Digital Europe: digital transition for tourism in the 2021-2027 budgetary period

“Digital Europe” is a new Programme that is part of the 2021-2027 EU budgetary period, with the aim of bringing citizens, businesses and public administration closer to digitalisation. 

The pandemic has accelerated the digital transition, and the European Union plans to allocate €7.6 billion for the following areas of interest: supercomputing (€2.2 billion), artificial intelligence (€2.1 billion), cybersecurity (€1.6 billion), advanced digital skills (€580 million), widespread use of digital technologies (€1.1 billion). 

The tourism sector is highly considered in two specific Actions such as the “European Common Data Space for Cultural Heritage“, which concerns the digital transition of the cultural sector, and the “Mobility“, which focuses on a key aspect for the advancement of the sector. 

Furthermore, the transversality of tourism allows SMEs to benefit from additional support services offered by the European Digital Innovation Hubs. These are business support centres offering services, e.g.: business/production improvement through digitisation, training, financial advice, etc. 

The call for projects “Preparatory Actions for Data Spaces” is open until February the 22nd 2022; the third priority is “Preparatory Actions for Data Space in Tourism”, with a budget of 1 million euros. The final objective is the creation of a secure Data Space to improve the economic and environmental performances of tourism, as well as to enable the sharing, processing and analysis of sector data. The preparatory actions are aimed at creating the ideal conditions for the functioning of the Data Space, investing in a governance mechanism for data sharing, leading to the creation of sustainable business models and systems that incentivate data sharing. The consortium of stakeholders must demonstrate an international dimension and has to show solid experience in tourism management and data analytics.  

At Twissen, we observe that digitalisation is fundamental to the development of a more flexible, resilient and, above all, interconnected tourism. These characteristics are essential for recovery within the current context, which is particularly dynamic and full of challenges. 

Twissen