UNE wishes to commemorate World Cities Day, which is being held on 31 October like every year, by adding two new national technical standards to the catalogue, which are serving as a basis for the preparation of international standards. On the one hand, we have the new version of Standard UNE 178501:2018 Management system for smart tourist destinations. Requirements, a standard that specifies the requirements for implementing a management system for Smart Tourist Destinations. This standard covers the 5 pillars of governance, innovation, use of technologies, universal access and sustainability in such destinations. This standard was first published in 2016 and has now been updated and improved, following a diagnosis relating to its practical application in 4 destinations: Benidorm, Sanxenxo, Jaca and the Valle de Aran.
The standard can be applied to all kinds of tourist destinations; among other requirements, it includes those relating to the context of the tourist destination, leadership and commitment, risks and opportunities, planning and objectives, and tourists' and citizens' evaluations and satisfaction.
In addition to the aforementioned standard, UNE has published standard UNE 178502:2018 Indicators and tools for smart tourist destinations, which establishes the characteristics of a Smart Destination Platform capable of providing a comprehensive view of the destination and ensuring the quality of tourism data.
To achieve this, the platform must facilitate decision-making, enable the coordination of services in order to offer tourists a better experience, and offer information in an open data format so that it can be used both by tourists and by all players in the sector in order to identify business opportunities aimed at increasing efficiency, sustainability and quality in the services provided.
These world-pioneering standards have been promoted by SEGITTUR (Sociedad Mercantil Estatal para la Gestión de la Innovación y las Tecnologías Turísticas), which coordinates the working group responsible for the development of these standards within the Technical Committee for Standardization CTN 178 on Smart Cities of UNE.
In total, 25 standards have already been published that will contribute to the transformation towards a smart city, and Spain has taken on a prominent role in this field.
