The minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, has announced that the tourism data viewer will be launched in November. This is a unique web space for Spanish tourism data, from which data can be accessed from different sources of tourism statistics, both public and private bodies, which will enable the creation of a new knowledge model.
During her presentation at the inauguration of Digital Tourist 2020, the minster explained that the Ministry has created a Directory of Technological Solutions for Smart Destinations, compiling a series of technological solutions (products/services) available on the national market from suppliers specialising in this sector.
The objective of the directory is to give Smart Destinations easy access to knowledge on solutions and resources that help them become more competitive, thus generating a meeting point between supply and demand. The tool is structured around the five categories comprising Smart Destination methodology, and is completely free for companies.
The directory currently features 90 companies and 115 technological solutions, from those related to artificial intelligence, virtual assistants or data analysis systems, to tools for marketing, CRM, video mapping, virtual reality, active listening or web design, to others related to efficient water management, air quality, energy or waste.
To the minister, “This crisis has highlighted that now more than ever, we need to rely on indicators, data and information in real time to be able to predict scenarios and behaviours and implement, as the case may be, the appropriate public policies and make faster decisions.”
She also spoke about the Smart Tourism project, which will aim to speed up the digital transformation of tourist activity within the framework of the Digital Spain Agenda 2025.
As noted by Maroto, these initiatives “Aim to keep Spain in a leading competitive position in a global market, increase tourism’s contribution to the digital economy and make tourist activity more resilient, improving health security, sustainability, the quality of tourist public services and the digitalisation and increased productivity of tourism enterprises.”
The minister, who led the third Plenary Commission of the Smart Destinations Network, highlighted that the Smart Destinations Network is proving key to Spain’s tourism strategy, since in a little under two years, it has become essential support to destinations’ transformation, helping with unity, the exchange of good practices and making use of synergies between the 198 members of the network within the sector.
During her presentation, she stated that we must turn the dual digital and economic transition into an opportunity to remain the most competitive country in the world in terms of tourism. She also stressed that “Within the government, we have been working very hard to respond to what is urgent, but also what is important. It was urgent to protect companies and workers, and therefore we approved an ambitious emergency plan, and it is now important to reactivate the tourism sector, incorporating digitalisation and sustainability into our tourism system as drivers to become more competitive.”
Plenary Commission of the Smart Destinations Network
During the Plenary Commission of the Smart Destinations Network, in which over 220 people from 160 institutions participated remotely, the incorporation of 19 new members, among them 7 institutions and 12 companies, was approved, taking the total number of members to 198: 119 destinations, 31 institutions and 48 companies.
The new institutions include the Tourist Board, Basquetour (the Basque Tourism Agency), the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Development Company, the Son Servera y Sant Llorenç des Cardassar Tourism Consortium, the Spanish Association of Company Consultants, the Spanish Ecotourism Association and Apadrina un Olivo.
The new collaborating companies joining the network are AnySolution, Discoolver World, Hotels Quality, Interactive System Developers, Ok Located, Olocip 11, Play & Go Experience, Puntodis Accessible Solutions in Sign Writing, Sismotur, SemanticBots, W Smart Experience and Tourism Data Driven Solutions.
