For the second consecutive year, Mijas has hosted the conference on the tourism sector promoted by the UMA. In this way, the General Foundation of the University of Malaga has, once again, chosen the municipality to carry out this conference, unlike last year, which was ‘online’, in-person on Thursday 24th, in the hall of the Mijas Town Hall. This forum was born to propose new strategic lines for the tourism sector, and this time it focused on digital transformation.
From the point of view of digitalisation, the pandemic has caused a great acceleration, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in destinations and companies, all of which has led to a reflection on the need for knowledge and correct application of ICTs. The Mayor of Mijas, Josele González (PSOE) was in charge of opening the conference: “Today, thanks to this conference, Mijas is placed in the tourism epicentre, and it is an opportunity to address issues related to this digital transformation that is being experienced worldwide from the tourism point of view just after the pandemic in which this digital push has been experienced”. He added that “we should feel proud to be able to count on conferences and speakers of this level”. Also, present at the presentation was the Mijas Tourism Councillor, José Carlos Martín (Cs), who said that “what we are looking for with this event is to transfer information and concerns to people in the sector, so we have to thank the foundation for holding it here. In addition, I think that digital transformation is the future of tourism in which we all have to embark”. After them, it was the turn of the director of the General Foundation of the University of Malaga, Diego Vera who pointed out that “the University of Malaga has this event as an important alliance with the municipality of Mijas since, the UMA is not only from the city of Malaga, but from the province, so for us, it was important to consolidate it with this second day on digital transformation”.
The event was divided into three parts. The first was a presentation by the Research, Development and Tourism Innovation Director of SEGITTUR, Carlos Romero, who spoke about the ‘Plan for Modernisation and competitiveness of the tourism sector. Digitalisation and intelligence programme for destinations and the tourism sector”. Later, the COO of Lleego Travel, Pablo Canivell, gave his presentation on ‘The importance of interoperability for tourism marketing and distribution’ and asserted that “travellers’ demands are growing and distribution actors must access different sources and interact with them to build a travel solution and always access the best rates”. Once the presentations were over, a round table discussion was held, moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the UMA, Antonio Guevara. “We have worked a lot with Mijas Tourism, and this conference aims to learn how digitalisation can help us to reposition ourselves as a destination and as a company,” said Guevara. One of the participants, David Giner, INVATTUR project coordinator, also added that “we are obliged to assume and understand that we have to integrate tools, to know what is happening in the online environment to know where we are going, and to attend to the tourist”. A debate that served to make it clear that digitalisation means creating suitable processes to be able to correctly manage everything that revolves around the sector. The conference was attended by people related to the sector, such as Carmen Beneyto, who concluded by stating that “I think it is great that these initiatives are being carried out to promote the growth of tourism, and this topic is fundamental as digitalisation is present in all areas of our lives”.
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