Lope Afonso and Dimple Melwani explain the keys to the strategic map of Tenerife Smart Destination
The Vice President and Councillor for Tourism of the Island Council, Lope Afonso, and the CEO of Turismo de Tenerife, Dimple Melwani, presented the keys to the leadership of the island as a technological tourist destination through the initiatives included in the strategic map Tenerife Smart Destination (TSD) to approximately 500 attendees at the 4th Turespaña Convention. This instrument lays the foundations for the island’s transformation between now and 2030 to develop a smart tourism model that will turn Tenerife into a hub of tourism innovation, which, in turn, will establish its competitive position and set it apart from other destinations.
Lope Afonso reviewed some of the milestones in digitalisation and sustainability achieved by the island in recent years, such as the Smart Tourism Destination (DTI) and Biosphere certifications, which establish the social, environmental, cultural and economic commitment of tourism on the island in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. “We have moved from conventionality to the vanguard; to heading up the transformation process. We have evolved from DTI to programming a comprehensive tourism intelligence system, to equipping ourselves with a cybersecurity office and setting up a blockchain platform to integrate everything related to data management, experiences and exchanges”, he said. Afonso concluded his speech by indicating that Tenerife ‘is moving towards quality, sustainability and technology to become a responsible island that awakens emotions’.
Dimple Melwani looked in-depth at the eight strategic objectives of Tenerife Smart Destination: governance, technology, accessibility, culture, innovation, sustainability, talent and Smart style. Melwani explained some projects already developed under each pillar, mainly through the tourism sustainability plans under the Next Generation EU funds. In relation to the technology pillar, Melwani listed some of the projects underway, such as the Cybersecurity Master Plan, the Artificial Intelligence Master Plan with the recent creation of the Tourism Sandbox – a pioneering project nationwide, the Digital Tourism Platform, the Big Data Platform and the Data Governance Office. For Melwani, the latter, which involves the evolution of Turismo de Tenerife towards a data-driven organisation, is key and implies a change in the data culture within the organisation. “Data analysis allows us to transform data into
useful information. Its main attraction lies in its ability to predict future behaviour, expectations and needs, allowing us to make smarter and safer decisions. In this regard, this information extracted from data should be used not only to improve the tourist experience but also to enable us to optimise and productively manage public and private resources available to residents and visitors alike”, concluded Melwani.
Convention
From Tuesday 1 to Thursday, 3 October, Tenerife hosted the 4th Turespaña 2024 Convention – Everything Changes Again: Emerging Technologies for a New Tourism Model – organised in collaboration with Turismo de Tenerife and the Island Council. This year’s edition revolves around the role of digitalisation and emerging technologies in developing more sustainable and responsible tourism.
The inauguration, held yesterday, was attended by the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, the Councillor for Tourism of the Regional Government of the Canary Islands, Jéssica de León, the First Vice-President and Councillor for Tourism of the Island Council of Tenerife, Lope Afonso, and the Mayor of Arona, Fátima Lemes. For her part, the State Secretary for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, took part in the Convention debates, while the Director-General of Turespaña, Miguel Sanz, was in charge of opening and closing the Convention.
The 4th Turespaña Convention featured 25 events, including presentations, papers, talks, keynotes and round tables. The challenges and prospects of the tourism sector; the use and application of technology in the marketing of the tourism offer; digital marketing in international markets; Big Data and data processing; AI applied to tourism; experiences of good practices; the example of other destinations; the smart destinations platform; the planning of new tourism strategies and the transformation of the Spanish tourism model are some of the topics analysed over the two days of sessions.
This edition has brought together more than 50 leading experts from the tourism sector, including professionals from leading companies in the national tourism sector, as well as representatives from public authorities, regional and local governments. Among the most prominent speakers are representatives of Paradores, Destinia, Bank of Spain, Civitatis, Microsoft and CEOE, among others.
