From Digital Innovation to "Smart Tourism Destination": Stakeholders' reflections in times of a Pandemic

• 65 stakeholders participated in an online event, staged over two half-days, to discuss challenges, opportunities and needs of the Algarve region in the field of the digitalisation of tourism.
• Lack of adequate skills, inadequate infrastructure (communication and transport), weak links between tourism services and others economic activities and ineffective data collection and analysis were some of bottlenecks discussed.
• Regional assets, new market trends (more eco-friendly solutions) and the advantage of big data analysis were the main opportunities identified.
• Better data management, diversification of tourism offer, more networking and cooperation were some of the identified market needs.
• Sustainability dimension (circular economy and climate changes issues) in the tourism sector is one of the main themes of interest for future events.

Authors:

MARQUES SANTOS Anabela, EDWARDS John, LARANJA Manuel