Benidorm presents 'Benidorm DTI Challenge Guide' that consolidates the municipality at the forefront of Smart and Sustainable Governance

Benidorm City Council has presented today the 'Benidorm DTI Challenges Guide', a document that was born from the participatory processes with key actors and experts who took part in the first 'Boot Camp Surfea Benidorm DTI' last summer and that allows combining the five strategic axes of the DTI (Governance, Technology, Innovation, Accessibility, and Sustainability) with the challenges established by the Managing Body of the municipality.

The presentation took place today in the Mayor's office by the mayor, Toni Pérez, and has been prepared and coordinated by Fernando Molina, director of Innovation and Research of the SDTI-4H Hub.

Pérez has pointed out that the success achieved with this Guide is based "on applying public-private collaboration effectively, with groups of experts, because Benidorm must be a reference in everything related to the DTI". In this sense, he recalled that the city "is already a use case for Spanish tourism and a world reference model".

'Benidorm DTI Challenges Guide' identifies the challenges to work on in the coming years, something that has been "quite a challenge". "It is the result" he continued "of a practical learning environment on real daily work situations of a DTI like Benidorm for professionals involved in the development and implementation of the DTI".

The guide presented today incorporates five challenges: 360 visibility in all phases of the trip; data sharing spaces with information on tourists, the destination, and companies; how to be a benchmark for neutral, diverse, and inclusive tourism; standardization of the DTI and smart tourism systems and, finally, financing by the Next Generation funds of the European Union.

The mayor highlighted that last November the data from the compliance audit of the DTI axes was received and these reflected "that we are on the right track and we exceed 80% at all levels". For this reason, he has emphasized: "we are the spearhead in innovation and sets the standard for other DTIs".

Fernando Molina, for his part, recalled that in 2018 Benidorm took the first step by achieving certification as DTI, the first in the world, "and today the city is a world benchmark that others want to copy." Molina explained that in the process of preparing the guide "we put forward actions and proposals for the DTI Management Entity to validate them later and to include them in the Master Plan. In the end there were 13 proposals”.

Toni Pérez has added that "Benidorm is a vanguard in many of the challenges that arise" and has stressed that the public administration "must also apply the ethics of data and make it available to society". He also highlighted that the fact of being a DTI "very consolidated in its certification" directly affects "the reputational value of the city, which is present in any national or international forum. That is not surpassed by any European or national fund”.

At that point, the mayor revealed that "from many kilometers away, many people, experts, and professionals, come to find out what is being done in Benidorm."

Benidorm DTI Challenges Guide can be downloaded free of charge from the web page inteligenciaturistica.com