Benidorm takes part in the Smart Cities Challenge Conference promoted in Brussels by the European Commission

The Smart Cities Challenge Conference (ICC) and the Mayors and Businesses Forum promoted by the European Commission, which are being held today and tomorrow in Brussels, will feature Benidorm as one of the cities that will present its knowledge on efficient water management and the importance of tourism for local development as success stories to inspire other destinations that are making their transition towards a smarter and more sustainable tourism model. The mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, together with the manager of the Visit Benidorm Foundation, Leire Bilbao, and the executive director of Hosbec, Mayte García, as a representative of the local industry, are participating in this international event, which brings together more than 250 leaders from the main cities and companies that are part of the ICC; experts in urban development and transition; providers of green and digital technology solutions; academics and members of the European Commission itself.

The event, which takes place these two days, has among its main objectives to highlight the role of European Union cities and local businesses in the implementation of the European Green Deal and the new EU Clean Industrial Deal; to inspire with success stories of Local Green Deals (LGDs) and to pave the way for future joint actions between cities and industry.

In addition, with these meetings, the European Commission also aims to highlight the critical challenges and lessons learned by cities and local industry in their journey with Local Green Deals; to create a deep understanding of how to implement Local Green Deals on a larger scale; and finally, to contribute to the shaping of future EU policy, highlighting the importance of collaboration between cities and businesses to achieve sustainability and competitiveness goals.

“Benidorm has been working intensively for several years on many of these objectives and is an example in aspects such as monitoring water management, with one of the most efficient water networks in the world and a high percentage of reuse of treated water, but also in sustainable mobility, accessibility, environmental quality, integrated growth and management of tourist data,” said Toni Pérez. For this reason, the mayor stressed that “all this accumulated experience, as a Green Pioneer destination of Smart Tourism, makes us an example for other destinations or companies that are moving along this same path, to be greener and to be able to better adapt to the new climatic and environmental challenges.”

“In Benidorm we are leading innovation in the tourism sector under the strategy of sustainability and regeneration, enabling synergies between the private and public sectors to design our future,” said the mayor, who also referred to a quote from Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” For this reason, he considered that “collaboration between the private and public sectors in the green commitments determined by the European Commission is the basis of future competitiveness”.

In addition to the panels in which Benidorm will take part, the mayor will also meet during these two days with other mayors of European cities who are participating in the ICC Conference and the Mayors and Businesses Forum to share experiences and knowledge that can be replicated in the daily management of the city. “Cities are potential spaces for leadership in innovation and municipalities like Benidorm have added value: here the city is the destination and, as such, we are a great centre of economic activity, generation of knowledge, innovation and change”.

For this reason, Pérez has highlighted that “sharing practices with 100 other cities in this project is an opportunity to learn and discover, but also to project our brand, Benidorm, beyond the leading destination in the tourism industry, since our city is already recognised in Europe for its land management and the sustainability of our model” to remember that “forums such as this one or the recent recognition as Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism by the European Commission prove that we are on the right track”.