A total of one million landings occurred, due to over 360,000 people who visited the beaches of the Baunei coast from May to October. They took mini-cruises with disembarkation at three different beaches, departing from the ports of Santa Maria Navarrese, Arbatax, Cala Gonone, Marina di Orosei, and La Caletta. These are the official figures for the first tourist season with disembarkations at restricted beaches, governed by an algorithm developed by a company, Eager, on behalf of the municipality of Baunei. These figures were released by Mayor Stefano Monni and Carlo Gaspa, manager of the QR code-based system that regulated disembarkations on the stretch of coast between Cala Gabbiani and Cala Luna, including Cala Mariolu, Cala Biriala, and Cala Sisine.
"Given the complexity of the operation, I believe everything exceeded our wildest expectations. The system adopted allowed operators to take advantage of multi-leg itineraries through dynamic allocation of disembarkation quotas," Mayor Monni explained. "Through a special algorithm and an app, we were able to monitor attendance in real time, ensuring compliance with the concurrent occupancy limits set by our municipal regulations. Specifically, this system, which represents a first in Italy at least, included the implementation of a combinatorial optimization engine that, on a daily basis, recalibrated the itineraries and passenger numbers on the vessels."
This is a groundbreaking innovation that, after some understandable initial skepticism, has found its key in the cooperation of the operators. "We thank the 108 maritime operators who, with a sense of responsibility, have understood that this year's innovation represents an important step towards the essential protection of public safety and environmental protection, which also serves the purpose of safeguarding the future of their businesses," Monni emphasized. "And our technicians are already working to establish a system that, by 2026, will eliminate the critical issues that have emerged and thus avoid any economic disruptions. We have invested significant resources in the design and implementation of the system, which has also included the purchase of sophisticated and expensive services and equipment."
