NECSTouR Best Practices Protagonist at the European Tourism Forum 2019
-
10/10/2019
The experiences of Gothenburg and Málaga awarded as the 2019 European Capitals of Smart Tourism and the Andalusia Lab are some of the best practices from the NECSTouR destinations which has been highlighted with the occasion of the 18th European Tourism Forum who was held on the 9-10 October in Helsinki under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the European Union.
EU Capitals of Smart Tourism. Both cities awarded this year during the European Tourism Forum - Gothenburg and Málaga - are located within NECSTouR Regions of Västra Götaland and Andalusia. Gothenburg has been also awarded in the category of Sustainability.
A Compendium of Good Practices, gathering a selection of 85 best practices from 38 cities that submitted applications in the first edition of this programme has been also presented (check it here). It includes various cases from NECSTouR member Regions, such as Malaga (Andalusia), Nice and Aix-en-Provence (Region Sud Provence - Alpes-Côte d'Azur), Palma (Balearic Islands), Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna) and Valencia (Valencia Region).
The potential of digitalisation to bring more sustainable growth in the European destinations was one of the main themes of this year's edition during the day after conference. Andalusia Lab - an initiative developed by the NECSTouR member of Andalusia - was showcased by Mr José Luis Córdoba, Managing Director of the Andalusia Tourism Board as a good practice in this field (Check the presentation here).
Digitalisation and Safety. The Andalusia Lab is inspiring most of the work of the S3 Platform Digitalisation and Safety for Tourism, which NECSTouR supports. The outcome of the overall debate highlighted the need to boost investments towards two of the main pillars of this initiative: the digitalisation of the tourism sector and the improvement of the availability and use of data and statistics in the tourism management.
Statement. As stated indeed by the title of this year's edition, "Digital transformation is the engine of sustainable growth for the EU tourism sector".
Photos by: www.sauliala.1g.fi / www.smarttourismcapital.eu