Seville’s Sierra Morena Region today received the Smart Destination designation following an assessment by SEGITTUR, in accordance with the Secretary of State for Tourism’s Smart Destination methodology.
The Chairman of SEGITTUR, Enrique Martínez, presented the Smart Destination designation to the President of the Provincial Council of Seville, Fernando Rodríguez Villalobos, accompanied by the Vice-president of Prodetur, Manuela Cabello, and in the presence of the councillors of the region’s ten municipalities.
The Smart Destinations project is an initiative backed by Spain’s State Secretariat for Tourism through SEGITTUR, to prepare tourist destinations for the challenges of the future and help them convert to a new model based on Governance, Innovation, Technology, Sustainability and Accessibility.
After the diagnostic report carried out by the State Company, the Sierra Morena Region of Seville receives this designation with an average compliance score of 29.6 % of the total requirements of the Smart Destination methodology. “In other words, the destination has already made a good start on its path to becoming a Smart Destination, and therefore isn’t starting this stage of the transformation process from scratch, as a part of the roadmap has already been covered,” explained SEGITTUR’s Chairman.
Martínez highlighted that “the conversion to smart destination implies reassessing the destination through innovation and technology, contributing to the improvement of competitiveness and promoting sustainable development, both environmentally as well as in the social-cultural sphere, and at the same time improving the tourist experience and the quality of life of the destination’s residents. In addition to all of this is the dynamism of the territory, ensuring positive effects in the medium and long term.”
The category where it scored the highest degree of compliance was Sustainability, which stands at 57.8%. This was followed by Governance (29.2%), Innovation (21.3%), Technology (20.5%) and finally Accessibility (19.1%).
The roadmap proposed by SEGITTUR includes the development of a Regional Tourism Area, thus converting it into a “management body” with capacity for joint tourism planning of the territory and the Smart Destination project, as well as a strategic tourism plan.
With respect to Innovation, among other actions, the creation of an Innovation Management Unit is recommended to promote a strategy in this area throughout the region. It also suggests the creation of specific management units for the key areas of Technology and Sustainability, while, within the area of Accessibility, the fostering of accessibility regulations and accessible tourism is established as a strategic line.
