Sustainability, Big Data and innovation. Find out more about our event: "Safe and more sustainable destinations".

Our International Managers’ Convention took place on the24 January. This year the theme was “Next Preverisk” regarding innovation, sustainability and safety in the tourism sector. At the convention our team, as well as a few external invitees, were able to enjoy an event with world-class speakers. 

A session, facilitated by Ian Taylor a journalist for Travel Weekly, began with practical examples of sustainable destinations. From one part of the Mediterranean, Andreu Serra, Majorca’s Minister of Transition, Tourism and Sports, assured us that the current market is a data market: “Finding out the actual situation by measuring is important for good decision making, both in politics as well as any other area”. 

From another shore of the Mediterranean, Valencia, Jaume Mata, Head of Sustainable Tourism, reinforced Andreu’s words: “We need to measure: From precision to knowledge”. The Balearic and Valencian speakers presented to us two sustainable destinations with different strategies: One a Smart City and the other, an island leading the way in sustainable and circular regulations, but both with the same objective: to ensure these destinations meet the new demands of the market and the planet. 

“People are becoming more aware of the ecological impact of travelling when choosing their holiday and this influences their decisions,” said Carol Rose, ABTA’s Senior Sustainability Manager, in agreement with Arantxa Garcia, TUI’s Head of Sustainable Development, Destination Experiences. Both speakers said their surveys confirmed that a deciding factor for a large percentage of respondents was accommodation and destinations which guarantee safety and sustainability standards. 

Lastly, Esteban Delgado, Preverisk’s Chairman and Technical Director, stressed the importance of applying science to sustainability and linking sustainability to health and safety, as both guarantee the quality of tourism. Marc Jordan, TUI’s Security, Health & Safety, Crisis & BCM Manager, related how tourism and its security standards have changed over the years and the importance of using data in this area also. He informed us that they collect information by way of audits and having experts in the sector, such as us, to obtain this data, was a major breakthrough. Big Data can help us to make more accurate decisions with regards to hygiene, health, safety and sustainability (automatically in the future, using artificial intelligence).  

Tuesday’s session came to a conclusion regarding the future of tourism: How important it is that the various players in this industry, collaborate to row faster in the same direction: Towards a quality tourism which is sustainable and safe.