Tomorrow the reference meeting of smart tourist destinations starts : Digital Tourist

For two days, on October 15 and 16, in a hybrid, face-to-face and telematic format, the top sector managers from the business and public spheres of the digital tourism industry will meet in Benidorm to analyze the recovery and transformation of  Smart Tourist Destinations  after the impact of the pandemic.

The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, highlighted the importance of this third edition “which makes Benidorm meeting an international benchmark for the digital tourism industry and the administrations and organizations involved, due to the importance of the topics to be developed in the scheduled discussions ”.

In this sense, the congress program includes the analysis of all the key issues in the process in which DTIs are immersed: large DTI programs, applied resilience, security issues, flow management, support in Smart Tourism, cybersecurity, sustainability, applicable technology, World Heritage cities, smart tourism in Ibero-America and the debate on sustainable and inclusive urban development strategies (EDUSI).

The third Digital Tourist will be inaugurated by the Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, opening the hybrid format of this edition, one of the novelties, and the president of AMETIC, Pedro Mier, together with the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón and the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Francesc Colomer. The president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez Marín, and the general director of RED.es, David Cierco, will also participate in the institutional opening.

Adolfo Borrero, president of the AMETIC Smart Cities Commission, and Manuel Bellido, director of the Company's Agenda will welcome the meeting that will be introduced by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdés, in an online appearance.

The first of tomorrow's work sessions will focus on the “Large Digital Tourism Programs”, as a real showcase of the sector's situation, and will be moderated by Adolfo Borrero, including the exhibitions by Martínez Marín (Segittur) , Alejandro Banegas (Master Card), Enrique Serrano (MPT-Ametic) and John Mora (Smart Tourism-AMETIC).

At one in the afternoon the Plenary Meeting of the Network of Smart Tourist Destinations that traditionally accompanies, and this will be the third time, the Digital Tourist of Benidorm is scheduled. In hybrid format, mayors and the Secretary of State for Tourism will also participate.

Toni Pérez has highlighted, in the prelude to the congress that "this edition will be key to analyze the importance of digitization and smart tourism given the situations that the pandemic has generated in the sector." The mayor pointed out that "the questions raised in the discussion tables and the conclusions that we obtain will be basic points to be developed to move the sector forward in the coming months, with a view to 2021."

In Benidorm, the mayor emphasized, “we are going to deal with key issues: from the application of the new reconstruction funds to the highlights in technological applicability on destinations and beaches and resilient innovation, without forgetting sustainability issues under the prism of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda ”.

Another novelty, the mayor recalled, is that for the first time there will be a specific table for Smart Tourism in Latin America, in the line in which Benidorm is actively collaborating, with Segittur and through Visit Benidorm, as has happened in Montevideo, Buenos Aires or last week in Costa Rica, for the Caribbean countries.

This 2020 edition will also feature the delivery, tomorrow afternoon and under the presidency of the CEO of AMETIC Francisco Hortigüela, of the Digital Tourist Awards in its five categories: Innovation, Standardization, Sustainability, Data Economy and Smart Tourist Territory.