This week, SEGITTUR started work with Cayo Largo (Cuba) for its conversion into a smart destination in collaboration with the Gran Caribe hotel chain.
The Chairman of SEGITTUR, Enrique Martínez Marín, along with the Director of R&D&i, Carlos Romero, accompanied by two specialists have travelled to Cuba to hold meetings with those responsible for the destination, as well as with the country’s tourism authorities with a view to analysing the necessary steps for the destination to follow for it to become a smart destination.
This process represents a major challenge for Cayo Largo on account of all the changes it entails, as being a smart destination is not only about technology and innovation, but also affects areas such as governance of the destination, sustainability and accessibility.
Cayo Largo is now taking its first steps down this path, with the support and collaboration of SEGITTUR. Cooperation between the public and private sectors and between companies and individuals will be key, including you all, as everyone’s work must be coordinated to benefit the destination.
The Chairman of SEGITTUR, Enrique Martínez, also met with the Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, taking the opportunity to discuss the possibility of extending the smart destination model to other destinations on the island, given the benefits and the improvement of competitiveness that its update entails.
In the opinion of the Chairman of SEGITTUR, the fact that more and more international destinations are employing the Spanish smart destination methodology helps to consolidate the model, the use of which is increasingly widespread, given its contribution to improving competitiveness and managing tourist destinations.
Once the destination is known, experts at SEGITTUR analyse all the information corresponding to the five pillars that make up the methodology and perform a series of interviews with those responsible for the different areas, given the cross-cutting nature of the project.
Having completed this analysis, the diagnostic report and the action plan are drawn up, which, based on the result obtained, propose a series of actions that contribute to making Cayo Largo into a smart destination.
