'Apps' and websites to travel safer

This spring, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) launched the Call for Solutions Challenge to Return Health to Tourism, a contest with the aim of identifying the most innovative ideas designed to mitigate the impact of covid-19 in the sector, and in which two Spanish initiatives were semifinalists.

It received more than 1,000 applications from more than 100 countries, all technological, mostly mobile applications.

A palpable proof that the

is crowned as the star tool to travel safer in these times of pandemic.

Here are some

very useful

for those planning a trip.

Prepare a getaway

Google Maps has incorporated alerts with the restrictions that the driver may encounter along his route due to covid-19.

Google.com/travel also shows notices according to the selected destination, and allows you to filter the search for hotels with free cancellation policies.

Covid-19 tracker mobiles

The citizen who, free of charge, voluntary and anonymous way, download l

(Android and iOS), driven by the Government of Spain, turns your

into a scanner covid-19: When two terminals have been coming for 15 minutes or more at two meters or less apart, both keep the anonymous identifier issued by the other.

If a user tests positive for coronavirus and notifies it, always anonymously, those mobiles that have been in contact with theirs automatically issue their owners a warning about the risk of possible contagion.

The tool can be downloaded throughout Spain and is already more or less operational in Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Castilla y León, the Canary Islands, Aragón, Navarra and Madrid, and is scheduled to do so in the rest of the communities in mid-September .

It already has about three and a half million downloads, and if it reaches a use by 20% of the population, it will be of great help to track the contacts of people who fall ill with the virus, according to the authorities.

Re-open EU works in Europe, an official application of the European Union with practical information on the situation in each country: if you have to quarantine when you arrive, wear a mask, if essential stores such as supermarkets or pharmacies are open or if you can enter in restaurants, bars, museums or hotels.

A good option to choose the destination is to get information from the European Best Destinations organization, which in June drew up a list with the beaches and another with the safest destinations in Europe, based on criteria of low contagion rates, available square meters per person, hygiene and disinfection protocols, or a good hospital infrastructure.

On Route

The

Spanish

Bob.io, very oriented towards family trips, collects and checks everything from suitcases to baby carriages or toys, from 20 euros.

The customer has to

to get the boarding pass and then access the website and indicate the day, time and place of the collection.

A driver will verify the identity of the passengers, seal the suitcases and check them in, so that there is no need to worry about them until they appear on the baggage claim belt at the destination airport.

From the company, with agreements with the main airlines that operate in Spain, they claim to be leading "the new way of flying post-COVID."

The conviction that the way of traveling has changed has led the UNWTO to support the WTID (World Tourist Identification) application, developed by Wanderlust, which will allow tourists to carry documents on their mobile that until now could only go physically in their pocket: passport, ID, driver's license or health data.

In addition to digital identification, you can pay for tourist services or public transport.

Its creators affirm that it is in its final phase of development and they hope that "it will soon be available in Uruguay, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Mexico and Georgia."

The BR Bars & Restaurants 'app'.

Eat and drink

Three Valencian entrepreneurs have created Findyt to know, in real time, the availability of tables in a hotel or leisure establishment and receive a notification when there are free places.

The tool also allows you to access the menu and search for places that have a daily menu or that have a terrace.

For now it works in establishments in the Valencian Community, Albacete and Murcia.

While BR Bars & Restaurants users can go to bars, cafes or restaurants associated with the

located in Madrid, Lanzarote, Seville, Malaga, Cádiz, Valencian Community, Girona

, sit at the table, scan their menu, order The command and pay, all through the mobile.

Accommodations

Be Mate, the tourist apartment manager of the Room Mate Group, uses Hoomvip.

Alava Suites, in Costa Teguise (Lanzarote), uses STAYmyway.

Both are Spanish technological solutions for the management of tourist accommodation that include

so that guests can

online, open doors or have access to information and services through their mobile phone.

Both were semifinalists in the UNWTO Challenge.

enlarge photo Informative poster on the beach of Can Pastilla, in Palma (Mallorca), which includes QR codes to download the free Platges Segures app.

Clara Margais Getty Images

On the beach

In addition to being informed of the security measures and physical distancing on the beaches of Palma (Mallorca), with the free Platges Segures application (for iOS and Android) bathers know in real time their degree of occupation (and the degree of occupation of accessible areas) or the state of the flags;

If they wish (voluntarily and anonymously) they can collaborate with this pilot project by recording the day and time of their stay.

This summer,

this have proliferated

, promoted by coastal municipalities in search of a safer bathroom.

PlayasApp Chiclana de la Frontera and PlayasApp Marbella pursue the same objective in the sandy areas of the towns of Cadiz and Malaga, respectively, and also report the wind.

The Malaga Funciona municipal application has been updated to publicize the occupation of its coastline.

And another

: Nik Hondartzak, which reports on the saturation status of the Gipuzkoan coast, and can also be consulted on the web.

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