Could new ‘safe beach app’ offer solution to potential overcrowding on Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca coastlines

Andalucia's beaches are patrolled by special agents until September 15 to help avoid overcrowding. CREDIT: Wikimedia

A new ‘safe beach app’ claims to offer a solution to potential overcrowding on Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca coastlines as the country relaxes lockdown phase by phase.

Spanish tech company Amazing Up has developed a ‘Safe Beach App’ for mobile devices to allows city councils to control access to the beaches and their capacity by “allowing the reservation of spaces at certain hours,” enabling beachgoers to “enjoy the coast in a responsible and safe way.”

Manager Juan José Ortiz, told EFE his team has developed a “very simple” system to provide a solution to enforcing health hygiene regulations and social distancing.

Many authorities are proposing measures to anticipate government regulations likely to be applied, including capacity control and physical barriers between users.

Amazing Up claims that in order to “minimise” the impact of the restrictive measures, Safe Beach App proposes a system by which “totems” or small icons or beacons will be coloured in the sand “to create divided spaces in accordance with social distancing measures.”

Users, local residents and holidaymakers can download and enter the application from home to view the schedule and see if there is space available.

There will be blue or red areas that are available in each time slot “and so they will be able to reserve theirs and be guaranteed a space on the beach when they arrive.”

Reservations can only be made “within a specified stretch” not in month or week-long blocks or several spaces in one time slot.

The app will guide the user to their spot with GPS where “you will have to read a QR code exclusive to each beacon.”

When leaving, the same process must be carried out so that the system knows the space is free and can be used by another beachgoer.

If a space is not vacated in the time in which it is marked, a Local Police officer or a lifeguard will “come to check what is happening and impose the sanction that the consistory considers appropriate.”

The system, in the opinion of its creator, “will order people on the beach more than with the systems that are being proposed.”

The company will present the application on Wednesday, May 18, in a web seminar to tourist bosses.

Amazin Up, is based in the Science and Technology Park of the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló (Espaitec), and launched other technological proposals specially designed to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

One has been adopted in Zaragoz, a ‘Stop the Curve.’ Several volunteers have developed the application #YaVoyXTi so that “in a safe and reliable environment volunteers can be accessed to help people in need” during confinement.

It ensures volunteering is carried out in collaboration with the Local Police or the Red Cross, so that “older people feel that whoever goes to their home has no intention of robbing them or taking advantage of them.”

And they have developed another app that provides a catalogue of disinfectant solutions for Covid-19 that meet the requirements and are effective, to serve, for example, “hoteliers or shopkeepers so that they know what is really effective and do not make expenses that later are not useful.”

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Written by

Tara Rippin

Tara Rippin is a reporter for Spain’s largest English-speaking newspaper, Euro Weekly News, and is responsible for the Costa Blanca region.
She has been in journalism for more than 20 years, having worked for local newspapers in the Midlands, UK, before relocating to Spain in 1990.
Since arriving, the mother-of-one has made her home on the Costa Blanca, while spending 18 months at the EWN head office in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.
She loves being part of a community that has a wonderful expat and Spanish mix, and strives to bring the latest and most relevant news to EWN’s loyal and valued readers.

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