Minister Maroto assures that the National Tourist Intelligence Center will place Benidorm at "the forefront of knowledge"

The Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, has assured today that the Smart Destination Platform and "a series of services associated with it" will materialize in 2023 at the National Tourist Intelligence Center, based in Benidorm. A centre that "will allow Benidorm, Spain, to become international reference destinations that are at the forefront of knowledge." The minister made these statements during the closing ceremony of the fifth edition of the Digital Tourist Congress, organized by Ametic, the employers' association of the Spanish digital industry, and which was held yesterday and today in the Assembly Hall of the City Council of Benidorm.
The closing ceremony was attended by, among others, the mayor, Toni Pérez; the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Gloria Calero; the sub-delegate Araceli Poblador; Adolfo Borrero, president of the Ametic Smart Cities Commission; and the president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez.
During her speech, the minister explained that "being the first certified DTI in the world" and "one of the holiday destinations with the greatest international projection" have made Benidorm the city chosen to host this National Tourist Intelligence Center, which will promote the Smart Destinations Platform.
Maroto has pointed out that the Platform, in addition to accelerating digital transformation, "will allow the Secretary of State for Tourism and Segittur" to have "a large volume of data and its processing in an aggregated manner in all destinations", which "will generate knowledge, collective intelligence and an analysis to improve competitiveness”. For the development of the Platform, the Ministry is going to launch a specific call for 108 million euros.
After the closing ceremony and in line with the minister's words, the mayor highlighted "the added value that Benidorm has brought and will bring precisely by having been the first certified Smart Tourist Destination (DTI) in the world", based on "a very demanding UNE standard", for which the city has been "audited four times, always exceeding with flying colours and continuously improving the results of the previous edition".
That certification, he has deepened, has been a "lever" for Benidorm to host the National Tourist Intelligence Center and become, by extension and hand in hand with the Spain brand, a "national and international reference" for "the knowledge of tourism, of the sector and digitization”.
Likewise, during the closing ceremony, it has also been confirmed that the city will host "the sixth edition of Digital Tourist", so that again in June 2023 Benidorm will be the place "where the knowledge and digital transformation of destinations are concentrated ” and “where dialogue and collaboration between public administrations and the tourism and technology sectors are established so that Spain continues to be a tourism leader”.