Strategies for Smart Tourism Destinations. Summary

On the 30-31 of October there was organized the XVII International Forum on Tourism in Benidorm. I could assist just on the second day, but with all that I left the forum with lots of knowledge and energy; energy to study more, to question the things more and to research more. For those who couldn´t come, I would like to leave here some of the basic ideas that I´ve learned from international tourism professionals.

This year´s topic was “STRATEGIES FOR THE CONFIGURATION OF SMART TOURISM DESTINATIONS”. The basic points during the presentations were the following:

Those are not even future trends; those are the basic tools that are already used to increase destination´s competitiveness and becoming a smart tourism destination.

Making a Summary:

Nowadays everything is changing at a very high-speed because of the progress in technology. What we are learning today, is outdated tomorrow. People are becoming “replaceable” by robots, and this is where the “Smart People” term appears. “Smart people” are creating smart destinations via smart promotion. Geomarketing is also an important tool, as today we are able to measure the flows of tourists in a destination, and in general we know (or we can find out) everything about a territory we are interested in. Internet and Social Media are the channels that are used to interact and to attract the Millennials. Forget about the massive offline marketing, today´s generations see more through the 3 displays they own than what is happening just near them.

Create your brand such way that it can be easily linked to the experience that your clients may live. “The brand is the experience”.