Tourism and innovation experts share knowledge in Benidorm at the 'CV+i Tourism Day'

• Mayor Toni Pérez highlights that the city has been “an example of sustainability and tourism innovation for decades” at the opening of the meeting with Councillor Nuria Montes
• The finalist proposal to design a technological tool to identify the supply of unregistered tourist housing will be announced

Experts from different fields related to innovation and tourism are taking part in the 'CV+i Tourism Day', the first meeting on research, innovation and entrepreneurship in tourism in the Valencian Community, promoted by the Generalitat and coordinated by the Valencian University Network for the promotion of R&D+i (RUVID). The Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, and the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism of the Generalitat, Nuria Montes, have taken part in the opening of this professional meeting, which is taking place at the Terra Mítica convention centre and within the framework of which, this afternoon, the proposal will be announced that will ultimately develop a technological tool to identify the supply of unregistered tourist accommodation in the Community.

During the opening of this professional meeting, Toni Pérez told the attendees that “Benidorm has been an example of sustainability and tourism innovation for decades”, recalling that the city has been the headquarters of the Valencian Institute of Tourism Technologies (Invattur) since 2009, where the Intelligent Destination Platform will now also be installed. The mayor publicly applauded “the decision of the president –of the Generalitat Valenciana– Carlos Mazón to unite Tourism and Innovation in the same department”, two areas that, as he argued, “cannot be understood without the other today”, as well as the celebration of days such as the 'CV+i Tourism Day', where “companies, academia and Administration join hands to analyse everything that the present and the future hold for us”.

Pérez also explained to the attendees the work that the city has been carrying out in recent years to promote both concepts and argued that “there is no better social policy than employment”, recalling that the city “was the only city that in this year 2024 has had a single-digit unemployment rate in the month of July”. “We generate wealth and we are able to provide more employment than we have registered active population”, something that in turn generates “opportunities and social and economic sustainability, which are combined with an environmental sustainability that Benidorm has been applying since before the word even existed”.

The Minister of Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism has informed the attendees that one of the main objectives of her department is that “innovation reaches the business world and in this case the world of the tourist business”, which is why she has described this meeting as “very important for us, since it is the first time that an event of this nature has been held, with such a specialized and numerous attendance, and also in this emblematic place of tourism in the Valencian Community”.

Nuria Montes also stated that, due to her extensive work experience in the tourism sector prior to her appointment as councillor, “I know first-hand all the efforts that this sector is making to be at the forefront of innovation and also in a sector such as tourism, in which we are world leaders and, especially here, in Benidorm, the example that many other destinations are following”.

Programme
Throughout the day, there will be numerous presentations, round tables and debates on topics such as deseasonalisation; sustainability: artificial intelligence; health, nutrition and sports tourism; tourism linked to heritage and gastronomy; or new professional profiles in tourism, among others.

The CV+i Tourism Day will also host a competition for start-ups linked to tourism that will assess the best innovative solutions to problems in the sector or the commitment to new products and services or improvements in processes. In addition, the winner of the call launched by the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism to develop a technological tool capable of identifying the supply of unregistered tourist accommodation will also be announced. The five finalist proposals are those presented by the companies CETaqua Comunitat Valenciana, the Technological Institute of Energy, Lynx View, SCOLAB Collaborative Software and the tandem Lucentia Lab and One Million Bot.