ZAS, 03/07/2024. CMAT, with the support of the Provincial Council of A Coruña, actively participated in the Summer Course organised by the University of A Coruña (UDC) and entitled “Transformation in Tourism: Opportunities, Challenges and Success Cases in Smart Tourism Management”. During the event, several members of the association spoke, including the president, Manuel Muíño and Catherine García Pernas, member of the CMAT Technical Secretariat, from Grupo Atlante.
Challenges and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in Tourism
The first round table on the first day of the course, moderated by Catherine García Pernas, dealt with the potential of artificial intelligence as a mechanism for professionalising the tourism sector in the region. Both the vice-president of the A Coruña Provincial Council and deputy for Tourism, Xosé Regueira, and the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, took part in it. Both wanted to highlight the important evolution of the tourism sector in recent years: “Today we have a trained, competitive sector that is committed to quality,” said Regueira. They also highlighted the problem of the lack of updated data in the tourism sector and the need to find ways to obtain it in the coming years.
Among the challenges that were discussed at this round table, they highlighted the importance of adapting to change and learning to take advantage of technological advances in order to improve tourism management. Although it is true that there are other important challenges with less technological relevance ahead in which the Costa da Morte must continue to work from the public-private cooperation.
Another of the great challenges is precisely the management of tourism data, since once obtained, it is important to have mechanisms to use them in planning strategies. This would greatly improve the quality and efficiency of tourism management in general.
A new paradigm for tourism management
During the second round table, the need to apply intelligent tourism management and planning mechanisms to improve efficiency in the sector was discussed. Xosé Manuel Merelles, Director of Tourism of Galicia; María del Rosário Borges, from the Tourism Observatory of Alentejo and Ada González Fernández, tourism technician of the City Council of Dumbría, participated in this round table with their experience. This round table was moderated by Iria Caamaño, director of the course and lecturer at the UDC.
Two days to improve the opportunities of the Costa da Morte
During the two days of conferences, there was the opportunity to talk about topics of great relevance for tourism. Ana Fincas, from the University of A Coruña, opened the morning with a talk on the need to make data accessible in the field of tourism in order to improve both management and user experience.
At noon, it was the turn of Sergio Muíño Freire, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, with a conference focused on the relationship between local development and tourism and how a good tourism management can help to generate opportunities in the territory.
In the afternoon, a workshop with practical cases of the application of tourism intelligence in the planning of different destinations was carried out by different professionals from the University of A Coruña, such as Begoña Muíño, Silvina López and Iria Caamaño.
Further progress in tourism management on the Costa da Morte
This course, which was made possible thanks to the joint work of the University of A Coruña, the Costa da Morte Tourist Association, the A Coruña Provincial Council and the Dumbría Town Council, allowed for the sharing of the great challenges facing tourism in the coming years in Galicia, but also specifically in the Costa da Morte. Challenges which, at the same time, imply opportunities to be seized.
The CMAT also financially supported the development of the course, as an activity framed within the aids of the Provincial Council of A Coruña to the tourist bodies and management of the province. The presence and support of the association in this type of meetings is a symptom of the good health and direction of the public and private entities related to tourism in our territory. In this sense, the CMAT will promote new activities and courses aimed at improving the opportunities and training of the tourism sector in the Costa da Morte.
