Toni Pérez, at the Greencities forum: "What is done in Benidorm is projected to the big cities"

This morning, in Malaga, at the Greencities Forum, which is the benchmark meeting for all the agents involved in the construction of smart and sustainable cities in Spain, the mayor of Benidorm spoke at the debate table on Smart Tourist Destinations and the way to address the situation generated by Covid19.

Toni Pérez stressed that "intelligence, technology and sustainability have been the central lines of action of Benidorm" in this process in which we are still immersed. A crisis situation that the mayor of Benidorm pointed out as "breaking with all known crises in the tourism sector." And faced with this situation, Pérez explained, "Benidorm has worked on resilience and offered responses that we have developed to address this circumstance with solidity".

Benidorm has exhibited its performance on the beaches through the 'Benidorm Beach Safety' program -safe beaches, for everyone and every day-, which the mayor defined as “a very attractive project that has had a very important return in its operation and on the technological platform ”, which has been widely attended at the discussion table.

The mayor also presented the initiatives developed by Benidorm in mobility and sustainability adopted by the city in this period, highlighting "the interest shown in the sustainable and safe mobility work that we have been developing in the last five years", highlighting that "in This chapter of the new re-dimensioning of the urban scene, in Benidorm's universal accessibility project, fits many of the proposals that are now beginning to move and launch large cities in Spain and Europe, which is satisfactory for us ”. Thus, the mayor pointed out that in these initiatives that Benidorm is developing "the WHO is now influencing them and many cities are working in them now."

Finally, the mayor explained the latest initiative undertaken by this city, the first certified Smart Tourist Destination in the world: the safe corridors proposal 'Benidorm Island', highlighting that "it has produced great interest to know what Benidorm does to try that by governments the generation of this fundamental safe corridor for the economic reactivation of the future is taken care of ”.

For the development of the debate, in which the president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez Marín, participated together with the mayor of Benidorm; the Malaga tourism councilor, Rosa Sánchez; the managing director of the Valencia Tourism Foundation, Antinio Bernabé; the sustainability strategist of Oslo Smart Office, Katarina Torstensson, and the mayor of Lyon tourism, Victoire Goust, the mayor highlighted “the joint interest in Benidorm initiatives”, highlighting that “Benidorm returns from the Greencities forum with the assurance of having succeeded with the strategy it develops on its Strategic City Plan, which it has been promoting since 2015 ”.

Greencities is a forum in which institutions, public administrations, companies and professionals project the cities of the future from a humanistic vision of the digital society, connecting projects and obtaining inspiration in which more than twenty mayors -among them Zaragoza, Valencia , Santander, Bilbao, Murcia, Córdoba, Lugo, Valladolid and Logroño, together with Benidorm, have exposed the achievements developed during this pandemic situation, influencing the economic reactivation and the resilience capacity of cities based on the 2030 agenda and within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Participants have indicated their positions, especially in the field of smart cities, debating future issues, applying the experience gained and developing the key chapter of alliances to redesign the future of cities, "where Benidorm has reflected its route ”, concluded the mayor.