Advancing the Interoperability of the GLAM plus and Cultural Tourism Sectors through KOS Perspectives and Challenges

The possibilities and challenges of knowledge organization systems (KOS) to collaborate in the interconnection between the cultural heritage sector-galleries, libraries, archives, museums, publishers. (GLAM+)-and the increasingly important cultural tourism industry are explored, and a model for framing their interaction is proposed. Due to the diversity of KOS implied in GLAM+, this project is to be treated as an interoperability problem, thought a strong user-oriented purpose is also needed, based on a careful assessment of tourists' segmentation and their needs. The main components of the model are five: the real phenomena that form up the potential world of interest, the universe of potential sources, a web taxonomy, a domain thesaurus and an interoperability hub. The St James' Way is used as a source of examples. It is concluded that thesauri based on ISO 25964 offer a great potential for the simple, flexible, dynamic and distributed interconnection between the institutions of memory (GLAM+, research institutions in digital humanities and social sciences, transparency portals.) and the growing demand from the tourist sector for a more personalized and contextualized experience that can make a difference in an increasingly competitive international market.