Impressive first results of the "smart" transportation services in Astypalea
Kosmocar, representing the Volkswagen Group, presented the first results of the new travel services and the implementation of the "astyMOVE" ecosystem of the innovative program "Astypalea - Smart and Sustainable Island" in the context of the World Travel Market in London at an event held at the Greek Tourism Organization stand in the presence of the public and the leadership of the Ministry of Tourism and the Greek Tourism Organization.
The pioneering project "Astypalea - Smart and sustainable island", which is now in its second year of implementation, aims to improve the lives of residents through the transformation of Astypalea into a model of green mobility and circular economy, both in terms of transport and energy production. In the pillar of smart mobility, the operation of the vehicle sharing service “astyGO” in combination with the shuttle service “ASTYBUS - coordinated by Kosmocar and exclusively through electric vehicles - completes the innovative ecosystem of smart and ecological transportation on the island of Astypalea. Thus, all transportation needs on the island can be realized in an easy and simple way through the innovative application “astyMOVE” integrating in an innovative way all services on the smartphone of the visitor and the permanent resident of Astypalea.
The presentation of the program of Astypalea in the context of the World Travel Market, attracted the interest of the global community as one of the most exciting projects of sustainable transformation, while highlighting Greece as a sustainable tourist destination. The results of the first period of application of the transport ecosystem, from June to September 2022, proved the universal acceptance of the services, both by the visitors of the island and mainly by the permanent residents, highlighting in practice the need to improve the way of traveling in Astypalea. It is characteristic that the application “astyMOVE” already has 1,900 approved and active users with more than 7,000 downloads.
In particular, the electric vehicles of the "ASTYBUS" service, which is operated by the Development Organization of the South Aegean Region "K2", travelled 138,900 km in 4 months, making 21,798 trips at the same time. Also, it is particularly important that 22% of the permanent residents of Astypalea used "ASTYBUS", which highlights its acceptance by the local community within the first 4 months of the application.
At the same time, almost 500 trips were made with the electric vehicles of the "astyGO" service with 1.2 users per day per vehicle to "share" them, making the model of vehicle sharing in Astypalea a reality.
In total, users of the “astyMOVE” ecosystem travelled more than 150,000 km with Volkswagen electric cars, which would amount to a charge of 18 tonnes of CO2 if carried out with internal combustion engine cars (average 120 g / km).
The project "Astypalea – Smart and Sustainable Island", jointly implemented by the Hellenic Republic and the Volkswagen Group, with the practical support of Kosmocar, the Municipality of Astypalea and the South Aegean Region, aims to offer a deeper understanding of the transformation of an entire system. Within five years, Astypalea is to become an island with a high degree of sustainable mobility and energy – with pure electric vehicles, intelligent mobility services and a green hybrid power system. This important project involves 16 organisations of a private and public nature from 4 European countries.