20 tourism entities join forces to invest €145 million

Some 20 different entities linked to tourism have joined forces to submit an application for Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Programme (PPR) funds through Mobilising Agendas for Innovation with a total investment amount of €145 million.

The consortium is led by the Palminvest Group (it owns the Hotéis Real, among others), including Turismo de Portugal, the Pestana Group, ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal/Vinci Airports, the Barraqueiro Group, Sonae Capital, Turismo do Porto e Norte, Termas de S. Pedro do Sul and Europecar.
Also involved are technology companies such as NOS, Vision-Box, Porto Digital, Xplora and Boost.
From the academic side, universities and colleges involved are Aveiro University, Porto Business School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Leiria Polytechnic, in addition to other institutions which make up the recently named InnovTourism – Digital Innovation Hub.
This is according to Roberto Antunes, executive director of NEST-Centro de Inovação do Turismo. (Tourism Innovation Centre.)
It was the only application of its kind to be presented by the sector with the participation of entities of different types, sizes and activities with a focus on developing and innovating the digitalisation of experiences related to tourism.
“It is critical that we look at the development of the sector with our sights fixed on the actual tourist experience. This is an agenda which works on those small tourism experiences,” said Antunes.
The idea is to bring innovation and digitalisation to everything that has to do with the tourist from their arrival to their departure, with the regions and places they can visit, with the conversation with the tourist, the accommodation, getting around, the sustainability of companies in the sector and the dissemination and marketing of activities in the sector.
“The goal is to position Portugal internationally” and make our tourism sector more competitive. Roberto Antunes says that idea of the consortium is to work “in unison to make an impact on the experience of the tourist, by leveraging the various entities working in the value chain”.