The Digital Tourist awards recognize Benidorm for the Smart Cube digital platform

The 9th Digital Tourist Congress, held yesterday and today in Benidorm, recognised the city council yesterday afternoon in the category of Environmental Tourism Sustainability: Regenerative Tourism for its Physical-Digital Platform ‘Smart Cube’. The award was accepted by the Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, who emphasised that “innovation and sustainability are two very important pillars upon which our strategy as a destination and as a city is based, and that is why we always collaborate and lend a hand to projects and alliances that promote them.” The Honourable Mention in this category went to Costa Blanca Tour Services for its digital platform for sustainable tourism based on real data and carbon footprint reduction.

As for the other categories, the Digital Governance in Destination Award (DMOs Award) went to Turismo de Aragón, and the Honourable Mention went to Turismo, Comercio y Promoción Económica de Salamanca. In the category of Innovation in Tourism Flow Management and Digital Twins, the award went to Nealis Tech for the Valencia Smart Destination Platform. In the category of Tourism Accessibility and Social Sustainability, Deusens Hyperxperience SL won the award for ‘Dive into Heritage’, a digital platform for exploring UNESCO World Heritage sites. An Honourable Mention was given to Soluciones de Movilidad Especiales SL (Solmes) for the Park4Dis project: inclusive Park & ​​Ride in the tourism sector.

The award in the Smart Tourism System category was received by the Regional Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport of the Junta de Castilla y León for the Smart Destination Cohesion Platform, and an Honourable Mention was awarded to the Fuengirola City Council for the Fuengirola 360 project. Finally, in the category of Use of Immersive Technologies, the La Adrada City Council won the award with the project ‘The Footprints of Paper in La Adrada’. The Honourable Mention in this category went to Deusens Hiperxperience for Fuga de Hierro — MUNOA VR Escape Room.

Also within the framework of Digital Tourist, Benidorm received certification for the quality of its mobile and fixed connectivity, achieving a "very good" rating after passing the evaluation and audit by the specialised company MedUx. After receiving the "Urban Digital Connectivity" certificate, the mayor stated that "after this measurement process, we know where we stand so that we can design and plan improvement actions to achieve excellence and, with it, the best digital experience."

Following today's roundtables and discussions, the congress concluded with the closing ceremony. There, Adolfo Borrero, president of the Smart Cities Commission of Ametic, predicted "limitless prospects thanks to technology" and advocated for "continuing to move forward in this direction, as the data indicates." Francisco Hortigüela, president of Ametic, expressed his growing satisfaction and enthusiasm that Spain is leading the world in tourism, attributing this success to the collaboration between the tourism and digitalisation industries, as well as the partnership between the public and private sectors. "We are all working towards the same goal," he concluded.

The event was closed by Mayor Toni Pérez, who expressed his hope that Digital Tourist would "continue generating content to ensure that tourist destinations are solid and credible." He also stated that this congress "creates ambassadors of tourism, 'PID lovers,' and 'benilovers.'" Pérez concluded by presenting Manuel Bellido, the journalist who hosted the congress, with the city's insignia.