The State Company for Innovation Management and Tourism Technology (SEGITTUR) will be participating in Greencities: 11th Forum of Urban Intelligence and Sustainability, taking place in Malaga from 30 September to 1 October, to promote its Smart Destinations model.
SEGITTUR has been working on its Smart Destinations project for the Secretary of State for Tourism for many years. The objective of the initiative is to promote a sustainable tourism development model, consisting of five categories: governance, innovation, technology, accessibility and sustainability.
Becoming a Smart Destination adds value to the destination through innovation and technology, resulting in: the destination becoming more competitive, thanks to a better use of its tourism resources and the identification and creation of others; improved efficiency in production and commercialisation processes; and a boost to the three aspects of sustainable development: environmental, economic and sociocultural.
Smart Destinations provide visitors with a higher quality stay and improve the quality of life for residents, while also allowing tourism strategy to serve as the basis for the economic revitalisation of the area, guaranteeing long-term positive effects.
The Secretary of State for Tourism’s Smart Destination model has been recognised by prestigious international bodies such as the World Tourism Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Commission and the Inter-American Development Bank.
To discuss all of the above, the Chairman of SEGITTUR, Enrique Martínez Marín, will participate in the “Smart Destinations: how to approach them after COVID-19” roundtable, in which he will explain the work being carried out within the Smart Destinations Network, led by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdés.
The Smart Destinations Network adds value to destinations, improves the competitiveness of the municipalities through diagnostic and planning projects, supports shared tools and promotes unity, the exchange of best practices and the best use of synergies between locations.
The objective of the roundtable is to discuss the role the tourism sector can play in the recovery of the economy following the health crisis, and to analyse the need to implement projects to turn cities into tourist destinations that are sustainable, intelligent and, given the current situation, safe.
The roundtable will be moderated by Antonio López de Ávila, the president and CEO of Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS). In addition to the Chairman of SEGITTUR, the mayor of Benidorm, Antonio Pérez; the Malaga councillor for Tourism, Rosa Sánchez; the director-general of the Valencia Tourism Foundation, Antonio Bernabé; and the manager of the Gothenburg sustainability strategy will also be participating.
