Santander Smart Destination: the era of smart destinations

Smart tourism isn’t about technology, it’s about business (and many still don’t get it)

The reality: the problem isn’t attracting tourists

For years, the tourism sector has been obsessed with promotion: campaigns, trade shows, advertising… more traffic, more visits.

Wrong.

Today, the problem isn’t attracting tourists. It’s managing them properly.

Overcrowded cities, poor experiences, wasted resources… and meanwhile, tons of unused data.

This is where the real concept of smart tourism comes in: using technology to make decisions, not to decorate projects.

The key: data + execution (not PowerPoints)

The so-called Smart Destination Platform (PID) aims to fix something basic that almost no one was doing right:

• Understanding what’s really happening in the destination
• Sharing data between stakeholders
• Making decisions based on real information
• Creating useful services, not tech smoke

But here’s the important part:

👉 Having data is useless if you don’t know what to do with it.

And that’s where most people fail.

Santander as an example (but this applies to any company)

The Santander Smart Destination project isn’t magic.

It’s simply doing things right for years:

• technological infrastructure
• organized data
• long-term vision

And now all of that turns into competitive advantage.

This isn’t just for cities.

👉 This is exactly what happens with companies that digitalize properly vs those that improvise.

Real opportunity for businesses (this is where the money is)

Most tourism SMEs are out of the real digital game:

• No access to efficient distribution channels
• No use of data for decision-making
• Dependence on third parties (and paying the price)

With this new model:

• New channels open up
• You can create your own digital products
• You can compete with intelligence, not price

But of course… someone has to build all of this.

This is where I come in (and no, this isn’t theory)

All of this sounds great in conferences.

But then reality hits:

• systems that don’t integrate
• poorly designed APIs
• messy data
• no automation at all

And that’s where businesses lose money without even realizing it.

At Carlos Herrera Consulting, this is exactly what we do:

• Custom development (WordPress, Laravel, APIs)
• Process automation
• System integrations
• Real business solutions, not demos

👉 Translation: we make technology actually work and generate revenue.

Conclusion (no fluff)

Smart tourism isn’t the future. It’s the present.

The difference is clear:

• some will keep building pretty websites
• others will build systems that generate business

If you’re in the tourism sector (or any digital business), the question isn’t whether you’ll use data…

👉 it’s whether you’ll know how to use it before your competition does.

Let’s talk

If you have a project and want to do things right from the start (or fix the mess you already have):

👉 Reach out and we’ll go straight to the point.