The ICHT project–Inclusive Cultural Heritage Tourism–advocates the integration of novel high-tech sign language user interfaces in tourism destinations and stimulates local operators to learn the basics of sign language communication to welcome deaf tourists in Portugal. ICHT brings in R&D world-class results in the field of automatic sign language translation qualifying Portugal to guide Inclusive Tourism worldwide and become a pioneer leading the Tourism of the Future. ICHT aims to promote the accessibility of cultural heritage to deaf tourists by embedding non technology-aids online and on-site to raise awareness, to attract deaf tourists, to assist them while visiting us ,and to exploit their experience as a new dissemination channel. ICHT is focused on creating bilingual digital tools and content in sign and spoken language to be available online, on mobile devices, And on-site at cultural touristic attractions through innovative channels like games, computer vision, holography,and collaborative platforms.

The ICHT system will offer a holistic approach including several technology components(holography, computer vision, machine translation, high-fidelity 3D humanoids, mobile devices, games), involving and teasing the tourists since the moment they decide to visit us, during their visit and following up after they return back home. But this is not the most distinctive ICHT sparkle;ICHT unique character is granted by a novel bi-lingual user interface, transversal to all its components, that will empower deaf as well as non-deaf tourists to enjoy all ICHT features to its full potential in each ones’ native language. Enjoying the ICHT system will be in itself a new tourist experience inside and around the main attraction. The ICHT system is a bundle comprising several components that create a rich holistic environment to assist and fascinate deaf and non-deaf tourists while promoting our cultural assets. The full system includes an on-site application on hologram technology, a game to play on mobile device (before, during, and after visiting the attraction) and an online collaborative platform to assist deaf and non-deaf tourists. The ICHT system will be available in five pilot installations in Porto (Torre dos Clérigos and Lello bookshop), Maia (Zoo), Gaia (Port wine cellars)and Viseu (thermae). The game points won while playing the game will be available to exchange at local agents by their offers, such as discounts on other attractions or freebies. To promote the communication between deaf and non-deaf or between deaf tourists from different countries we will develop courses on the basics of Portuguese sign language and International Sign that will be available through our online platform

ICHT aims to promote the accessibility of our cultural heritage to deaf tourists by embedding non technology-aids online and on-site to raise awareness, to attract deaf tourists, to assist them while visiting us ,and to exploit their experience as a new dissemination channel. ICHT is focused on creating digital tools and digital content in sign language to be available online, on mobile devices and on-site at cultural touristic attractions in the North of Portugal through innovative channels like games ,holography and collaborative platforms .In concrete, ICHT will pursue the following specific objectives:

• Create a methodology guiding the implementation of interactive holographic applications to promote cultural heritage sites in sign language; 

• Develop a ludic environment using games in order to boost inclusive cultural tourism; 

• Establish an online collaborative platform to support the touristic process from end to end (promote/raise awareness, visit, follow-up/feedback); 

• Reduce the communicational gap between deaf and non-deaf people contributing top remote inclusive tourism, access to culture and a better quality of life of the deaf.

ICHT delivers two core products: (1) an automatic bidirectional sign language translator for touristic activities (ATT) and (2) an informatics system to support deaf tourists visiting cultural heritage spots (ICHT System). The ICHT system will be set up in five pilots (Torre dos Clérigos and the Lello bookshop in Porto, the Zoo in Maia, the Port wine cellars in Gaia, and the thermae in Viseu) destinations in the North of Portugal. The touristic experience will be supported on-site, by the ICHT application, and online through the ICHT Collaborative Platform

The ICHT online collaborative platform will be linking together all those developing, working and using inclusive tourism offer .The platform will be linked to the Tourism of Portugal portal. This platform will guide the tourists through all their touristic experiences from searching destinations to providing feedback and cooperating with other tourists once back at home. The platform will be integrated with the ICHT game. The game will start from the moment the tourist claims to be interested in the destination. Tourists may remain playing the game as long as they like. They will keep accumulating points/rewards when interacting with others through the collaborative platform. The platform will also be a core element for the dissemination of the ICHT service. All the ICHT destinations will be promoted at the platform. The platform will also be a core element for the dissemination of the ICHT service. The online platform will be the hub for CIT ,the cluster for inclusive tourism. This cluster will be composed by representatives of the ICHT venues, touristic operators, deaf tourists ,and anyone else interested in joining to promote inclusive tourism or to set up a new ICHT destination .We will approach national bodies in the Tourism sector, such as NEST2, to establish this cluster.