Benidorm Smart Destination

A lot has been said about the immense impact that information and knowledge society is generating at all levels in human activities, whether they are social, cultural, economic and, within them, of course, Tourism.

Thus, within the already denominated 4th industrial revolution, tourism industry is compelled to develop and adapt to the new traveller profile, now hyper linked and interactive, in order to offer them integral, flexible and tailored products, services and experiences.

In this sense, Benidorm, the city, the destination, this administration, has boarded the train of Smart Cities through the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI, in its Spanish acronym) which is committed to technological solutions for their digital transformation, and becoming an Innovation and Technology Laboratory that serves to be configured as a Smart Destination, in accordance with the new UNE 178501 of Intelligent Tourist Destinations Management System (SGDTI, in its Spanish acronym).

Benidorm has marked the road map with a Management Plan for the years 2015-2020, which aims to transform the city into a Smart Destination.

At this time, and thanks to the efforts and actions already undertaken, Benidorm has reached the following milestones:

1. Benidorm is one of the unique four cities where the the UNE 178501 of Intelligent Tourist Destinations Management System has been tested; first regulation in its category worldwide.
2. Is the only city that has certified its tourist intelligence system according to the regulation UNE 166006 R&D System: Technological Supervision and Competitive Intelligence.
3. It is promoting the inclusion of tourist intelligence and the required functions for a Smart Destination platform in the International Technologies Union (ITU, in its Spanish acronym) as part of the experts team of the MINETAD, together with the Secretary of State for Information Society and Digital Agenda (SESIAD, in its Spanish acronym).
4. We actively participate in the new definition of the UNE 178502 regulation: Indicators and Tools for the Smart Destinations.
5. It is the first municipality joining the Virtual Interoperability Laboratory, new working group in the CTN 178 Smart Cities.
6. We have participated as an interested party in the preparation of the new National Plan of Intelligent Territories with the SESIAD.

From the Town Hall of Benidorm we began to take the steps towards a smart destination from tourist strategy and tourism intelligence to move towards a new model of innovative, accessible and sustainable destination. The management, is therefore a transformation element of the tourist destination to face changes of a complex tourist scenario, for competitors, tourists themselves as well as commercialization channels, etc.

Having a structured information system that facilitates understanding of tourists and helps creating the product and the promotion of the destination, has been and remains one of the main priorities of the city, thanks to the public-private collaboration of Fundación Turismo Benidorm and the Tourism Department, we manage to cover the tourist journey cycle.

Now, we show its QUALITY POLICY in relation to the management system of the Smart Destination.

“Transform Benidorm into a Smart Destination; efficient and sustainable able to offer intelligent services with a high value added to its citizens, vacation residents and occasional tourists and committed to comply with applicable legal requirements or other in relation to the axes of governance, innovation, accessibility, technology and sustainability set in the UNE 178501 regulation and continuously improving the efficiency  of the smart destinations management system.

Intended targets are:

1. Enhancing competitiveness in the town, through innovative actions applied to the Smart Destination.
2. Work on the Benidorm Smart Destination model enabling economic, social and environmental development of the town.
3. Adapting and facilitating the information and facilities of both municipal and tourist services to make them accessible to everyone.

Benidorm Smart Destination

“Convert to Benidorm in an Intelligent Tourist Destination, efficient and sustainable that offers intelligent services of high value added to his citizens, resident vacacionales and occasional tourists and engages  to fulfil with the legal applicable requirements or of another type in relation to the axes of gobernanza, innovation, accessibility, technological and sustainability collected in the norm JOINS 178501 and improve continuously the efficiency of the system of management of intelligent tourist destinations”

The Aims that pretend  are:

1. Position Benidorm like Intelligent Tourist Destination and Sustainable leader, inside the frame of reference of the intelligent territories to national and international level.
2. Define a management through the tourist intelligence, so that it help us to develop proposals that do to increase to the maximum the experience of the tourist, the quality of life of the citizen, taking advantage of the data, the information and taking advantage of the “Big Dates” and the communications to facilitate, expand, customise and connect the existent offer.
3. Creation of a forum of meeting, query, impulse and permanent advice that participate in the decisions and performances carried out by the City council and that affect to the municipality of Benidorm like DTI.
4. Improve the competitiveness of the place, by means of innovative actions applied to the Intelligent Tourist Destination.
5. Work the model of Benidorm DTI so that it allow the economic development, social and environmental of the municipality of Benidorm.
6. Adapt and facilitate the information and the so much municipal installations as of the tourist services to do them accessible for all.