A strategy to boost tourism in Seville

The Seville City Council have launched the Plan8_Sevilla for tourism in the city and for recovering the employment in the sector after the health crisis of COVID-19.

The measures are propose as eight lines of action in the short and long term, and will be developed through specific municipal policies.

From the Town Hall they are aware that the recovery of tourism will be continuing and will depend on the progress made in the restrictions imposed by the government for the reopening of bars, restaurants and accomodation businesses, regarding concentration of people in establishments, or the free circulation of people, among other factors.

In this sense, the recovery of the tourist market will begin with Domestic Tourism. For this reason, the local government stresses that the most imminent actions to be developed by this Plan will focus on national tourism. The connectivity reactivation will be necessary to achieve this end, and therefore a Transport Connectivity Plan (vehicles, trains and cruises) is expected to be developed, to add and complete the interventions and purposes set forth in the document.

The text also includes actions aimed at attracting professional events within the context of Business Tourism. The MICE section (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) is made up of 56% of national events, and almost 26% regional, which is why it is key in achieving these objectives, for which they must go hand in hand Tourism of Seville and Contursa-FIBES.

The measures, in turn, consider the scenario of a new model of tourism that arises after the public health crisis, and analyze what key aspects must be taken into account to face the new challenges. The action program put an emphasis on terms such as quality and safety for the development of this activity from the beginning. The commitment to these values ​​are considered not only primaries, but also decisive in attracting visitors and seducing agencies and tour operators with offers that meet requirements demanded by both the health authorities and the clients themselves.

Confidence and public assistance for freelancers and SMEs

Building confidence for the visitor to feel comfortable in the city is therefore one of the main objectives of this Plan. To do this, its measures will avoid mass tourism and will try to control the inflows to the monumental sites and the city center.

Within the Plan8_Sevilla a series of direct actions are exposed: one fiscal, and another one focusing the strenghts of different tourist resources, with which to relieve the situation of many workers in the sector. These measures will be defined throughout these weeks, and they will seek to drive recruitment, to promote SMEs competitiveness and to achieve efficient tourism promotion in the coming months.

This initiative aims to support companies and freelancers in the sector to reactivate tourism activity. There is also a special interest in increasing the average stay of the visitor in the city, as well as in making tourism less seasonal. All these objectives previously set by the Urban Habitat, Culture and Tourism Area of ​​the Seville City Council.

For this purpose, they believe that the capital must offer original tourist resources that allow to expand the range of products and services that can be commercialized and, at the same time, should avoid crowds in the heritage complex located around Plaza del Triunfo and Plaza Virgen de los Reyes.

Smart Tourist Destination

The current situation faces new challenges oriented to innovation, promoting the digitization of the sector. To do this, the strategies established within and outside this context must be aimed at consolidating Seville as an Smart Tourist Destination (DTI, Destino Turístico Inteligente), in which sustainability become the center of the guidelines and real concerns of the immediate future of the city.

The set of interventions focused to be applied in the medium and long term includes recovering connections with localities outside the national sphere: firstly, with priority mature markets for Seville (France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, etc.); and, secondly, with strategic markets (Japan, China, South Korea). Ideally, the goal is for this recovery to go hand in hand with the awareness of different destinations about the improvements in security conditions that are being implemented in Seville.

Hence, to fulfill this purpose, perhaps another of the actions of the Plan deals with the development of a new communication and marketing model that contributes to restoring and improving the position of the Andalusian capital. For this, the bases must be established to develop first of all a new image of the City Brand, to present to the media and use the marketing tools (especially digital marketing) required in order to undertake joint promotion actions.

On the other hand, at a local level the Plan will seek to strengthen the alliances and collaborations established from now on with the tourism sector.

The planned budget for the execution of this Plan8_Sevilla considers two million euros for the next eight months. Along with this initiative, other Plans will be launched: one for Large Cities, of five million euros, to be paid over four years; and another for a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) program called UIA (Urban Innovative Action), of five million too, to be paid over three years.