Intelligent Tourism Destinations

<< Background >>Small cities in inland territories present difficulties when planning and developing actions aimed at tourism not only as an economic engine, but also as a reference for sustainable local development that relies on the cooperation stakeholders in the field of tourism to strengthen the supply the value chain based on principles of sustainability, digitalization and training. In this sense, the cooperation of 4 European cities with similar characteristics has been necessary, which detected that tourism is based on an industrial bubble whose management has been based on promotional actions to achieve a greater influx of visitors without being aligned with factors that conform smart tourist destinations. Therefore, the needs that were detected were: 1) Tourism planning and management, improving fundamental aspects of governance, sustainability, accessibility, connectivity, innovation, tourist information and online marketing; 2) Creation of stakeholder’s network to collaborate and cooperate with the aim to improve tourism development; 3) Creation of tourist destinations aligned with other sectors to balance the positive and negative effects of tourism development.<< Objectives >>The general objective sought to be achieved is to find new vocational training solutions to improve the development of capacities of civil servants and professionals working in public administrations in the tourism field, to expand the leisure offer in sustainable tourist attractions. The specific objectives were: 1) To increase professionals skills (civil servants and entrepreneurs) to expand the leisure offer and the tourist attraction of small cities, offering additional experiences based on culture, digitalization and sustainable solutions; 2) To strength capacities for local tourism development, between small and medium-sized cities, offering short-term stays in an easy-to-visit environment; 3) To improve capacities of small municipalities to develop new tourism products based on digitalization and sustainability through the promotion of new tourism businesses and the citizen participation process to guarantee a positive impact on the territory.<< Implementation >>During the 18 months of project execution, all the activities planned in the application form have been carried out, which were planned in 5 work packages:1) Research and mapping on capacity development in tourism: each country carried out a search and report on good practices related to capacity development across Europe. Surveys were also conducted.2)Co-creation workshops: 3 workshops were held in each country and one internationally in Online format, in which public employees, entrepreneurs and VET professionals of tourism sector participated with the aim of discussing smart tourist destinations and planning for tourism development. sustainable, integrated and quality in the cities that work together in this project.3)Guides and Recommendations aimed at the stakeholders involved to help their training in intelligent and sustainable tourism planning.4)Management, control and evaluation of activities by the coordinator and those responsible for each work package to ensure the quality of the activities and results.5)Dissemination and communication of activities, project progress and downloadable materials.<< Results >>The ambition of the project has been to explore and develop tailor-made tourism plans for small and medium-sized cities, where the protagonists of the sector (public and private) are the drivers of their own professional development, which have inspired, supported and trained each other in a Community of Practice (peer-to-peer). It has been possible to develop the tangible results that were planned in the proposal and quantified them based on quantitative indicators: creation of a network of 45 agents from the 3 countries representing the public and private sectors, more than 200 stakeholders participating in the online survey; participation of 45 agents in the Co-creation Workshops; information to at least 3,000 recipients through different dissemination channels, design of 3 training itineraries; inclusion of at least 50 agents interested in the topic through communications and 1 Guide with recommendations to improve capacity in planning smart tourist destinations. Likewise, valuable results reports have been developed and have served to understand opinions and the current context, and also synergies have been created between tourism target groups.