The rapid and constant development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has impacted all spheres of contemporary society, including tourism, a sector that, due to its characteristics of customer service and high competitiveness, has been at the forefront in these digital transformation processes.
Regarding the subject, engineer Pavel Pavón Vargas, director of Technologies and Systems of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR in Spanish) – when speaking at the conference Towards the digital transformation of the destination Cuba. Smart Tourist Destinations, at the recent 16th International Seminar on Journalism and Tourism, stressed that the impact of new technologies on the sector has caused all the processes that were done analogically to be currently carried out digitally.
Therefore, he said, tourist managers, travel agencies and marketing processes, which have always existed, now bear names such as digital marketing, e-commerce and intelligent management, along with the appearance of a new traveler, known as as a digital traveler or zero point traveler.
AN INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE COMMITMENT
Tourist behavior has changed due to the influence of new technologies in the sector, from information, promotion and marketing.
Faced with change, destinations have adjusted to the new reality, in which interaction between the destination and the visitor is essential, which has promoted, among other solutions, the Smart Tourist Destinations (DTI) project, which proposes a new management model from an integral perspective.
The DTI, according to Pavel Pavón Vargas, are defined as an innovative tourist destination, consolidated on a cutting-edge technological infrastructure, which guarantees the sustainable development of the tourist territory and is accessible to all, thus facilitating the interaction and integration of the visitor with the environment, and increasing the quality of their experience in the destination and improving the quality of life of the resident.
This is a model proposed and experimented a few years ago by the Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain, hand in hand with the State Business Society for the Management of Tourism Innovation and Technologies (SEGITTUR), with several destinations already established within and outside the European nation.
According to the promotional video of its organizers, the transformation process from a normal destination to a DTI is based on a methodology that works on five fundamental axes of action: governance, innovation, technology, sustainability and accessibility.
Governance is, in this case, the strategy and maximum public-private cooperation, to guarantee efficient, transparent and participatory management; innovation is applied to processes, systems and resources focused on tourism; and the technology is based on the new ICT applied to the management and optimization of the destination.
For its part, sustainability is the management of all resources to guarantee sustainability among the sociocultural, economic and environmental aspects; accessibility is understood as the application of accessibility routes, services and tourist resources.
Likewise, its organizers stressed, the transformation into DTI entails a series of benefits that range from improved planning management and image to the improvement of the tourist experience, increased competition and the promotion of sustainable development.
Regarding the specificities of the DTI, Pavón Vargas pointed out that, in addition, they are competitive, since their main function is to maintain preferences; and also resilient, since they use the circular economy.
Within the characteristics of the DTI, the Director of Technologies and Systems at MINTUR specified that a new term appears in the governance part, known as smart office (smart offices), together with which platforms or tourism intelligence systems also emerge.
An intelligent office, the manager explained, is a work space with the technical conditions for the collection and processing of data from different sources, to transform it into knowledge in order to provide digital services.
CUBA WILL HAVE ITS SMART TOURIST DESTINATION
Despite the difficulties of the Cuban socioeconomic context, the country is currently venturing into the development of DTIs, as the last link in the axes of digital transformation in the MINTUR, in which, since the infrastructure and cybersecurity were created, promoted during these years, first, the electronic Government, then, digital marketing and electronic commerce and, finally, smart tourist destinations.
In this sense, Pavel Pavón Vargas confirmed that Cuba opted to implement its first Smart Tourist Destination project in Cayo Largo del Sur, since the country is an observer of the DTI Network of Spain and is in the presentation phase of its candidacy to be a full member of the Ibero-American Network.
According to the executive, Cayo Largo del Sur was selected to undertake the pilot project, first of all, due to its size, as it is a test system in a complex economic context, in which large resources cannot be risked in expensive investments like this.
Secondly, he added, this part of the archipelago has progressed on sustainability work, materialized in a totally ecological key, with good conservation rates of migratory and endogenous species, well-kept sea beds and an existing circular economy project (with the waste is fed to pigs and their feces are turned into biogas).
He also pointed out that the small key has a plan to change the energy matrix and use of renewable energy with photovoltaic parks. In addition, all fuel vehicles are going to be changed to electric ones.
Likewise, the director of the Mintur added that it is where they also want to implement other projects such as 5G internet connection and the use of wind energy with small mills. Moreover, the international airport runway was recently remodeled, in order to solve one of the problems that the destination presented, which was the accessibility of the planes.
The Director of Technologies and Systems of the MINTUR explained that this is a long-term project, but at the same time innovative, of digital transformation, sustainability and local development, the latter based on the principle that tourism is produced and managed in the municipality and has to be integrated into the local government to have the expected results.
Regarding the current phase, Pavón Vargas informed that the diagnosis of the destination has already been carried out with SEGITTUR, an entity that is preparing the action plan and implementation, to execute the operation of the DTI in Cayo Largo del Sur.
Translated by ESTI
