The Association of Tourist Entrepreneurs of Fuerteventura, Asofuer; the Tourist Federation of Lanzarote (FTL); the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT); and the Hotel and Extra-hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, Ashotel, presented this morning in Puerto del Rosario, together with the Minister of Tourism and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, Jéssica de León, the Smart Data Canarias project, a data intelligence platform that is revealed as a qualitative leap in the competitiveness of the tourism sector in the Canary Islands. The project is financed by the Department of Tourism and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands with European Next Generation EU funds, through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) of the Government of Spain.
The presentation included the presidents of Asofuer, Antonio Hormiga; Ashotel, Jorge Marichal; the president of the FTL, Susana Pérez; and the vice president of the FEHT, Fernando Estany, in addition to the Minister of Tourism.
The project develops a tourism intelligence system based on the capture, structuring and analysis of operational, environmental and customer behavior data, whose objective is to optimize processes, reduce impacts and facilitate evidence-based decision making. In addition, it will measure, manage and demonstrate commitment to a more responsible and conscious tourism.
The details of Smart Data Canarias were announced this morning at the Fuerteventura Congress Palace, in a technical conference that brought together professionals from the hotel sector, experts in data analytics, public officials and technology companies, who addressed the challenges and opportunities of a digital transformation oriented towards efficiency, sustainability and resilience of the tourism ecosystem.
One of the main strengths of Smart Data Canarias lies in its ethical and sovereign management model of tourism data. Unlike many external commercial platforms - whose access and use of information is conditioned to market interests - this tool has been designed from and for the Canary Islands tourism sector, under the custody of employers' associations.
Three main purposes
The project is structured around three fundamental strategic objectives: first, it represents a qualitative leap in the digital maturity of the tourism sector by introducing advanced data analysis and visualization capabilities; second, it establishes an infrastructure that enables the development of new innovative solutions in sustainability, efficiency and customer experience; and, third, it reinforces data sovereignty by placing hotel associations as managing and custodial entities of information, guaranteeing its responsible use oriented to the collective interest, compared to outsourced models for commercial purposes.
During the welcome, Antonio Hormiga commented that "in the business world, making the right decisions requires accurate information, because we already know that what is not measured cannot be improved; that is why this platform responds to a structural need of the sector: to have a reliable, connected and useful database, which allows each establishment to compare itself with its environment, optimize its performance and anticipate market challenges".
For his part, Jorge Marichal indicated that this project, "at the technological forefront of the tourism sector, is a milestone, since the employers' associations are the guardians of the information, and will reinforce the competitiveness and improvement of the sector, both private and public." Marichal highlighted precisely the importance of this public-private collaboration, but stressed that "to get there we must first reinforce private-private collaboration, which will reinforce companies in decision-making".
Likewise, Susana Pérez said that with this initiative "a firm step is taken towards a more intelligent, efficient and sustainable management of tourism in the islands. This tool will allow us to make decisions based on real data and in real time, something essential to remain competitive in an increasingly demanding environment. It is also a clear example of how collaboration between employers' associations, the public sector and technology companies can generate value and future for our destination".
Also Fernando Estany described the project as a "unique opportunity for employers' associations to access aggregated data from associates, which will mean having a global and accurate vision of the destination, its trends, its strengths and its areas for improvement", and also focused on the fact that "the future of our tourism model depends on efficiency, respect for the environment and positive contribution to our communities".
Finally, Jéssica de León explained that her department invests 600,000 euros in this tool that "represents a step towards the future to know to the minute what is happening in the Canary Islands tourism industry." The Minister thanked the entire team that has worked together on a strategic project for decision-making, not only private, but public.
De León described it as a "milestone", since "it is not common for companies to share such a precious asset as their data." "Smart Data Canarias will allow us to anticipate future scenarios and decide and know how tourist demand is coming in the archipelago as a whole," she commented. And within the framework of the project, the Minister announced that "the initiative is scalable" and will not only remain in this initial pilot, but that "in the coming months it will advance towards the training of professionals in artificial intelligence by Hecansa, because here we can do it perfectly and not have to bring professionals from outside; hence the importance of the qualification of personnel in this area".
Data processing, analysis and exploitation
To explain the technical keys of the project, the manager of Ashotel, Juan Pablo González, intervened, who explained that the platform allows the capture, processing, analysis and exploitation of data, from accommodation establishments, through connection to management tools (PMS), IoT devices and other external databases. In that sense, Smart Data Canarias will be composed of four warehouses (one for each employers' association) of data in the cloud, independent, but designed to be able to interconnect the information in the future. "If the intelligence, the data and the capacity are here, we have it here in the Canary Islands, why buy it from companies from outside?" González asked.
The capture and processing of truthful and reliable data, added the manager of Ashotel, will allow the creation of a dashboard of competitiveness and sustainability indicators and also, the hotels integrated in the project will be able to choose a competitive set of five establishments to compare anonymously. They will be data segmented by islands, areas, by category of establishments... In short, "that dashboard will give us a picture of how those indicators are behaving," he added.
Finally, the conference also featured experts in information security and data protection, such as Daiana Lamela, partner of the specialized firm i+D Abogados; in the travel sector, such as Jorge Núñez, CEO of Adquiver; in hotel transformation through intelligent data management, such as Antonio Álvarez, director of Evosocial Soft; or in connected destinations, such as Mayte García, executive director of Hosbec, who told the experience of her association with the Biontrend project, similar to Smart Data Canarias in the Valencian Community.