ICT and Augmented Reality in Baños de Agua Santa-Ecuador, Tourist Attractions Generation

Tourism in Ecuadorian context contributes to 2% GDP’s country, it has great potential for growth and exploitation thanks to geographical, natural, cultural, heritage and social factors, among others. These resources are very attractive for internal and external tourism. Baños de Agua Santa, is one of main destinations for local tourists and visitors. Its geographical location, climate and volcanic, mountainous and fluvial landforms have made the place a great interest tourist center. The natural attractions have given way to inhabitant’s initiative for man-made tourist attractions creation, a category part of World Tourism Organization UNWTO classification”. In this way, “Dinosaurs Park” analysis is presented, a theme park, man-made tourist place, which is mainly supported on ICT use, multimedia, offline web APPs and augmented reality AR, for playful learning experiences generation about prehistoric species not native from the area. The AR Through a mixed, quantitative and qualitative approach, information has been obtained on theme park visitors use and satisfaction showing over 90% of positive ratings. The AR applied in theme park, through mobile devices, shows information about prehistoric species, generating entertainment family experiences and significant knowledge in visitors. The results highlight the place's positive economic benefits since the post-pandemic economic reactivation. © 2024, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.