The Spanish municipality of Santanyí has implemented a digital sensor system to monitor tourist influx at beaches and key points of interest. The project, managed by consultancy Open-Ideas, is part of a broader Smart Tourist Destination strategy funded by the European Union’s Next Generation initiative.

Santanyí is a municipality on the Spanish island of Mallorca that incorporates eleven separate towns and a number of beaches extending around 35 km (21.8 mi) along the southeast coast of the island. It also holds 172 Bronze and Iron Age archaeological sites and is home to the Mondragó Natural Parc.

The deployment includes eight high-precision counting nodes at locations including Cala Egos, Es Fortí, Cala Gran, and Cala Esmeralda. These sensors use passive WiFi signal pickup to track occupancy levels with a reported accuracy of more than 90 per cent. The system anonymises all data at the source to ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy standards.

Data from the network is integrated into a centralised web platform, providing the local council with real-time monitoring and predictive analytics. The system identifies visitor patterns and peak saturation times, allowing municipal authorities to adjust cleaning, security, and maintenance schedules based on actual demand.

“Our mission in Santanyí has been to provide the municipality with an ‘intelligence layer’ that turns data into operational decisions,” said Leonard Pera, CEO of Open-Ideas. He added that the technology enables a new method for managing the territory.

The project also includes a mobile application and smart signage to inform visitors of capacity levels in real time. Local officials intend to use the data to prevent overcrowding and improve the conservation of natural spaces within the municipality.