Digitalization and sustainability, the two trends that drive tourism in Spain

A.E.

Updated Sunday, March 17, 2024-00:14

Digitalization and sustainability constitute the two major trends that drive tourism in Spain, a sector that has already fully recovered in our country, with more than 85 million visitors last year, according to data from

Exceltur.

This was revealed in the observatory organized by

ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA,

in collaboration with

Visa,

Conectando Destinos.

Promoting Tourism through Digitalization and Sustainability.

The meeting included the participation of

Eduardo Prieto,

country manager of Visa in Spain;

Marina López Sanjurjo,

corporate director of

Grupo HOTUSA;

Josep Maria Gómez,

director of the Sustainability Area of ​​Barcelona Tourism, and

Teresa Parejo,

director of Sustainability of

Iberia.

According to Prieto, "tourists have more tools to plan their trip and more service and leisure options to manage in advance, without having to think about where to get money or exchange currency."

"The combination of security, agility and electronic means plays a fundamental role in offering a better user experience."

Prieto highlighted the value of information in this digital era and explained how Visa is implementing a service for businesses on spending behavior in their area compared to the competition, to "help predict the quality tourism we want."

Digitalization has also made it easier for Iberia customers to prepare their trip, explained Parejo.

Thanks to it, "personalized information is achieved that contributes to sustainability, as it reduces the paper of boarding passes or avoids food waste."

And, likewise, "it achieves the efficiency of the flight operation itself since it reduces the weight on board of fuel and water, and therefore there are fewer emissions," he stated.

Along the same lines, López assured that "technology contributes to customer knowledge, purchasing behavior, and at an operational level it has an important impact," but he insisted on continuing to focus on the customer, "and avoid fads, such as the metaverse. last year, because technology cannot be an end in itself.

"Competitiveness continues to be in people, in honesty and the ability to inspire, something that technology does not provide," she said.

For a city like Barcelona, ​​the opportunities of digitalization are already a reality.

According to Gómez, "it allows us to make predictions about tourist occupancy, crossing data from airline companies with hotel reservations and Google

searches.

" However, he noted, "we have the challenge when the tourist is already in the city. "We need more powerful tools to improve your experience."

And he highlighted the increase in interest in sustainable criteria in surveys carried out in his area, with 80% concerned about sustainability and 10% willing to pay more for sustainable proposals.

When referring to specific cases, Prieto recalled that in more than 100 cities in Europe and 25 in Spain, the transport pass is already a reality on the card itself, which facilitates mobility with this traditional means of payment, and explained the initiative implemented. works with Barcelona Tourism to create a network of sustainable restaurants.

Sanjurjo also specified the key measures of sustainability in aviation: "Fleet renewal, efficient operations and commitment to sustainable fuels."

For his part, López insisted on "differentiating what adds value from greenwashing" and assured that "the myth that sustainability is expensive is false since producing the same thing with fewer resources causes clear economic savings."

The rise of online commerce requires us to continue guaranteeing its security.

For this reason, Prieto concluded, "in recent years, Visa has invested 9 billion in anti-fraud tools and is a pioneer in the use of AI to detect fraud in real time."