Digitalisation and sustainability will be crucial to the post-pandemic upturn in the tourism industry. This was the conclusion at the TurisTIC Forum congress hosted by the Eurecat technology centre which was held today at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site in Barcelona and also online. They will have to be accompanied by rolling out disruptive solutions harnessing technologies including artificial intelligence and leveraging new options such as digital nomads.
At the opening of the congress, Roger Torrent, Minister of Business and Employment in the Catalan Government, pointed out that “new technologies are a mainstay of the Ministry’s decision-making” and so “it is essential to hook up ICTs, digitalisation and tourism and make sure that they increasingly pool resources.”
“We have to build an ecosystem of start-ups delivering solutions which make the tourism business more competitive and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Sustainability and digitalisation will steer European funding while new technologies and big data will help us to shape the new tourism model.”
“We need to shift towards making tourism a driving force for economic, social and environmental initiatives,” said Jaume Ferrús, Eurecat’s deputy chair, in his talk. “This will help to mitigate the problems of the economy, society and the environment and engage with a transformational, responsible and inclusive vision” geared towards public wellbeing.
“We are at a time when there are two ineluctable challenges,” noted Xavier Marcé, Cabinet Officer for Tourism and Creative Industries at Barcelona City Council. “The first is to digitalise the sector, to upgrade it in terms of meeting the SDGs. This is essential for delivering efficient results and also for bouncing back from the pandemic.” He added that in addition “it is extremely important in drawing a distinction between urban and holiday tourism.” In the case of Barcelona, “this is a critical challenge because we have to match the pace of visitors to the pace of local residents.”
“At Barcelona Provincial Council we are mindful that post-pandemic economic recovery calls for sustainability, digitalisation and innovation,” commented Abigail Garrido, Barcelona Provincial Council Deputy Member for Tourism. “There are some outstanding examples including sustainable tourism mobility projects such as the Barcelona Blue Routes and the Biosphere Commitment to Sustainable Tourism programme involving over 800 tourism businesses and services. We also need to track consumer trends and the reputation of our resources, services and regions.”
Artificial intelligence and big data
“Seamless operation of blockchain will give us consumer internet whereby tourists and businesses can trade directly using software tapping blockchain and artificial intelligence but without traditional intermediaries,” said Lasse Rouhiainen, an international expert in artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies. He expects an evolution towards “Tourism 3.0 with blockchain and direct deals between consumers and businesses.”
“With artificial intelligence we are not only going to achieve efficiency but we are also going to innovate and we are going to create new products and services which will then create jobs.”
Màrius Boada, the director of the Barcelona City Council’s Municipal Data Office, noted the City Council’s implementation of the CityOS platform and pointed out that big data brings “the ability to have much more and different information that is relevant to tourism and also to other urban issues” which makes it possible to get “information on a weekly, daily and even an hourly basis.”
The pandemic “has heightened the urge to have fun, to switch off, to have rewarding and enriching experiences,” said Marina Martínez from the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). “This can unlock new opportunities for tourism operators.”
The TurisTIC Forum was held as part of the Tourism and ICT week. It brought together tourism enterprises, innovation and technology development firms and public institutions, organisations and trade associations specialising in these industries.
The 9th congress is sponsored by the Catalan Government, Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Provincial Council, with the support of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, Sparkup and Checkpoint.
Checkpoint Systems, a division of CCL Industries, was at the TurisTIC Forum to unveil its innovative SmartOccupancy technology to automatically track capacity in real time.
