The Catalan Tourist Board, ARCTUR & NEST participated in the Tourism Innovation Summit (TIS) to present the project for tourism companies from November 2nd to 4th in Seville.
Blanca Cros i Moll from the Catalan Tourist Board and Urska Starc Peceny from Arctur, attended the session “Challenges and enablers for destinations to uptake digitalisation”, where they presented the Digital Readiness Index (DRI) self assessment tool Tourbit project has developed to support tourism SMEs to know their digital maturity level and to get recommendations for improvement.
On the other hand, NEST Centro de Inovação do Turismo, represented by Marta Salvador, participated in the Touristech Startup Fest, sharing experiences and promoting tech and sustainable solutions for tourism with 4 Portuguese Startups HandyHostel, Xplora, ZOOMGUIDE and noytrall.
Tourism Innovation Summit is aimed helping tourism and travel industry to face all short and long-term challenges such as the reactivation of the sector, sustainability, and the digitalisation of the economy. Throughout the event, tourism professionals and digital experts presented ideas, solutions and methodologies to face the challenges of the future through technological tools.
Tourbit for the digitalisation of tourism SMEs in TIS
Along the Tourism Innovation Summit, agents related to tourism and digital experts helped in the development and implementation of different strategies for the improvement and modernization of the sector. The session “Challenges and enablers for destinations to uptake digitalisation” was about providing concrete solutions to enable destinations and tourism SMEs to become more resilience, optimise commercialisation processes, deliver a more effective marketing, turn data into intelligence and compete globally by embracing digitalisation.
It gathered the Tourbit project along tourism business support national organisation and a regional smart specialization strategy tackling tourism, moderated by Urska Starc Peceny from Arctur, an experience private player in the field of tourism innovation and measurability.
The relevance of digital transformation in tourism
The proposal of the Tourbit project is the digitalization of tourism SMEs as a strategy for improving the sector. This process is crucial, not only for the evolution of these companies, but also for the development of more sustainable, conscious and responsible tourism products.
Digital transformation is a fundamental aspect for the solution of current and future challenges and adversities. Through technology, we can find a great diversity of tools to turn to. All these resources can be of great help for the reactivation of tourism after the health crisis caused by the Coronavirus.
The digitalization of tourism does not only include new technological tools focused on tourism proposals, but also new methodologies to promote and talk about them. Better communication implies understanding and comprehending the profile of the public to which we refer, while respecting the diversity of people and including inclusive proposals with a high potential for opportunities.
