On 24 November, NECSTouR President, Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, addressed the subject of digitalization of destinations for frictionless and sustainable tourism at Be Travel Onlife (BTO) 2021 Conference, organized by the Tuscany Region. This was also the opportunity to meet Tuscan Tourism Authorities and enhance cooperation with our funding Region within the new NECSTouR Board of Directors.

European tourism professionals have gathered at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence for this 13th edition of BTO, highlighting the theme “New Frictionless World”. NECSTouR was partner of the event.

During his intervention, Dr. Manuel Alejandro Cardenete emphasized NECSTouR commitment to support cooperation for the sustainable development of destinations.

Cooperation is at the basis of our vision towards the sustainable tourism of tomorrow. This is fully aligned with the major European initiatives related to our sector that are integrated in our commitment to action

He further demonstrated the actions of NECSTouR’s commitment that are outlined in three pillars:

• GREENING – through signatory of “Glasgow Declaration” and engaging our members to develop our Climate Action Plan and connect the Glasgow pathways with the European Green Deal and Tourism Agenda.
• COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT through the “Barcelona Declaration: Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit”
• INFORMED DECISIONS for an effective transformation of our destinations to data-driven organisations, as put under value by our Tourism of Tomorrow Lab.

The Tourism of Tomorrow Lab – Dr Cardenete explained - will be operational in early 2022. It supports the transformation of data into tourism intelligence for decision making in order to create sustainable destinations that integrate the well-being of tourists, communities and the environment while bringing prosperity to the sector. It is also in coherence with the European action in the field of data sharing and the “European Data Space for Tourism” that the European Commission is developing now.

Patrick Torrent - NECSTouR Vice-President, Catalan Tourists Board – intervened on co-design for smarter destinations and explained how the new Catalan Tourism strategy for sustainable tourism recovery is inspired to the principle “what is good for residents is good for visitors” at the base of the “Barcelona Declaration: Better Places to Live, Better Places to Visit”.

Leonardo Marras, Regional Minister for Tourism at the Tuscany Region, Laura Achenza, Tourism Director, Francesco Tapinassi, Director at Toscana Promozione and Francesco Palumbo, Director at Fondazione Sistema Toscana hosted at the iconic “Sala degli otto” a strategic bilateral meeting with the newly elected NECSTouR authorities.

It has been the opportunity to plan the next steps ahead of the cooperation among NECSTouR and the Tuscany Region, in the framework of the new governance and the new vision toward the post-pandemic tourism relaunch.