Toni Pérez: "DTI has enabled us to better manage of the pandemic"

The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, participated yesterday afternoon in the discussion on digitization in destinations and companies in the face of the new era of tourism. This panel closed the eighth edition of the National Tourism Forum for tourism entrepreneurs and professionals, Futurismo 2021, which was held in Tenerife and could be followed by streaming.

This second day has focused on connectivity issues on tourist destinations, the prediction of risks in those destinations, the applicability of Artificial Intelligence in the sector and the digitization of tourist destinations.

Toni Pérez has shared a panel with the Minister of Tourism of Tenerife, David Pérez, and the managing director of Canary Islands Tourism, Juan José Lorenzo, as well as with the directors of NH Hoteles, Pedro Molleda, PwC Spain, Cayetano Soler, and Spring HG , Raúl Domínguez. He has led and moderated the debate Antonio López, CEO of Tourism Data Driven Solution. Minutes before this final session, Benidorm received the Mencey Futurist Honorary Award for the most intelligent Pioneer Tourist Destination in Spain that Futurismo Canarias 2021 has awarded.

And the experiences of Benidorm have gravitated a good part of the examples outlined as prominent in the debate on the need to digitize destinations and companies to win the future.

Pérez pointed out at the beginning that "digitization has helped a lot in Benidorm" to manage the situation. He stressed that "the transition to DTI provided added value" which, he insisted, corroborated by the Canarian members of the panel, "has been decisive." In this sense, he added that "the much done was increased with the analysis and treatment of the data."

The mayor reviewed the treatment of information since the first weeks of 2020 and the management since March 13 that led to organizing the closure of hotels from the 15th and from the 18th, we were locked down, anticipating to national measures and enabling the logistics of the transfer to their countries of origin of the tourists who were here. Pérez praised, also in this forum, the decision of a sector such as the hotelier "that put the health of tourists and workers above economic matters."

After that introduction, the participants pointed out the need to introduce digital culture in companies and destinations, highlighting the mayor of Benidorm the importance of introducing tools to monitor reality and with them to be able to make decisions in real time. As an example, he put Benidorm Beach Safety platform for beach management, enabling "safe beaches, for everyone and every day", maintaining capacity and physical security measures that made possible "more than 43,000 users in one day and up to 2.5 million in the operating period ”.

Building a new ecosystem for tourism where digitization is the factor of the paradigm shift was a proposal by the members of the panel, reviewing the tourist's commitment to this digitization in their day-to-day life, keeping in mind, all agreed, that they did not there are destinations without tourists, knowing that it is the tourists, the clients, who also provide the clues to pivot strategies and define the products.

The commitment to the data that is made in Benidorm through the Smart Office and the analyzes generated by Visit Benidorm was praised, pointing out the need to address the temporality of the data because, the speakers agreed, the models they generate are very changeable. Hence, the need to have teams that know how to interpret them and enable effective decisions in the political and business classes for the most effective management of destinations, from the premise that the data has real business value. And the data capture or the facilitation of the use of systems to provide the data with the open Wi-Fi Network for the beaches of Benidorm entered the fray.

Unanimous was the proposal to optimize resources to the maximum attending to digitization and sustainability, knowing that both issues will influence consumer decision-making.

In this regard, Benidorm once again led the approaches taking into account its sustainability plans and the basis of its initial planning. Tomi Pérez pointed out that “sustainability has been in Benidorm's DNA since the late 1950s”, highlighting that more than half of the municipal area is protected. The same happened with the accessibility plans "looking for a territory of quality in all aspects," said Pérez, highlighting both issues - sustainability and accessibility - as keys when it comes to continuing to attract more conscious and demanding generations about both realities. The mayor even raised to consider "both social and economic sustainability in the new paradigm of Tourism."

The panel then debated the need to communicate the new reality offered by destinations and companies from the point of view that tourists will require more significant experiences, all betting on the tangential nature of this reality.

In the final minutes of the debate, on the issue of sustainability, both the water management of Benidorm and the application of Artificial Intelligence to the processes were praised as well as the suitability of the compact city for the comprehensive management of the services it offers, he highlighted the mayor, "clear advantages and net benefits in the management of water and waste, as well as energy efficiency in terms of sustainability and even mobility."

The pandemic, Pérez concluded, “has highlighted many of the good design issues in Benidorm and to that we have added technology, the ability to acquire knowledge, take advantage of talent and rely on co-governance to better channel synergies”.

Funds Next Generation  

It was one of the pillars of the debate, pointing out the need to have well-defined projects, aligned with the strategic plans -which all destinations should already have- and well worked and argued to be able to adapt them to the various calls that will come out.

Pérez pointed out that "the Netx Generation funds are the instrument to achieve the projects" and that Benidorm "works on them by integrating them into the DTI + Safe Roadmap, waiting the call for those instruments to implement the necessary speed". But also the mayor of Benidorm pointed out "the ability to combine public-private management" that the participants in the conference considered key. And, finally, he elaborated on “the need for them to be aligned with the five DTI axes, the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda” under the premise of “becoming a Strategic City Plan.

The speakers agreed with the premises put forward and set in motion by Benidorm.

Speakers

From Tenerife Tourism, David Pérez highlighted the need to advance more in all fields with digital culture and how fundamentally the new reality of each destination will be. The managing director of Canary Islands Tourism, Juan José Lozano, insisted on the commitment to sustainability of the destinations as a new responsibility, insisting that vocation will not be enough. Raúl Rodríguez, from Spring Hotel Group, raised the need to always be attentive to customer trends because we are in competition with global leisure players. Pedro Molleda, for NH Hoteles, positioned himself on the need to capture demand and retain customers by attending to the management and analysis of data, noting that the customer values, in addition to price, innovation and sustainability because now it is more digital. Finally, Cayetano Soler, from PwC Spain, chose to understand technology and tourism as the perfect combo, arguing that technology increasingly influences consumer behavior, while recommending considering sustainability as a brand value. The Next Generation Funds chapter was extensively analyzed by PwC Spain.

Final conclusions

The table moderated by López de Ávila in which the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, who closed Futurismo Canarias 2021, concluded that competitiveness is going to focus from now on digitization and sustainability; that it will be necessary to learn to manage more complex systems in which public-private synergies will have to be better channeled for the benefit of all; that digitization is an opportunity to be more competitive and efficient and that the training of the Administration will be fundamental in this new paradigm that is post-Covid tourism for which not everyone is prepared.