News / 5 October, 2023
The Spanish Tourism Institute (Turespaña) and the Donostia / San Sebastián City Council, through Donostia San Sebastián Turismoa, will organise the 3rd Turespaña Convention, from 23 to 25 October, at the Kursaal Conference Centre. They have also received the collaboration of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and Basquetour (Basque Tourism Agency). Under the title "The sustainable transformation of tourism", the central theme of the convention will be the search for sustainable management of tourist activity from a triple environmental, social and economic perspective. The convention will be structured in two parts. On the one hand, an extensive programme of round tables and presentations with some of the most important representatives of the national and international tourism sector, and on the other, on the third day of the event, a section dedicated to bilateral meetings between tourism councillors, staff from Turespaña and the Secretary of State for Tourism and tourism destinations and companies.
This year, as a new feature, there will be an area dedicated to the presentation of successful experiences in sustainability issues by companies from different tourism sectors. In addition, the 4 best practices of collaboration of different companies with Turespaña will be presented, which can serve as examples of synergies to advance in a greater public-private collaboration.
The central theme of the convention is closely linked to the Donostia San Sebastian Tourism Master Plan, which is committed to sustainability as a cross-cutting theme in all its actions. It will also examine gastronomy as a sustainable tourism driver.
San Sebastian was chosen in March 2022 as the venue for the III Turespaña 2023 Convention, following the official call launched by the organisation for the selection of destinations in December 2021, to which 20 destinations applied. The convention was held in Seville and Barcelona in previous editions.
Panels and presentations
The Convention will start with a first round table with the participation of representatives of the main companies in the tourism sector to talk about the "Keys to the Future: The Challenges of Tourism in 2024". "Tourism Sustainability: Where are we?" is the title of the second round table, which will be dedicated to assessing the road travelled and still to be travelled in the transformation of the tourism sector towards digitalisation and sustainability. The following three round tables, entitled "Marketing and communication of environmental sustainability", "Economic sustainability and digitalisation in business" and "The social impact of tourism on host communities", will address the issue of the triple environmental, social and economic sustainability, digitalisation and the impact of tourism on destinations, and will analyse the work of marketing and communication of sustainability.
Among the various presentations included in the III Convention are, among others, "Gastronomy as a driver of sustainable tourism development", a conversation between several chefs and gastronomic managers, or the conference "The World to Come", where an expert will guide us to the digital transformation or artificial intelligence and its applications to tourism.
San Sebastian, as host city, is recognised as one of the best sustainable and responsible cities at international level, and one of the great gastronomic destinations in the world. During the Convention it will present its extraordinary cultural and gastronomic offer, and the new sustainable tourism challenges it faces. The programme of the 3rd Turespaña Convention in Donostia / San Sebastian will be completed with an official welcome dinner offered by San Sebastian Tourism at the Miramar Palace, and another networking dinner on Monday, hosted by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, at the Balenciaga Museum.
The Convention is a place for meeting, coordinating and planning the internationalisation of tourism in the state, its destinations and companies, and a space for public-private collaboration in which to share good practices and set joint objectives for the international promotion of tourism in the run-up to 2024. Registration to attend this third edition of the Turespaña Convention in person was opened last July on the Turespaña website and will remain open until 6 October.
More information: https://convencion2023.spain.info
