Benidorm advances in its transition towards the Smart Tourist Destination

The transition from Benidorm to Smart Tourist Destination has given this morning a new step with the work meeting held in the Mayor's office with the different organisms and entities involved in the conversion process. In addition to Mayor Toni Pérez and Leire Bilbao, from VisitBenidorm, the General Director of Tourism of the Valencian Community, Raquel Huete, was present at the meeting; Ricardo Blanco, area chief of the Sustainable Development area of ​​the General Subdirectorate for Development and Sustainability, Luis Javier Gadea, R & D Manager of Segittur, Edurne Vidal and Celia Romeo, responsible for DTI.

Today's meeting has served to continue with the work that has been done since the first of the year on the development of the Smart Tourism Destination (DTI) by the Secretary of State for Tourism and Tourism of the Region of Valencia. The project is now started by the State Society for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technologies (Segittur) implementing two lines of work aimed at applying a Tourist Smart System methodologically, and have a tool that in the future serves to better manage the project, according to Leire Bilbao.

The mayor, Toni Pérez, defended the bet that Benidorm is making for the digital transformation, underlining that "the governance of the tourist destination that is Benidorm has never only looked at the tourist", and points out that "there is no destination possibly in the world in that the relationship between the city and the neighborhood is as important everyday as the one offered by Benidorm with respect to tourists. Some think, -he added-, that governance or better management of resources, have the objective of being more efficient in the economic resources we use and I believe that within governance, the fundamental thing is that each neighbor of Benidorm knows that the transformation of your city into Smart Tourist Destination, is a direct benefit for them far superior to the one that as administration we can obtain in the improvement of the resources. This work, -concludes-, will be the success of all. "

Ricardo Blanco, meanwhile, welcomed the collaboration of Benidorm City Council for its support for the pilot project of Smart Tourist Destination "consisting," he explained, "to enable a toolbox that serves fo managers of tourism municipalities know better how tourism development models work, make them more sustainable, more innovative, incorporate technology, improve accessibility and, in the end, have a better government involved in what is the usual tourist management of a tourist destination ".

He indicated that the pilot process that will be developed with Benidorm, will also be carried out in the city of León and with the Monfragüe Biosphere Reserve and with all the municipalities that are grouped there. As he said, the intention "is to compare the different vehicles that participate in this bet of the destinations by Smart Tourism and check the toolbox that is made available to them". He explained that "these tools will allow us to better know the tourist demand, make the destination more accessible, improve their mobility and all those variables that the tourist perceives in the visit, in trips and in stays that condition the choice of the destination" . The Deputy Director General of Development and Sustainability concluded that "what we want is to gain loyalty through Smart Tourist Destination method, to better understand that demand and help the destinations to build loyalty with the maximum cooperation of the State, the autonomies and local governments" .

Luis Javier Gadea, manager of R + D + i of Segittur, highlighted in turn that "this work will allow us to learn a lot from Benidorm and the Valencian Community and thus help the rest of destinations. We think, "he added," that more than a project, it is an opportunity to strengthen smart destinations collaboration network. With this we will achieve more competitive destinations, improvements for tourists and for people who live in them. "