Benidorm project to Red.es is committed to management and smart beaches, sustainability and tourist and citizen satisfaction

The project 'Benidorm, Smart and Sustainable Tourist Destination' presented by the City Council to the new call of Red.es launched by the Government of Spain betting on four axes: Intelligent management, Smart Beaches, Sustainability and energy efficiency, and Tourist and citizen satisfaction . The mayor, Toni Pérez, together with the Councilor for New Technologies, Lourdes Caselles, explained that the development of the planned actions would have "environmental, economic and sociocultural results", and would contribute "strongly to continue consolidating the digital transformation of the municipality and promoting the conversion of Benidorm into a Smart Tourist Destination ".

Pérez recalled that the project has a biannual character and is valued at 4,023,058.74 million euros. If selected by the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, the City Council would provide 40% of the investment in two years, 1,609,223.50 euros. In this regard, he has advanced that "the municipal budget of 2018 will collect half of that investment: 804,611.75 euros", while the other half would be provided in 2019.

By axis of action, the investment planned in Smart Management amounts to 1,538,844.61 euros; while the Smart Beaches reserve 984,584.60 euros. The actions of Sustainability and energy efficiency have a budget of 938,555.21 euros, and 333,354.01 euros are foreseen for tourist and citizen satisfaction. Finally, there is a provision of 227,720.31 euros for audit, monitoring, communication and evaluation expenses, required by the call.

The mayor has indicated that 'Benidorm, Smart and Sustainable Tourist Destination' will bring specific results at a tourist level such as "greater competitiveness and improvement of tourism positioning; improvement of the tourist experience before, during and after the trip; increase in the quality of life of tourists and also of residents; improvement of universal accessibility; and improvement of connectivity between tourists, residents, companies and services. " But in addition, in the environmental field it will allow a management of the water quality of the beaches with a lower environmental impact, benefits in mobility and safety, and prevention through alerts; while at the economic and cultural level new employment niches are generated, the creation of new business models is encouraged, and trade, local industry and cultural and architectural heritage are given value for their preservation.

After ensuring that it is "an ambitious project" and with many possibilities of being selected, Pérez has insisted that Benidorm has been working and advancing for three years "in the digital transformation", and fundamentally in being "the first Smart Tourist Destination in the world" " At the moment, "we are one of the four cities where the UNE 178501 Standard of Management System for Intelligent Tourist Destinations" -the first of its category worldwide- has been successfully tested and passed. But in addition, Benidorm is "the only one that has certified its tourist intelligence system with the standard UNE 166006 R & D + i System: Technological Surveillance and Competitive Intelligence".

Likewise, "we are promoting the contribution of the incorporation of Smart Tourism and the functions required for a Smart Tourist Destination platform in the ITU - International Union of Technologies - as part of the MINETAD team of experts, together with the SESIAD - Secretariat of State for the Information Society and Digital Agenda "; and "actively participating in the definition of the new standard UNE 178502 of Indicators and Tools for Smart Tourist Destinations".

This is the second call of Red.es to which Benidorm is presented. Everything indicates that the Ministry will solve this call before summer.