The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism has announced aid aimed at the digital transformation and modernization of local entities integrated into the Network of Smart Tourist Destinations that are part of the Camino de Santiago in its different sections, with the aim of contributing to an improvement in the attention and experience of the pilgrim on their journey.
“With these grants we completed the deployment of the Xacobeo 2021-22 National Tourist Plan, an unprecedented program of 121 million euros for the revitalization of this millenary route with which we are rehabilitating the historic heritage of the Camino, improving sustainability and enriching the tourist offer of the Xacobeo destinations, and now also, promoting the use of innovative technologies so that the municipalities of the Camino gain competitiveness and continue to find in the tourist activity a source of employment and wealth, which helps them to set their population ”, explained the Secretary of State of Tourism, Fernando Valdes.
The basic order that regulates this aid has been published today in the Official State Gazette and can be consulted in its entirety at the following link:
https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2022/01/13/pdfs/BOE-A-2022-553.pdf
Beneficiaries
It establishes as possible beneficiaries the groups of local entities (made up of a minimum of 3 entities and a maximum of 8) that belong to the same route of the Camino de Santiago and present projects to solve common needs related to the Jacobean route. Applicants must be members of the Smart Tourist Destinations Network or have applied for membership before granting the aid.
Grants between 500,000 and 1 million euros
Beneficiaries will be eligible for grants of between 500,000 and one million euros to finance actions such as:
– Strategic plans related to digital transformation.
– Modernization and digital transformation in destination management (provision of technological infrastructure for destination connectivity; data processing; ICT platforms; implementation of an intelligent tourist office; development of systems, tools and applications based on language technologies and computational linguistics; implementation of tools that allow the digitization of tourism companies and value for tourism (commerce, restaurants, travel agencies; implementation of technological tools to expand the "economic footprint of the Camino de Santiago" in destinations and tourist companies located in remote areas of the main route; generation of tools aimed at the business sector and the public sector; implementation of digital solutions such as chat bot or augmented reality …)
– Quality actions.
– Actions in training and entrepreneurship.
– Other actions with a potential positive impact on the Camino and on the pilgrim experience: from the point of view of improving and adapting physical infrastructures and natural surroundings, improving services for pilgrims and actions in terms of awareness and training.
The deadline for submitting applications will be open for a period of one month from the next publication in the Official State Gazette of the extract of the call regulated by this order of bases. The Ministry makes the following mailbox available to interested parties to answer questions: consultations.ayudas@segittur.es