“There is great potential here in terms of connectivity with tourists. To ensure that, as soon as they arrive at the destination, we can accompany them, know where they are, what their preferences are, and to communicate a personalised tourist offer to provide experiences according to their profile”, said Rui Gidro, 'partner' of Deloitte, the company responsible for the study commissioned by the Algarve Tourism Region, within the scope of the project “Algarve Smart Region”.

The concept of a 'smart destination', which initially began with the intelligent management of cities ['smart cities'], “seeks to capitalise on, or leverage, existing technology in other sectors to better manage the region and improve the tourist experience”, he explained.

“If we are creating a smart city for the citizen, we can also create a smart destination for the tourist”, said Rui Gidro.

The study's conclusions are based on the pillars of a smart destination (sustainability, accessibility, digital transformation and culture, heritage, creativity and innovation), pointing out 18 levers and suggesting a total of 39 initiatives.

The consultant also defended “greater training of the digital skills of the work teams, so that they can follow the technological development that will be carried out”, which would make it possible to mitigate the shortage of human resources in tourism.

“There is a difficulty and scarcity of resources for the tourism sector and, if we manage to digitise some functions, allowing for greater productivity, this could mitigate this difficulty”, underlined the Deloitte partner.

The focus is on “choosing three or four main projects and taking them to the end”.