Good practice:

App Safe Beaches

This App was developed and launched by the City Hall of Palma during the COVID-19 crisis and it lets beachgoers know how full the islands' beaches are before going. This APP also publishes real-time information on the cleanliness of the sea and weather conditions and also includes information on safety and security measures and regulations. The key objective of the practice are to:
- Make beaches safer places.
- Monitor the number and flow of people on the islands' beaches in real-time. Showing different colours on the APP, depending on occupation rates: GREEN: <30 per cent; YELLOW: 30-60 per cent - safe; ORANGE: >60 per cent - risk; RED: >90 per cent - beach to be closed.
- Offer information on the state of beaches and the sea in real-time - what flags are displayed
- Get residents and visitors involved by giving them a feeling of joint-responsibility letting them upload information.
- Keep people up to date on the latest local security measures.

This best practice has been funded and developed by Palma City Hall with a multidisciplinary team working on Smart City Palma, integrated by Fundació Turisme 365, IMI, the Environment and Beaches Department, IBE and ESRI.

- An App and pilot project fully in line with the Smart Tourism Destinations' national programme's recommendations.
- Beachgoers helping to improve the information available by uploading their own real-time information and therefore actively contributing to making beaches safer.

1. How to keep people safe on beaches and respect social distancing
2. Possibility of having swamped beaches and people not unloading or respecting the information available.

In today's current health crisis, we believe any initiatives that help social distancing like this one are great to learn from and in this case, the idea is easily transferable to other regions.