The Tourism Innovation Summit closes its fourth edition in Seville with the participation of more than 7,000 congress participants

The Tourism Innovation Summit has made it clear that FIBES, the Seville Exhibition and Conference Centre, is a fundamental infrastructure for the city. With the total opening of the tourism markets, FIBES has become the perfect setting for events of this magnitude. For three days, more than 7,000 congress participants, 417 industry experts, 43 international delegations and 198 exhibiting firms gathered in this impressive space to share knowledge, strategies and innovations that are shaping the future of tourism.

The event has had a significant economic impact for Seville, injecting more than 20 million euros into the city, highlighting the importance of FIBES as an economic engine and meeting point of international relevance.

Innovating to push boundaries

Under the theme “Travel revolution takes off,” this edition of TIS focused on presenting the latest technological innovations and disruptive trends in the tourism sector. The summit highlighted the need to adapt the tourism offer to the travel habits of the digital age, especially in relation to Chinese tourism, a growing market.

The opening of China’s borders to tourism has been a major milestone, and the TIS unveiled the most innovative practices in promoting tourism in China. Adapting to the highly digitalised and quality-demanding Chinese market has become a priority for Spanish tourism companies. Jennifer Zhang, CEO of Asialink, stressed the importance of adapting content to the Chinese “look & feel”, offering high quality products.

Among the trends that have caught the attention of the Chinese traveller is the use of livestream and virtual tourism, which has experienced significant growth since the beginning of the pandemic. Ada Xu, EMEA regional director of FLIGGY, Alibaba Group’s travel and innovation platform, shared her experience in selling virtual travel as a way to maintain the link between China and Europe.

The great showcase of tourism innovation

This event has consolidated the city as the world’s leading showcase for tourism innovation. This year, the fair moved to Pavilion 2 of FIBES, which doubled the size of the exhibition area. More than 200 firms exhibited the latest solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud, business intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, web 3.0, cybersecurity, big data & analytics, marketing automation, GIS, contactless technology and predictive analytics, among others.

Leading companies such as Accenture, Amadeus, CitySightseeing Worldwide, Eurecat, Mabrian, Telefónica, CaixaBank, PastView, T-Systems, Turijobs, UnBlock and Why Tenerife have contributed to the consolidation of Seville as a top-level tourism innovation centre.

The Tourism Innovation Summit 2023 in Seville has shown that the city is not only capable of hosting large-scale events such as this one, but that it is also at the forefront of innovation in the tourism sector. With FIBES as its host and openness to new trends in international tourism, Seville is positioning itself as a benchmark in the industry, providing a significant economic and cultural boost for the region. Innovation in tourism is the key to the city’s future, and this fourth edition has marked a milestone on this path of transformation and growth.