The Tech Tourism Cluster faces a new stage with more than 150 companies and an ambition that goes beyond continuing to grow in number of partners: to convert the connection between tourism and technology into a competitive advantage for Catalonia. Its new president, Amaia Marsà, assumes the position with the challenge of consolidating the ecosystem, making it grow based on concrete projects and initiatives, and contributing to positioning the territory as a European benchmark in tourism technology.
Since it was launched four years ago, “the cluster has grown a lot, also in comparison with other clusters.” So much so that it has become, according to Marsà, the first traveltech cluster in Southern Europe. To do this, it incorporates companies from various areas of the tourism value chain. After exceeding 150 partners, “now is the time to focus on the consolidation of the cluster,” articulated around companies with hybrid business models between technology and tourism.
Thus, the priority is no longer so much to reach a certain number of partners, but to add actors that complete and add to the ecosystem and, above all, to promote projects that energize it and generate “shared value.” The traveltech ecosystem that the cluster brings together is already varied: led by tourism and technology companies, it also includes administrations, technology centers or universities, in addition to startups, many of which have passed through the Barcelona Travel Hub.
From this diversity, the objective is to promote innovation applied to the tourism sector: “It goes much further than a concept of associationism, of networking. In the end, it is a matter of collaboration and innovation,” Marsà summarizes. Thus, the function of the cluster is, to a large extent, to connect the needs of some companies with the capabilities of others. Marsà defines it as an “orchestration function”: knowing the problems of some and identifying the solutions offered by others within the ecosystem, to broaden it.
The diversity pursued by the cluster is also territorial. Currently, 83% of its companies have their tax headquarters in Barcelona, compared to 11% in Girona, 3% in Tarragona, and 2.5% in Lleida. The distribution reflects the business concentration itself, but the cluster wants to expand the territorial impact: “We do not want to stay only in Barcelona, but to reach all of Catalonia, and for many more companies to be able to benefit.”
To strengthen this ecosystem, the cluster is structured through working groups. Currently, it works in areas such as talent, artificial intelligence, and data. One of the projects it is shaping is a digital twin of the Catalan tourism sector: a digital replica that would allow companies to test solutions in a simulated environment using synthetic data, which will allow experimentation without exposing real company information.
In addition, as Marsà explains, work is being done on other tools to boost artificial intelligence within the sector, such as one that allows measuring the degree of AI maturity within a company. Through a self-diagnosis, each company will be able to know its level and receive possible use cases adapted to its subsector. The goal is to "land it in very practical cases," as Marsà highlights, also marketing director at Voxel.
Technology as a foundation
Despite the necessary boost to the technological potential of the sector, the new president of the cluster emphasizes that "the objective in itself is not technology"; its usefulness lies in its ability to improve areas such as traveler experience, destination, accommodation, and company management, and help companies make data-driven decisions.
In this sense, technology can act outwards, allowing a better understanding of the visitor, anticipating their needs, and moving towards more personalized experiences, but also inwards, automating tasks, reducing costs, and improving operational efficiency. In addition, technology can help better manage visitor flows and connect cities like Barcelona with other surrounding destinations, leveraging the metropolis's potential as a gateway for visitors to discover a wider territory.
The role of technology is such that the ambition is for a time to come when it no longer makes sense to talk about traveltech, because technology will have become a central element of the tourism sector, and everything that is travel will also be tech: "Technology must be part of the foundation." In this sense, "technology does not have to be seen, it must go underneath."
The weight of the technological factor also influences another key element for the sector, and for the cluster: talent. The travel sector demands profiles that move between tourism and technology, a "hybrid talent" that, in turn, requires strengthening the transfer between universities and companies, according to Marsà: "Technology is no longer an extra value, it is an expected value."
The cluster also confirms this through other international ecosystems with which it is in contact, and also in prospecting trips and international fairs. The latest trip, to China, has shown even more forcefully the importance of technology, and the path that still remains to be traveled. This path involves Catalonia being recognized as a pole of innovation and technology linked to tourism; in a territory that is a reference in both worlds, the cluster proposes that it also be so in their confluence.
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