Venice unveils new tourist tracking system that knows your every move

It's something straight out of a spy movie. The latest 007-like innovation that the Italian government has unveiled is a tourist tracking system that will know your every move, and it is found in the romantic city of Venice.

In preparation for the holiday peak season, the Italian city launched its Venice Smart Control Room (VSCR). This was designed to follow the behavior of tourists. The system will know where you came from, where you are now, and any possible locations where you might have gone sightseeing.

The system is very sophisticated in the sense that it has the ability to determine your speed as you walk around the lovely city. So while you are enjoying the holidays, the VSCR will also be monitoring your whereabouts, because they are hoping to control the number of visitors during holiday peak seasons.

The sophisticated system did not happen overnight. It took developers three years to build. The cost, as reported by the New York Post, was at $3,648,150.00. The purpose of the system was to prevent "over-tourism."

CNN reported that the co-director general of Venice, Marco Bettini, said that they could know in real-time how many people are found in each part of the city. They also know which countries the people there come from.

The Smart Control Room works by tracking the numbers of tourists across Venice. The control room works with the telecom provider TIM. They then analyze which country their mobile phone is registered to and keep track of them.

One example provided by the system was on one day, 36 percent of their tourists were German, and that 16 percent were Swiss.

The Sun noted that the system is located on the Venetian Island of Tronchetto in an abandoned warehouse. The location is also home to government and police offices.

Aside from the system, there are also CCTV cameras that keep track of public transport. They are also tracking boats, considering that they are some of the most attractive features of Venice.

The information that the authorities gather through the system will help them determine and prevent "over-tourism" in the future.

Venice tourist tracking