The head of the Hotel Managers Association on Wednesday, Christos Angelides, said that technology played a pivotal role in the way the tourism sector now operated.

In his address during the association’s annual general meeting, that was attended by deputy minister for tourism, Savvas Perdios, Angelides called for a joint effort for implementing the vision of a “smart tourist state.”

A smart tourist state, he said, would have the necessary tools and skills to follow what is happening globally in a number of areas such as the environment, technology and the economy.

“Within this everchanging environment we are called to constantly highlight our Cyprus as a world class destination,” he said, adding that the association had committed itself toward the implementation of a smart tourist state that would be in a position to analyse, foresee and plan ahead for the future.

He said that the association had suggested the creation of “tourist radar”, “a monster of collection and processing of data” and the creation of a database that would register the results of air carriers, tour operators, tourist businesses and hotels concerning Cyprus and its competition. It would also analyse trends and destination preferences per country, age, gender etc, Angelides said.

He called for the creation of a national research institute for tourism, and of a technology centre that would monitor and adopt the latest technological trends and applications and promote their application to the Cypriot tourist economy through tax and other incentives.

Angelides also called for the creation of a university school of tourism and hotel studies, of a continuing education centre and of a hospitality association fund. The latter would finance all professional associations with ultimate objective the upgrade and uniformity of their technological potential for better management and manipulation of information.

Source: Cyprus Mail