing them with GNSS-guided navigation along personalised routes and to tailored points of interests. “We help visitors explore beyond crowded hotspots, reducing overtourism and bringing value back to rural communities,” notes Caius CIO Marios Glytsos.
A veteran of the CASSINI ecosystem, the company has mentored winners of the 5th, 9th and 10th CASSINI Hackathons, participated in EUSPA’s mentoring programme and won the CASSINI Challenges competition, before going on to join the CASSINI Business Accelerator. As a result, it has built strong connections, significantly boosted sales, and achieved such key milestones as strengthening its commercial strategy and expanding internationally.
Galileo and Copernicus head to the beach
An excellent example of CASSINI's impact on coastal tourism environments is SciDrones, a company that leverages Galileo navigation and positioning to help keep beaches clean and safe.
The company’s Coastal Marine Litter Observatory (CMLO) uses drone data, satellite imagery and GeoAI to detect plastic pollution on beaches. GNSS-enabled drones are flown over coastal areas to collect images, which are then fed into the CMLO platform to generate georeferenced maps of litter accumulation. Local authorities and NGOs use these maps to identify areas that may pose risks to public use and to prioritise cleanup activities.
The same technology can be used to monitor the broader environmental context, including water quality and coastal dynamics that also impact a beach’s attractiveness for tourism. With data from Sentinel-2, the solution can be used to estimate a beach’s carrying capacity or suitability for building a new resort or hotel.
“Our solution is very versatile, helping to ensure that beaches are clean, safe and enjoyable on a day-to-day basis while also working to protect them from the impact of overtourism and climate change – ensuring that our coastal areas will be around for future generations to enjoy too,” says Scidrones co-founder and expert on marine litter Kostas Topouzelis.
The CMLO solution has already identified 2.6 million marine-litter items in more than 20 countries around the world, including Iceland, Honduras, Ghana, Japan and across Europe.
Turning EO data into tourism insights
Also working in coastal areas is SeaCras, a space-based company that has received several awards from EUSPA, as well as participated in Batch 6 of the CASSINI Business Accelerator. “EUSPA has supported us from day one and I am very grateful for the time and resources they invested in us,” says CEO Mario Špadina.
Leveraging that support, the company has built itself into one of the leading providers of environmental and coastal surveillance solutions in the marine and maritime sectors, based on integrating satellite imagery into advanced Deep Learning algorithms. The company uses proprietary algorithms to extract relevant information from the raw satellite imagery derived from Sentinel-1 and -2, as well as from commercial providers. It also uses supporting data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and Copernicus Marine Service.
This information is converted into indicators on such key tourism factors as water quality and ecological impact. “Our customers, many of whom come from the travel and tourism sector, use this information to make data-driven decisions on the long-term management or development of a site or asset,” explains Špadina.
The company’s data also benefits tourists. For instance, cruise guests can use the SeaCras app to check the water quality before they decide to disembark and jump in at a port of call, while beachgoers can find a safe location for swimming.
The SeaCras app was named one of the five most innovative blue economy solutions by the World Economic Forum and was featured in the organisation’s Annual Impact Report 2026.
“We didn’t just create an app, we created a usable solution that uses EU Space to deliver a measurable impact on the travel and tourism industry,” notes Špadina.
Demonstrating the value EU Space brings to the travel and tourism sector
Support for innovation extends beyond competitions, hackathons and accelerators. Companies and organisations are also encouraged to explore how EU space data and services can support the development of new applications and solutions.
With a focus on increasing the use of Earth Observation data across all market segments, the Copernicus Demonstrators see EUSPA collaborating with private sector stakeholders, including from the travel and tourism industry, to showcase the value of incorporating Copernicus data into real-life applications.
“By targeting important market sectors where the use of EO data is still untapped, such as travel and tourism, EUSPA’s Copernicus Demonstrators help expand the programme’s user base,” explains Solimini.
One such real-life application developer is Murmuration, a French startup that uses Copernicus data across more than 30 indicators to model climate change and human environmental impact.
These indicators then feed into innovative tools designed to help tourism stakeholders, be it public authorities or private entities like hotels, better assess various factors that could impact tourism and tourists. For example, one tool helps hotel managers monitor their compliance with local environmental regulations, while another can evaluate how vulnerable a site’s infrastructure or business model is to climate risks.
The company also has dedicated tools that destination managers can use to understand which activities they can promote during the off- and shoulder seasons, and to analyse the sustainable capacity of a given site or activity.
“Designed with overtourism in mind, this tool helps users identify both tourism hotspots – where the number of visitors surpasses capacity – as well as off-the-radar sites that have the tourism infrastructure but not the tourists,” says Murmuration CEO Tarek Habib.
Murmuration also works with large hotel chains, who depend on their climate and environmental projections to evaluate the long-term attractiveness of a proposed site for a hotel. Through EUSPA’s Copernicus Demonstrator, and together with one of the world’s leading hotel groups, the company created a proof-of-concept tool for monitoring and assessing the environment around each hotel and resort. Indicators looked at thermal comfort, accessibility, health, swimming conditions, biodiversity and landscapes, water abundance and eco-mobility.
“Each of these indicators is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, based on environmental data produced by Murmuration,” explains Habib. “A forward-looking projection is also provided to anticipate how each site's attractiveness may evolve in the future.”
As part of this collaboration, Murmuration developed the Genia tool, which enables the automated generation of narratives and operational recommendations based on the attractiveness indicator results. The content is personalised according to different user profiles, such as tourists, hotel managers, owners, staff and others.
“Our long-term partnership with EUSPA is like having a Copernicus concierge, one ready to help with everything from learning the programme’s services and solutions to understanding the technical details of using the data and even identifying potential opportunities,” adds Habib. “If you have an idea for using space data and services to benefit the travel and tourism sector, then EUSPA should be your destination of choice.”
Ready to learn how EUSPA can support your space-based business idea? Contact market@euspa.europa.eu to learn more!
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