Visit Benidorm
Benidorm, Spain
December, 2024
A Trailblazing Journey to Innovation and Sustainability to Become 2025 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism
Context
Benidorm has been a trailblazer in travel and tourism since the 1960s, when this former village with roots tied to the Spanish Merchant Navy Corps in the 18th century, on the coast of Comunidad Valenciana (Spain) transformed into an international tourism destination, thanks to a vertical urban development model with unique features. Over the decades, Benidorm has undergone various transformations to remain competitive in a dynamic tourism market while ensuring sustainable, long-term growth that benefits both locals and visitors.
In 2019, Benidorm became the world’s first Certified Smart Tourism Destination under the UN Standard 178501: Management System for Smart Tourism Destinations. This milestone has had far-reaching positive impacts, positioning Benidorm as a tourism innovation hub that leverages cutting-edge technology, public-private collaboration, and strong governance strategies to transition toward a more resilient, sustainable, and profitable tourism model. This journey began in 2015 with a strategic plan to make Benidorm a regenerative and circular destination. Central to this transformation is data intelligence, which not only enhances the destination’s value proposition but also shapes travellers’ perceptions, driving meaningful changes that promote sustainability.
Key goals
To establish the foundation of its Smart Tourism Destination model, Benidorm implemented an ambitious plan that placed data intelligence at the core of its strategy. This approach informed decision-making in destination management, resource planning, travel experience enhancement, and the overall integration of all stakeholders. The travel intelligence framework developed by Mabrian proved instrumental in supporting Visit Benidorm’s successful candidacy for the 2025 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism, a prestigious recognition granted by the European Commission.
Approach
Since 2017, Mabrian’s travel intelligence platform has been measuring and monitoring Visit Benidorm’s performance throughout the entire travel cycle. By leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, the platform provides actionable insights to support destination planning and management.
This framework provided measurable milestones in key areas assessed by the European Commission to grant the recognition to Benidorm as 2025 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism, including the adoption of digital solutions and tools, implementation of sustainable practices, diversification of the tourism value proposition to reduce seasonality, and climate resilience—demonstrating how climate perceptions contribute to more sustainable tourism planning. Moreover, it highlighted the extent to which travel and tourism generate tangible benefits for local communities.
Mabrian’s insights highlight the remarkable transformation of Visit Benidorm, showcasing how sustainability and innovation has been balanced into its tourism strategy.
- Measuring and mitigating seasonal and motivational dependance: Using 2019 as a benchmark, data reveals significant advancements in product diversification, resulting in an impressive Seasonality Balance Index score of 84.6 (out of 100). This achievement reflects the successful distribution of tourism arrivals throughout the year, supported by an improved Tourist Product Balance Index of 64.7 points.
- Improving access to the destination: To combat seasonality, Visit Benidorm has implemented a more heterogeneous market acquisition strategy, betting on increasing air capacity to its reference airport, in Alicante, by +21% over five years. This growth is particularly notable in short-haul (+40%) and medium-haul (+15%) networks, reinforcing international connectivity to Alicante’s airport, which now accounts for 85% of available air seats—a +17% rise since 2019.
- Diversifying tourism value proposition with active, gastronomy and wellness experiences: In 5 years, Benidorm has also diversified its tourism offerings, boosting demand for less seasonal drivers, such as gastronomy and wellness (+5% and +2% since 2019). Active tourism has surged by +59%, driven by a focus on blue tourism, golf, and outdoor sports, leveraging both urban and natural settings. This shift has extended the average stay to 6.2 days, increased the Tourist Product Satisfaction Index by +1.2% (to 72.3), and driven a remarkable +15.5% growth in the Global Tourist Perception Index, now at 76.7 points.
- Measuring and increasing visitors’ satisfaction: safety, climate, and accommodation. Travel intelligence has also helped Benidorm to strategically manage key aspects of the destination’s value proposition. Hotel accommodation satisfaction has improved by +21% since 2019, and the Perception of Security Index, key to appeal to international markets, is exceptionally high at 95 (out of 100). Benidorm is also committed to address climate resilience not only adopting sustainable solutions for energy, water, waste, and resources management, but also treating climate perception as a key factor to protect and enhance the destination’s reputation: in fact, expectations and actual perception of climate conditions by travellers visiting Benidorm are quite aligned achieving a positive Climate Perception Index of 90.2, a +7% increase over five years, reinforcing the destination’s reputation and sustainability goals.
Results
By measuring and monitoring travel and tourism performance through a robust data intelligence system powered by Mabrian’s travel intelligence, Benidorm has achieved remarkable success, recognised and certified by various instances, and contributed to navigate the challenges the pandemic posed to the destination. This success culminated in its appointment in November 2024 as the 2025 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism.
This accolade celebrates Benidorm’s integration of environmental conservation, economic stability, and social enrichment into its tourism strategy. It also highlights the city’s commitment to green practices that enhance the visitor experience while improving the quality of life for residents.
