Sustainable tourism remains a big pending subject.

Opening photo courtesy of pexels-spencer-davis.

The recent Tourism Innovation Summit, held in Seville, shed light on what our tourism needs to do to get its head straight.

Investing in technology will be key. Aspects such as big data, the internet of things, augmented reality, user-generated content, or the metaverse, in which the traveler is immersed in a virtual reality that brings the trip forward and awakens his or her sensations, will end up being an everyday occurrence in traditional travel agencies if the end customer demands it.

In addition, today's travelers are concerned about sustainability, even if they don't feel like paying for it - and not just about the environment, but about how their trip can impact the wealth of the community at the destination. In this sense, Sherry Sandor-Kelly, an expert journalist in the world of sustainability and travel who collaborates with the New York Times and Forbes magazine, explains that "for sustainable tourism to become a reality, two elements are needed. First, the industry must share a commitment to reinvest part of its profits in the destinations and the local communities that live there. This is the only way to prevent them from getting a raw deal. Some destinations tend to keep travelers isolated from local communities, so all the spending stays in those vacation resorts and nothing is shared with the locals. Second, the industry needs to invest some of those profits in educating and upskilling the tourism industry workforce, which accounts for 10 percent of the world's GDP. Training tourism professionals in the use of new technologies will also be crucial to achieving the goal of sustainable tourism. The concept was not born yesterday. As early as the 18th century, the Scottish economist Adam Smith highlighted the strong relationship between human capital and economic growth. Nothing new under the sun. But sustainable tourism needs to be pushed now more than ever."

Sherry Sandor-Kelly, journalist and travel sustainability expert.

Smart destinations'?digital promotion platforms already offer the opportunity to target each destination's ideal customer, impacting the wealth created at the traveler's geographic point of arrival. In parallel, the new "digital nomads" choose destinations that are safe and comfortable (according to a report by the consulting firm Phocuswright). Thus, multimodality of travel is gaining ground in the minds of all travel providers: by providing the passenger with a multi-step trip and different means of transport within the same booking, the business opportunities are enormous. Here, data spaces and the possibility for companies to share them with each other will be decisive factors.

Christian Delom, Secretary General of A World for Travel.

Spain aspires to lead the data space for the tourism sector; the Spanish government announces it as its own achievement that will benefit the whole continent. We will see if it materializes or if it remains an electioneering message. Other initiatives along these lines already exist in other European countries. But Christian Delom, secretary general of A World for Travel, put things in context and made it clear that travel prices are going to increase in price, "and this is not a drama, but an opportunity for everyone," he added.