Raquel Huete presents in the NECSTouR Network the system of the Agència Valenciana del Turisme for the innovation and training of tourism SMEs - RIS3CV

The Director General of Tourism, Raquel Huete, presented at a conference of the NECSTouR Network, the Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism, the system of the Agència Valenciana del Turisme to promote innovation and training in SMEs tourism in the Valencia Region. 

Raquel Huete has given a presentation on the' Challenges of innovation and knowledge in tourism SMEs' where she has presented the system of the Generalitat to promote innovation and training formed by the Valencian Institute of Tourism Technologies (Invat. tur), the training network of CdT, in addition to the system of universities. 

During the presentation, Huete highlighted that "one of the main objectives of the Agència Valenciana del Turisme is to promote research, development and innovation among tourist destinations and businesses", and added that to achieve this objective, "the Comunitat Valenciana has three systems, which work in a coordinated way, from where innovation is encouraged: the Valencian Institute of Tourism Technologies, the Tourism Centres of the Valencia Region and the Valencian Institute of Tourism". 

Thus, Huete explained in Brussels that Invat. tur "is specialized in the generation and transfer of tourist knowledge through the development of R&D&I projects and adaptation to new trends in all aspects of the tourism market" while stressing that this institute "is led by a multidisciplinary team made up of professionals with expertise in the areas of marketing, planning, new technologies, innovation, Internet and social networks, project development and research in the field of tourism". 

With regard to the Network of tourism training centres in the Valencia Region, the CdT, Huete has stressed that the seven existing centres throughout the territory "contribute to improving the skills and competencies of the workforce through Adhoc training programmes and public-private advisory committees". In this regard, he highlighted the business acceleration programmes that have been implemented through these training centres such as CdT Jobs and Accetur. 

In addition, the Director General has emphasized the projects launched in 2017, such as a Code of Ethics for Tourism, inspired by the UNWTO Code, the promotion of a landscape strategy, the promotion of new tourism products based on nature, or advice to promote intelligent destinations. 

Raquel Huete has highlighted that "from the Valencian Agency of Tourism we work with the priority objective of increasing profitability and seasonality of tourism activity" and for this reason "we are clearly committed to boosting tourism innovation through our centres of reference such as Invat. tur and the CdTs with the aim of increasing the quality of resources and tourist services in the Valencia Region". 

Finally, it has addressed the challenges faced by the tourism sector of the Valencia Region in which the Agència Valenciana del Turisme is working, such as "raising public awareness of the importance of tourism, promoting digital transformation, ensuring the development of sustainable tourism through the strategy 'Intelligent Tourism Destinations', which is part of RIS3-CV, promoting the collaborative work of all the administrations involved or internationalization". 

On the 8th of November, the three leading regions of the initiative "Digitalisation and Safety for Tourism" had the opportunity to attend the 2nd Steering Committee Meeting of the Smart Specialisation Platform for Industrial Modernisation organised in the framework of the Conference GROW your REGIOn on the 8-9 November in Valencia.

Ms Eija Raasakka from  Lapland (FI), Ms Alicia Fajardo from Andalucia (ES) and Mr Boštjan Brumen from Slovenia presented their vision for that new initiative which is adding tourism among the list of topics covered by the Smart Specialisation Platform.

Their intervention focused also on mission of the partnership with five other regions - Lazio, Tuscany (Italy), Castilla-y-Leon, Catalonia and the Valencian Region (Spain) - the basis of the investment thesis, the current status and the next steps.

On the previous day, a consortium meeting attended by all the partner regions and hosted by the Valencia Region, stated the next steps of the initiative.

NECSTouR is one of the main promoter of that initiative and fully recognise it as part of the activities of its working group on EU Funds for Tourism.