The archipelago is one of 50 European destinations selected to join the "Smart Tourism Destinations" project.
The Azores is one of 50 European destinations selected to join the “Smart Tourism Destinations” project, a European Commission initiative to improve tourism services and experiences through innovative digital solutions. “The Destination Sustainability Management Structure – Azores DMO – integrated into the Regional Secretariat of Transport, Tourism and Energy, was formally notified that Destination Azores was one of the destinations selected to participate in the project, through the European ‘call’ EU Destinations Managers,” reads a note published on Friday on the Internet portal of the Azores government.
According to the executive, this project comprises “participation in a set of training and capacity building activities in sustainable destination management,” with the aim of “improving efficiency in a management capacity and reading data at the service of tourism”.
The participants selected to join this European Commission initiative will also be part of “a community of elite European destinations, which will allow the sharing of knowledge on best practices in intelligent tourism,” it adds.
For the coalition regional government, the selection of the Azores to participate in this project “reinforces the positioning of the region as a destination of reference on the map of more sustainable and innovative European destinations with the ability to lead new paradigms of development”.
Quoted in the same note, the regional secretary for Tourism, Mário Mota Borges, said that the participation of the Azores in this project is “a valuable learning opportunity”.
According to the secretary of state, the initiative “will establish the roots of collaboration, knowledge sharing and exchange of experiences and best practices within the tourism ecosystem of the European Union”.
For the Regional Secretary of Transport, Tourism and Energy, it is urgent that the region moves “towards a model of intelligent tourism, in which decisions are taken in an informed manner and supported by reliable and updated data, in line with the fundamental premises of the European Commission’s guidelines for the digital transition in tourism.
The assumptions of the certification of the Azores as a “Sustainable Tourism Destination” had “great relevance in the application and selection process”, since “the demonstration of evidence of data use in the management of the tourist destination was a fundamental requirement”, reads the note.
Source: CCIPV / EcoNews / AICEP