(soft upbeat music)
- My name is Juan Daniel Nunez
and I am a founder and CEO @SmartTravel.News.
This is actually the first cruise congress
held in Andalucia.
It is organized by Suncruise Andalucia,
which is an organization formed by the seven main ports
of this region of Spain.
And the idea was, of course to promote this part
of, Spain as a cruise destination,
because we have another, couple of destinations
but, this is a very particular part
of, Spain because we have the Mediterranean
and we have the Atlantic.
So we have like both seas there
and it's a very, peculiar spot to do cruises.
So, and also one of the interesting things about the,
this particular congress,
besides the fact that it's actually been held,
which is this big news these days.
But the, program was very focused on technology
which is something that I really appreciate
because, besides of course the, authorities part
and everything,
we have a very tight schedule of technology conferences.
We are talking about big data, artificial intelligence,
lots of new technologies that can be applied
to travel in general
and specifically in cruise.
We have a seven different ports.
We have three of them belonged to the Mediterranean,
three of them belong to Atlantic.
And the one we are here now, which is a Seville.
Actually, it's like a city port,
and it's very curious because it is only, urban port
if you will, in Spain,
that can be reached from the sea for cruises.
So it's a very particular one.
And actually,
the idea is to rotate the events
so that in the future,
this is the first division, of course,
but in the future,
the idea is that they will rotate to all of the seven ports.
Spain, for instance, has been very active in developing
the, rules and for Smart Destinations.
So actually, there is a link between all those things.
We have several Smart Destination already in Spain,
certified.
So,
we want to extend that kind of policy
to transportation
and to, hospitality.
So of course, cruise is a part of that.
And we want people to have a smart experience
while they're on the cruise.
But we want it to be consistent
and we needed to, find,
we need them to find that when they get to the destinations,
they're still gonna have a smart experience.
And, of course on the side of the cities
and destinations.
There are lots of technologies now involved on the way
that they can actually manage that information.
So that they know where people are,
where people are spending money
so that we can fight over tourism, of course.
And it's something that we've learned with COVID
is that, there is another way of doing travel
also, and some of the destinations have slowed down,
of course, because it is what it is,
but we've learned that we can do things in another way.
So hopefully,
one of the good sides of this all terrible thing
would be that maybe we learn to, plan
a more sustainable travel in the future.
Yeah, actually the, session was about how to use technology
to promote cruises and so we had peoples
from, different technology companies.
And, and one of the most curious things
that, I learned yesterday was that,
actually it is not that important,
the technology as knowing what you really need
and when they approach destinations and cities,
first thing for them is to try and figure out
what they really need,
because you can easily fall into a fashion or a fad
or something like that, or buzz word, it
happens a lot in technology, you know.
So one of the curious thing, I was talking
to three technology people,
but they were saying was,
is the technology is not that important.
First thing is to really know what they need
so that we can provide the technology
that they actually go into use
and find also, the people that are going to manage
that technology later because we are...
And that was also one of the, topics yesterday.
We need some kind of new skills and new people
to actually work with the data,
it's not just about having that data,
but making a smart use of it.
And we have like three theme blocks,
very defined this year,
which was, of course our technology novelty
and today experiences.
I believe that, that would be like a, framework
for the future,
but we will have of course more experience
and we will have more companies.
This year we've had this mix of virtual conferences
and people actually here in person.
But you know, especially in Spain,
I think we love events and it's gonna come back big.
So,
so hopefully we've gained some experience
just I mentioned before,
just the fact that we've been able
to, carry on with the idea and actually hold the event.
I think it's a little miracle if you will.
So in this context,
I think later next year, will be even better.
See you hopefully next year for the 2021 edition
of the Congress of Smart Cruises and Technology.
(upbeat music)