Seville Leads Tourism Recovery Plan with Antigen Tests at TIS 2020

Seville, Spain, November 16, 2020 / TRAVELINDEX / Tourism recovery is possible if countries start collaborating and developing systems to ensure a safe travel and experience through antigen tests or technology. Seville will prove this idea at the upcoming event Tourism Innovation Summit, held on 25, 26 and 27 November, where all participants will have access to a Free Covid Antigen Fast Test by Abbott.

The Advisory Board of the organization was reunited this week formed by public and private tourism organizations such as WTTC, ETOA, Skal international, Necstour, Amadeus, Telefónica, Mastercard, Magnolia, Mabrian, CaixaBank, EY, City Sightseeing Worldwide, Iberia or Deloitte, among many other leading organizations. The board decided to officially give green light to the first edition of TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit 2020 in Seville, as a real need of the industry to meet and define a recovery plan. The city will host this event from 25 to 27 November thanks to the support of the Seville City Council, the Andalusian Government and the Secretary of State for Tourism, with a unanimous decision of celebration.  

TIS will become the pilot and a recovery guide for the tourism sector in 2021. During three days, Seville will bring together top brilliant tourism, technological and government key players to define new measures and strategies to boost recovery and redirect the ups and downs of the pandemic on the following season. Some of the top speakers announced are the president of WTTC, Gloria Guevara, the smart tourism expert, Doug Lansky, the founder of Musement-TUI, Claudio Bellinzona, the UNWTO Innovation Manager, Natalia Bayona, the Europe Director of PATA, Daniela Wagner or the CEO of City Sightseeing Worldwide, Enrique Ybarra. 

“We expect Seville to become the key global epicentre for the economic recovery of the tourism sector by using outstanding technology. This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that this event can be held with current health regulations”, said Antonio Muñoz, Deputy City of Seville. “Seville is capable of holding a great event like TIS that will showcase the key to tourism recovery in our country. We are aware of the situation, but we are convinced of the benefits of holding this congress”. 

“Tourism Innovation Summit was born as an event focused on technology to boost the competitiveness of the tourism sector, but now it will also be focused on its economic recovery. This is a congress created by and for the industry that will make Seville the world capital of technological innovation in the tourism sector,” explained Albert Planas, CEO of TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit. “200 of the most brilliant minds in the field of tourism innovation will take part of the summit. Additionally, Portugal will be the guest country in this first edition, as a benchmark destination for the sector thanks to its strategy to reposition itself as a global tourism destination”.  

TIS 2020 agenda will include extensive health prevention protocols to ensure maximum safety on travel. For this reason, in addition to the current measures established by the health authorities, free antigen tests will be offered to all attendees, speakers and staff of the organisation. In fact, this is the main safety measure and the principle demand from the tourism industry worldwide to all the competent authorities: antigen tests at origin and destination, to recover the confidence of travellers and tourists, as it is expected that the virus will not disappear in a short time. “In this sense, TIS will assume the benchmark reference event position”, concluded Albert Planas. 

Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, from Junta de Andalucía, explained how the administration supports this event as it is fundamental for the reactivation of the tourism sector in our country. Cardenete also explained his commitment to the digitization of the sector with the implementation of different initiatives such as training and the granting of subsidies for tourism SMEs to go digital. “TIS is in line with our commitment to achieve tourism internationalization with the help of new technologies. We hope that circumstances will allow us to hold this event as we cannot paralyse the economy”, said Cardenete. “We want Seville to be the first reference in the world in terms of tourism and what is to come thanks to digitalization and new technologies”. 

Tourism Innovation Global Summit
During the three days of the congress, several relevant topics will be discussed, such as public-private collaboration, the application of the Internet of Things to the industry, as well as voice systems, automation, Artificial Intelligence or data analysis for better management of companies and tourist destinations. On the last day, the ‘World Tourism Manifesto’ will be published, a manifesto that will serve to raise the voice of the tourism industry from Seville to the world, and which will include recommendations and measures that could be taken to reactivate the economy.