As part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and with the goal of modernizing the tourism sector, initiatives such as the Platform of the Open Innovation Ecosystem (PIA) have been developed. The PIA is part of the Smart Destinations Platform (PID). The PID integrates, relates, and combines public and private data to generate greater competitive intelligence across Spanish destination ecosystems, fostering continuous innovation while interconnecting and responding to the needs of all agents in the tourism value chain: tourists, destinations, and companies.
What is the PIA?
The Platform of the Open Innovation Ecosystem (PIA), part of the Smart Destinations Platform (PID), is a strategic initiative to promote digitalization, open innovation in tourism, and a collaborative model for tourism innovation ecosystems. The PIA is composed of three key components:
- Sectoral Data Space.
An ecosystem where different stakeholders can voluntarily and securely share data.
- Sandbox.
An agile, isolated, and controlled innovation space to develop and test technological solutions for the tourism sector, leveraging the potential of cloud computing services. - Marketplace.
A single portal for digital solutions in the tourism sector, where destinations and businesses can access apps and services developed by any actor in the ecosystem (destinations, companies, entrepreneurs, etc.).
Stakeholders and Governance
The Platform of the Open Innovation Ecosystem (PIA) is designed as an open, public-private ecosystem that connects all tourism stakeholders: destination managers, tourism businesses, tech companies developing tourism-related software and services, public administrations, universities and research centers, sector associations, and tourists.
The PIA as an Integrative Ecosystem:Sandbox, Data Space and Marketplace
- A developer company or destination with strong technological capabilities may, if desired, use data from the Data Space within the Sandbox environment to test and validate new solutions. This connection is optional and non-exclusive. Once the solution is ready for deployment, it can be published in the Platform of the Open Innovation Ecosystem (PIA) Marketplace for dissemination or to make it available to other sector stakeholders.
- A business-focused tourism company typically holds a large amount of valuable data generated from its activities. The PIA’s Data Space serves as a showcase to commercialize this data, allowing the entire tourism sector to benefit from its insights.