Benidorm will host DigitalTourist'18, the first Digital Industry Forum for DTI

Benidorm will host the DigitalTourist'18, the first Forum of the Digital Industry focused on Tourism, and more specifically on the Smart Tourist Destinations (DTI). This congress, organized by AMETIC (1) and to be held from October 15 to 17, has presented today in Santander in the framework of the 32nd Meeting of the Digital Economy and Telecommunications. The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, took part in the presentation; the general director of AMETIC, Maite Gómez; the president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez; and the president of AMETIC's Smartcities, Adolfo Borrero.

The mayor indicated that "the fact that Benidorm is in the process of transformation to become the first certified Smart Tourism Destination in the world, including in our roadmap the opening of the city as a Lab of innovation and technology, has been decisive so that AMETIC chooses our city to celebrate this congress ", since" in situ the participants will be able to see and evaluate the operation and results that are being given by the technological applications that we have already implemented ".

The DigitalTourist'18 will be held at Hotel Villaitana, where the tourism sector, administrations and the technology industry will meet. During two days, more than 300 professionals and leaders of the digital tourism ecosystem and more than 30 innovators and creatives in this field will discuss smart tourism destinations through round tables and presentations.

Among the recurring themes of the congress will be: the challenges facing Spanish tourist destinations in the midst of the digital revolution, the intelligent transformation of tourism in Spain, the possibilities of mobility thanks to technology or public policies in this area, such as those defined both in the "National Smart Territories Plan" and in the "Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy" (EDUSI), where tourism plays a very prominent role.

In addition, the most relevant initiatives of administrations and companies that are currently being developed in Spain will be shown, including those implemented in the last two years in Benidorm linked to the DTI objective.

Similarly, during the course of DigitalTourist'18, will be held the 'VIII Plenary of the Network of Urban Initiatives (RIU)', composed of more than 150 Spanish municipalities that have mostly been beneficiaries of the EDUSI Plan of the Ministry of Finance It is endowed with 1,400 million euros. In the case of Benidorm, the city has received a grant of 10 million euros for the development of its EDUSI.

The mayor said that "this DigitalTourist'18 will take place in a week that, without a doubt, will be key to the future of tourism management and will serve to consolidate, even more, the commitment to position ourselves as the first Smart Tourist Destination ", since" this congress organized by AMETIC will be the prelude to our XIX International Tourism Forum, which will focus on 'smart data' and its management for the improvement of tourist destinations and experience tour".

Relevance of the tourism sector

Spain is the second tourist destination worldwide, with 82 million tourists in 2017 who made an expenditure of 87,000 million euros. The number of tourists traveling to Spain has grown by 25 million people in the last five years and the upward trend could cause the tourism sector to reach a weight of 20% of the national GDP.

Aware of the references of the Spanish digital tourism industry, which are being exported to many countries, especially Latin America, DigitalTourist'18 will deal with the processes and opportunities of internationalization of the Digital Industry that AMETIC represents.

AMETIC - Multisectorial Association of Companies of Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies, Telecommunications and Digital Content - is the employer of the Spanish digital and technological sector.