Industry and Tourism has invested more than 225 million euros in the digitalisation of tourism destinations and companies

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, speaks at the IV forum 'A whole country of tourism'

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, recalled that the ministry has invested more than 225 million euros in the digitalisation of tourist destinations and companies in recent years. In his speech at the Fourth "A whole country of tourism" forum, organised in Madrid by eldiario.es, Hereu stressed that the national tourism sector is at the forefront of digital transformation, which makes Spain an increasingly competitive, sustainable and quality destination.

Jordi Hereu recalled that the Government has deployed a real tourism strategy, supported by the 3.4 billion euros of NexGen funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which has meant taking advantage of a historic opportunity for our country to continue to be a world benchmark in tourism transformation.

Of the 225 million euros earmarked for the digitalisation of the tourism industry, 132 million euros has been invested in the Smart Destination Platform, which once fully operational will connect more than 500 destinations and 25,000 SMEs, to promote sustainability and technological innovation in the sector; the Ministry has granted more than 23 million euros to the 'Last Mile' projects, which are highly oriented towards end users and contain improvements in digitalisation and intelligence applied to the management, promotion, enhancement and dissemination of destinations; more than 8.4 million euros have gone to the Tourism Intelligence System, based on a Big Data platform, which studies and analyses information sources and makes them available to the tourism industry; the Open Innovation Platform has received 48.3 million euros, and the Smart Tourism Destinations Network, 12 million euros.

Spain, leader in quality and sustainability

During his conversation with the director of eldiario.es, Ignacio Escolar, Hereu insisted on the importance of promoting quality in all stages and sub-sectors of the tourism industry, from jobs to destinations. Spain is a leader in tourism, which must drive us to pursue a strategy of environmental, social and economic sustainability more than ever before, the minister stressed.

Hereu has positively valued the forecasts for the sector in the first four months of this year - around 36,000 million euros in tourist spending at the destination, 16% more than in the same period in 2024 - but has once again reminded that we must not become obsessed with figures, nor should we see records as sacred. The Government's objective, Hereu warned, is to redistribute the benefits of tourism correctly among society and, in this sense, the minister has opted to modulate and govern the tourist offer and establish limits on the market so that the whole of society gains.

Under the slogan "A whole country of tourism IV. Travelling well, living better", the forum was attended not only by Jordi Hereu, but also by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, and the presence of Raquel Sánchez, President of Paradores, as a speaker at one of the round tables.

Non official translation