The 9th edition of the Digital Tourist congress will bring together agents from both industries in the city to address the opportunities of technology in the service of tourism
Benidorm will once again host the main national meeting on tourism digitalization on May 7th and 8th
Rafael Doménech Pardo Auditorium at Benidorm Cultural Centre will host the leading players in the technology and tourism industries next week for the ninth edition of the Digital Tourist Congress, where they will discuss and explore the opportunities that technology offers to destinations. The city's mayor, Toni Pérez, presented all the details of the event this Thursday. The congress is organised by Ametic, the Spanish digital technology sector's employers' association, along with its CEO, Celestino García, and the vice president of the Smart Cities Commission, John Mora. All three agreed that over its previous editions, Digital Tourist has become "a benchmark in the field of tourism digitalisation" and that, with it, Benidorm will once again become "a reference point and showcase for the sector."
The mayor emphasised the importance of the tourism industry as "the country's main economic and social engine" and recalled the city's firm commitment to the technological transformation of the destination for over a decade, since the roadmap for certification as the world's first Smart Tourism Destination (STD) under the UNE 178501 standard was initiated, a certification obtained in 2018. He highlighted that Benidorm and Digital Tourist have gone "practically hand in hand" since its first edition, held that same year, and referred to this congress as "the major event where these two industries join forces to continue advancing in what has become a spearhead for the Spanish technology industry: tourism."
“Talking about tourism, intelligence, management, technology, and innovation in tourism—which is what we'll be doing these next few days—talking about all of this in Spain is talking about it for the world,” he added, “because on May 7th and 8th, the whole world will be looking towards Benidorm and what's happening in Spanish technology linked to tourism, given the strength of this industry.”
The mayor concluded by wishing “that this ninth edition will be as successful as all the previous ones” and that the “alliance between Benidorm and Ametic, which makes this event possible, will lead to many more years of meeting at this event.”
This new edition of Digital Tourist will bring together around 500 participants from both industries and will focus especially on the managing bodies of tourist destinations, under the motto ‘Smart DMO: Infrastructure, data, and intelligence to compete’. Ametic's CEO, Celestino García, explained that data management and the integration of technology for real-time decision-making are "essential elements for the competitiveness of our destinations." He reminded attendees that "today's tourist is a digital tourist, more informed, more connected, and with higher expectations, and our destinations must be prepared to respond to this reality with smarter, more innovative, and better-integrated solutions."
Therefore, as John Mora, Vice President of the Smart Cities Commission, also explained, after four editions focusing the program on the development of the Smart Destinations Platform (PID) promoted by Segittur, based in Benidorm and set to begin generating content shortly, this edition aims to "focus the content on those who will be the clients, the users of this PID, which are the destination management entities," specifically the Visit Benidorm Foundation.
Thus, the congress aims to analyze and offer tools to these ‘DMOs’ and will also include in its program other of the most current issues within the technological and tourism landscape, such as digital twins, generative artificial intelligence, agentic artificial intelligence, the latest developments related to the application of technology in accessibility or the new destination alliances that are emerging in our country, such as the urban destinations network.
Program
The congress will begin on May 7th and, according to the program, will bring together Francisco Hortigüela, president of Ametic; Rosario Sánchez Grau, Secretary of State for Tourism at the Ministry of Industry and Tourism; Toni Pérez, mayor of Benidorm and president of the Alicante Provincial Council; and Juanfran Pérez Llorca, president of the Valencian Regional Government, at the opening ceremony. Following the official opening, and over the course of two days, the program will feature panel discussions, presentations, and working meetings with representatives from public institutions and private companies. The agenda can be found on the website (link) enlace
In this edition, Aragon will be the autonomous community participating in the congress as a guest. Additionally, a new edition of the Digital Tourist Awards will be held to recognise projects that are setting trends in the digitalisation of tourism, in six different categories: Tourism Intelligence System (TIS); Tourism Flow Management and Digital Twins; Immersive Technologies; Sustainability and Regenerative Tourism; Tourism Accessibility and Social Sustainability; and finally, Digital Destination Governance, as explained by John Mora.
In addition to representatives from destinations, management bodies, and tourism-related institutions, various tourism and technology companies such as Orange, Telefónica, Vodafone, Mastercard, and Microsoft, among others, will also participate as speakers.
Promote internationalization
Following the consolidation of this event and given the growing importance of the Spanish technology industry in the tourism sector, Ametic's next challenge is "to project the capabilities of our industry internationally, promoting the internationalization of our technology companies in collaboration with ICEX Spain Export and Investment and SEGITTUR, to transfer this successful model to other markets and reinforce Spain's global positioning as a leader in smart tourism," as Celestino García pointed out.
Finally, he noted that the tourism industry employs “more than three million people, representing over 13% of total employment, and contributes around 13% to GDP, generating over €218 billion in wealth. But when we add to that the fact that the Spanish digital technology sector generated over €138 billion in revenue in 2024, grew by 5.6%, and employs nearly 723,000 people, we understand that when tourism and digitalisation work hand in hand, the potential impact on our economy is truly transformative.”
