Benidorm begins its European Union Smart Cities challenge

Benidorm has begun its journey after being selected to join the prestigious Smart Cities Challenge support program, an initiative promoted by the European Commission (DG GROW and EISME) along with 99 other European destinations. The journey is two years and during it, a strategy will be created to develop innovative solutions that will place Benidorm at the forefront of the double green and digital transition through Local Green Agreements.

Benidorm will be one of the 31 new cities that are integrated into the European Network of Smart Cities, made up of a hundred towns on the continent after the new incorporations. For this reason, a presentation was held today at City Hall whose objective was to publicize the procedure that smart cities follow to present their success stories.
The ICC program will help cities harness the power of the most advanced technologies, improving their economic competitiveness, social resilience, and quality of life for European citizens. Benidorm will receive a high-quality personalized guide, expert support, access to advisory networks and peer cities, and capacity development tools, to bring the city closer to the double transition.

The presentation was given by Dolores Ordóñez, director of AnySolution, who will be the expert on the program that accompanies the city in said project. The goal, she indicated, is “to reach zero emissions.” Ordóñez has also specified that the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is a two-year program “with milestones that are already marked on the calendar” and that “can help cities address the ecological and digital transition in various sectors.”

Mayor Toni Pérez has welcomed this participation in ICC and has indicated that “we seek to improve our competitiveness, promote inclusive growth and improve the quality of life of Benidorm residents”, promoting a “healthier, greener, sustainable and more inclusive” city. In this regard, Pérez has elaborated that being present in this biannual initiative means "accessing the resources, knowledge, and experience provided by the European Commission to effectively implement technology that will contribute to green, smart, and sustainable growth."

Furthermore, he highlighted, that Benidorm "will be able to benefit from the synergies and exchange of knowledge, experiences and solutions" with other cities that participated in the previous edition of this initiative and also with those that do so in this one, adapting projects to their needs. or initiatives tested successfully in other European municipalities and destinations.

When defending its candidacy in this initiative, Benidorm has made use of all the work and progress made in recent years in terms of sustainability and innovation, which began with the development of its strategic plan, which has been consolidated with certification as DTI. and with the development of sectoral plans such as the Action Plan for Climate and Sustainable Energy (PACES), among many others.

Members of the local corporation attended this meeting with the mayor Toni Pérez and the Councilor for Innovation, Aida García Mayor, at the head, the manager of Visit Benidorm, Leire Bilbao, and representatives of Tourism Intelligence, Hosbec, Invattur, CDT and tourism sector in general.