Toni Pérez highlights the vector of innovation "to get to where people are and consolidate a destination"
Benidorm analyzes the metaverse as an innovative opportunity for the tourism sector
Francesc Colomer is committed to "being technocritical" and that "journeys continue being the reason for tourism"
Benidorm has celebrated today in the morning a busy working day focused on the analysis and projection for the world of Tourism of the most innovative of technological tools: the metaverse.
First thing in the morning, the XXI Benidorm International Tourism Forum was inaugurated by the mayor, Toni Pérez, in a turn of interventions together with the president of Hosbec, Toni Mayor; the vice-dean of the University of Alicante, Maria Paz Such; and the director of the Costa Blanca Tourist Board; Jose Mancebo.
Pérez pointed out the suitability of the proposal that is the focus of the forum this year, the metaverse, highlighting that "by 2025, in just three years, forecasts suggest that 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day on the metaverse."
He recalled that Benidorm "has started in the experience with BenidormLand" and continues to advance in the formulas for developing the experience, anticipating the process, "because innovation, avant-garde and brand positioning are very present in Benidorm's DNA. and the product”.
The mayor asked, at the beginning of the day, "to open the mind to know the other side of a world that is ours", asking everyone to "enter fully into the metaverse to discover its great opportunities".
In the conclusions, the director of the 'Pedro Zaragoza Orts' chair, Armando Ortuño, pointed out that after the three round tables "the conviction is clear that the metaverse is going to encourage travel, generate new jobs and mean new and varied opportunities for the tourism sector”.
Already at the closing, the regional secretary of Tourism, Francesc Colomer, praised the behavior of Benidorm, a "permanent laboratory of social innovation" and stressed that with this initiative around the metaverse "the sector has decided to go further and leave its zone of comfort” because, he insisted, “there is no Plan B for innovation” and this is a very innovative bet” that planets “a paradigm shift”, for which “he opted to be techno-critical” and claim, at the same time, “ the value of the emotional and experiential”. Colomer asked to "identify spaces of human exclusivity" and that "the trip continues to be our reason for being because tourism is sensations".
Closing the twenty-first Benidorm International Tourism Forum, Mayor Toni Pérez highlighted "the opportunity to approach, learn, control and not forget who we are, and what we do, despite the opportunity of the metaverse" and asked the sector "to continue offering happiness and personal attention” without neglecting this new technological opportunity.
Benidorm has started the BenidormLand experience and continues to learn and innovate to consolidate the destination through scalable formulas for all tourist destinations.
For the development of this forum, the Chair of Tourism Studies 'Pedro Zaragoza Orts' of the University of Alicante, has had speakers of the level of Natalia Bayona, director of Innovation, Education and Investment of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Yaiza Rubio, from Telefonica's Metaverse Officer, together with developers and experts such as Alberto Lozano Porral (SIX 3d), Miguel Jaureguizar Francés (Renta 4 Banco), Héctor Paz (Imascono), Loreto Pérez (Spazious), Cristina Hernández ( Hotelverse) and Brian Vertone (Virtual Walcon).
The panels have been moderated by Jimmy Pons, from RoundCubers; Federico Fuster, Vice President of the Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community, Hosbec and Leire Bilbao, Managing Director of Visit Benidorm.
