The Canary Islands are economically very dependent on tourism. So far, the crisis has come through better than other holiday destinations, but sales have also declined sharply in this Spanish region. Now is setting the course for the future by working together.

During a joint event, Yaiza Castilla, Canarian Minister for Tourism, Industry and Trade, and José Juan Lorenzo, Director of the Canary Islands Tourism Association, presented their tourism model for the next three years.

The central focus is on the digital transformation in tourism and the increased cooperation between the public and private sectors. Thanks to this strategy, all branches of industry on the islands should be better integrated into the value chain and participate more in tourism.

Digitization should make travel easier

“With this transformation of the current economic model, we want to further develop the local economy and strengthen tourism in the country. Administrations and companies should cooperate better in the future and build a new ecosystem that is more sustainable, more crisis-resistant and more competitive and that strengthens the destination as a whole, ”explains Yaiza Castilla.

Three central digitization projects are planned to achieve these goals. The aim is to create a “smart tourism platform” that uses the Internet of Things (IOT) technology to record data such as weather, environmental parameters or the number of visitors to important tourist locations and bundle them on the platform. Among other things, this data flows into the “Sustainable Marketplace”, which is intended to give tourism companies an overview of all products and services from all trade and industrial sectors on the islands, as well as the necessary logistics. The third component of the new strategy is the “digital tourism channel”.

"This platform will be the central instrument for Canarian tourism companies to market their products and services directly to tourists," said José Juan Lorenzo. A website and app are to be developed for this purpose.