The European Space Agency and the World Tourism Forum Lucerne (WTFL) have signed a memorandum of intent (MoI) for advancing sustainable innovation for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry to promote its safe, secure, sustainable and seamless growth.

This cooperation supports the implementation of innovative space-based applications leveraging connectivity and digital transformation towards a stronger, more sustainable, and resilient tourism economy especially after the recent Covid-19 challenges. The goal is to accelerate good practices towards sustainable development that will help the tourism sector reach the Agenda 2030.

As a first step of this joint effort, ESA Space Solutions and WTFL are cooperating on an announcement of opportunity that  supports innovative tourism business projects harnessing space technologies to help the sector in its transition to the new normal through rapid digitalization and sustainable transformation.  

To ensure this initiative will deliver tangible impact, WTFL and ESA Space Solutions seek interested tourism businesses to be part of a user working group that will provide inputs on the most burning issues faced by the sector. The user working group will support ESA and WTFL by providing their views and customer requirements on the most pressing challenges for the tourism sector, identify commercial priorities and trends relevant to be addressed in the initiative, and will have the opportunity to provide recommendations and guidance to the applications that will be proposed*. 

“Leveraging downstream space technologies to drive sustainable development is going to determine the future of the tourism sector. Companies that tap in to the potential of space tech are becoming key players in the industry with a competitive advantage hard to copy”, says Martin Barth, President & CEO World Tourism Forum Lucerne.

“Space technologies, connectivity and digital transformation are key for the tourism sector to initiate a purposeful innovation journey towards a stronger and more sustainable tourism economy. The announcement of opportunity in cooperation with the World Tourism Forum Lucerne will help unleash this potential and fast-track business innovation towards a new dimension of sustainable tourism”, says Davide Coppola, Project Manager at ESA Space Solutions.

About WTFL:

The World Tourism Forum Lucerne is the leading interactive platform in the industry, where CEOs, Ministers, Academia, Finance, Start-Ups, Next Generation and Young Talents become a strong community addressing the future challenges of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry and shape a more sustainable future. The WTFL work is focused on four core pillars: Innovation, Sustainable Development, Talent and Diversity.

About ESA Space Solutions:

ESA Space Solutions is the go-to place for great business ideas involving space in all areas of society and economy. Its mission is to support entrepreneurs in Europe in the development of business using satellite applications and space technology to improve everyday life.

The programme is designed to provide multiple entry points such as ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Broker Network, ESA Business Application Ambassadors and the ESA Business Applications programme. We can also support your ideas of transferring space technology into non-space markets or vice versa.

ESA Business Applications is part of ESA Space Solutions that supports the development of sustainable services utilising space assets. It provides funding opportunities and expert support to entrepreneurs.

*If you want to join the working group that will be responsible for research and setting up the right direction of the project, please express your interest by contacting elena.cholakova@wtflucerne.org making sure you include your first/last name, company, position, email, LinkedIn profile and your motivation to join the WP.

German company dida is using images from ESA’s Sentinel satellites to find solutions for formalising artisanal and small-scale mining. The company received funding to develop the ASMSpotter software through ESA’s Kick-Start Activity. 

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) directly or indirectly provides a livelihood for an estimated 60–150 million people worldwide, and accounts for a significant portion of the global supply of raw materials. However, informal mining can have severe impacts on the local natural environment and population because of a lack of monitoring and effective control. This is where ASMSpotter comes in. 

ASMSpotter uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to analyse changes in satellite images for the identification of informal mining sites. Development of the prototype was funded by ESA Space Solutions’ Kick-Start Activity in a project which ran from August 2019 to April 2020. 

In 2021, Berlin-based dida – which specialise in developing applications using AI for automatic analysis of image files – shifted ASMSpotter to use only free-of-charge images from ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellites. This has brought down the cost of the technology for governments, NGOs and the mining industry in target countries such as Suriname, Guyana and Brazil. 

Award-winning project

In October 2020, ASMSpotter won the Microsoft AI for Earth prize within the first round of the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge, run by Conservation X Labs. The AI for Earth programme awards grants to support projects that use AI to change the way people and organisations monitor, model, and manage Earth’s natural systems. The competition prize was US$100 000. 

At the time, Robert Heesen, Product Director at dida said: “We were honoured that our solution was recognised by such an outstanding jury and by Microsoft. With ASMSpotter, we want to show that AI can make a positive contribution to the big problems of mankind. ASMSpotter helps to minimise environmental destruction and improve the working conditions of the local population. 

“Until now, local authorities have lacked solutions for automatic, large-scale monitoring of mining activities. Governments using our solution can regulate the sector much better because they can detect changes and act more quickly.” 

Future developments

dida is collaborating with Levin Sources, a UK company specialised in ASM and responsible mineral supply chains. Together,they will help governments and private sector clients to support formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining and apply the ASMSpotter solution effectively, including safeguarding how it is used. 

dida plans to extend the solution to enable it to be used to monitor extraction of other raw materials, such as cobalt, or building materials like gravel. It also hopes to begin incorporating radar data from ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellites, to improve analysis when cloud cover limits the use of imagery.  

Moritz Besser, dida Project Lead, said:

“We are very glad to have received the initial funding for the development of ASMSpotter from ESA. The difficulties of finding a project partner in the tropical regions show that without help from ESA we could not have created the algorithm. In my opinion, ASMSpotter is also a good example of how cutting-edge technological innovations could help to solve global issues like poverty and environmental destruction, but to be developed they need to receive philanthropic capital as a start.”