Conference showcases innovative data strategies for sustainable tourism development
Torrevieja hosted a key conference on June 9, 2025, positioning itself as a living lab for smart tourism innovation. Held at the CDT+i Tourism Centre, the event gathered experts in academia, technology, and tourism management for a day of lectures, debates, and project showcases focused on data-driven strategies for Smart Tourist Destinations (DTI).
Organized by Torrevieja City Council in collaboration with the University of Alicante, the session featured support from institutions such as the University Institute for Tourism Research (IUIT), the Computer Research Institute (IUII), the Generalitat Valenciana, and several tech companies.
Keynote speaker María Velasco González from SEGITTUR highlighted the role of collaborative governance and data as drivers of sustainable, people-focused, and digital tourism transformation.
A highlight was the presentation of “Cata de Datos Turísticos,” a pioneering project where Data Science master’s students from the University of Alicante analyzed real-world tourism challenges using Airbnb and Vrbo data. The winning team proposed a data- and AI-driven application for managing short-term rentals. The runner-up project focused on environmental data applied to tourism in Torrevieja.
The roundtable “From Concept to Action” featured industry leaders discussing how to transform data into actionable knowledge through public-private collaboration. Speakers emphasized the challenges of fragmented data sources and the importance of creating institutional capacity for data integration.
Vice Mayor and Tourism Councillor Rosario Martínez Chazarra closed the event by reaffirming support for TI·LAB and Torrevieja’s vision of sustainable, resilient tourism aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
