Main conclusions of the III National Meeting on Open Data

The III National Open Data Meeting (better known by its acronym ENDA) took place on 31 May 2024 in the Gothic Hall of the Papa Luna Castle, in Peñíscola. The event was organised by the Diputación de Castellón, with the collaboration of the Diputación de Barcelona and the Government of Aragón. This Third Meeting took over from those held in Barcelona and Zaragoza in 2022 and 2023, respectively, thus closing the first cycle of meetings and giving way to three new organisers with new ideas and new challenges to face.

The main theme of the day was the promotion of the tourism sector. The objective was to ensure digitisation and easy access to open data in order to offer quality and sustainable tourism experiences.

Crucial issues related to effective management, strategic analysis and implementation of data in an increasingly information-driven world were addressed during the meeting. Round tables and conclusions of work carried out by experts in the months leading up to the congress provided a comprehensive view of the application of open data in the tourism sector and all its associated activities, with the aim of benefiting not only the public administrations themselves, but also the private sector and the general public.

 The III National Open Data Meeting lasted approximately eight hours and was attended by almost 100 people. The organisers decided not to broadcast the event live, as had been done in previous editions, in order to encourage spectators to attend the castle in person.

Start at 08:30 a.m

The event started at 08:30 in the morning with the staggered arrival of attendees and the distribution of accreditations. Half an hour later, at 09:00, the official inauguration of the Meeting was held by Marta Barrachina Mateu, President of the Provincial Council of Castellón. The event welcomed the attendees and thanked the organisers, especially the Diputación de Castellón, for their great work in organising, disseminating and convening the event.

At 09:15 the opening speech was given by José Norberto Mazón López, Professor of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of Alicante. José spoke about the importance of creating a data-driven society, not only at the Spanish level, but also at the European level. He highlighted that there has been an exponential increase in the value of tourism data compared to the first data that started to be collected way back in 2018.

He further stressed that such data is underpinned by 3 main axes, namely public administrations, private businesses and citizens, and that it is crucial that all three entities collaborate with each other to ensure the quality, integrity and reliability of the data.

Table 1: Tourism and the economy: a data space for growth and development

The first round table, entitled "Tourism and economy: a data space to favour growth and development", started at 10:00 and was moderated by Sonia Castro García-Muñoz, Coordinator of the Digital Public Services Department of Red.es. The speakers at this first round table were as follows:

• Sergio Ballentani, Head of the Comunitat Valenciana Geoportal/Tourist Map.

• Desam Garcia Sevilla, Technician of product creation for international promotion and tourism of the Diputación de Valencia.

• José Luis Galar, Head of the Analysis and Strategy Area of Aragon Tourism.

• Francisco Mestre, President of the Network of the Most Beautiful Villages of Spain.

This first round table dealt with the use of geographic data as a driving force for tourism thanks to the interactive services they can offer and which facilitate tourist movement. The need to use European standards to standardise the structure of the datasets and thus optimise the exchange of data between public administrations was also addressed, and it was stressed that Spain is currently the country most visited by tourists and one of the most competitive in the world in the field of tourism, highlighting the role played by private businesses and companies in the sector.

Once the first round table was over, there was a 30-minute break for coffee, stretching the legs and sharing impressions with the speakers and the rest of the attendees.

Table 2: How data can improve experiences and make tourism sustainable

After the break, the second round table, moderated by Borja Colón de Carvajal, Head of the Public Administration and Innovation Service of the Provincial Council of Castellón, began with a debate on how data can improve experiences and make tourism sustainable. This second roundtable featured the following speakers:

• Virginia Ochoa, Manager of the Castellón Provincial Council's Tourist Board

• Luis Falcón, President of the ASEDIE Geospatial Commission.

• Alberto González-Yanes, Deputy Director of Statistical Modernisation of the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (ISTAC).

• Enrique Crespo, Technical Advisor in the Directorate General for Transparency and Quality of Madrid City Council.

• Juan Carlos Lázaro López, Technical Manager of Open Data of the Government of Navarre.

The main topics discussed on this occasion were the use of open data to solve common problems of today's society in the field of tourism and how an intelligent use of these data can offer competitive advantages to administrations. To this end, a comparison was made of the situation in the province of Castellón, in the Canary Islands, in the city of Madrid and in the Community of Navarre.

This second round table discussion also focused on the main reasons why Spain is year after year one of the favourite destinations for tourists, concluding that up to 80% of visitors are attracted by the sun and beach product offered by our country.

Impact of open data

This was followed at around 13:30 by a brief presentation on a series of methodologies for measuring the impact of open data, given by Roberto Magro, coordinator of the Open Data Working Group of the FEMP Network and Deputy Director General for Youth, Children and Adolescents of Alcobendas City Council. Right after, Alberto Abella, Data Modelling Expert at Fiware presented the 4th report on open data in Spain. This round table was chaired by Ana Coroján, Head of Projects and Research at the NovaGob Foundation.

Roberto began by telling us how even today there are many public administrations that do not believe in data and, as such, either share bad data or do not share it at all. In this sense, he encouraged all attendees to make an effort to raise awareness among other public bodies about the importance of sharing reliable, truthful and quality data. It also called on re-users to make use of these data and make them available to citizens through data products such as visualisations and/or mobile applications.

Alberto presented the conclusions of the Cotec Foundation report on the reuse of open data in Spain. The main key points he highlighted in his presentation were that the number of open data portals had remained stable compared to the previous year, increasing the number of datasets available on them, but at the same time reducing the quality of their metadata, as well as the dissemination of this data to the public. Finally, he regretted that there are still 6% of the datasets that are either outdated or not available at all, which in his view is too high a percentage and should be minimised for the following year.

Table 3: Public management: Data-driven public policies to improve tourism activity

The third and last panel of the event took place after lunch, around 15:45 and was moderated by Vicent Rubio, Open Government Technician of the Castellón Provincial Council. This round table dealt with data-driven public policies to improve tourism activity, and consisted of the following speakers:

• María Tormo Casañ, Deputy for Participation and Transparency of the Castellón Provincial Council.

• Montse Giró Torrens, Head of LabTurisme, Diputació de Barcelona.

• Joseba Asiain Albisu, Director General of the Presidency, Open Government and Relations with the Parliament of the Government of Navarre.

This roundtable addressed the main challenges faced by public administrations in opening up data, as well as the key solutions and strategies they have implemented to achieve this, and the benefits these solutions have brought them, especially in the field of tourism.

Among other things, the importance of street surveys was highlighted as a fundamental tool for gaining first-hand knowledge of citizens' impressions, as well as their nationality, motivations and purchasing power, in order to be able to adapt the services offered to their needs.

Conclusions and closing of the event

Finally, the last block of the event was led by Marc Garriga, CEO of DesideDatum and rapporteur of the meeting, in which the main conclusions drawn throughout the session were presented, to finally introduce the next 3 organisers of the next triennium of meetings, which will be, in this order, the Government of the Canary Islands, which will organise the 2025 Meeting, the Government of Navarra, and finally the City Council of Madrid, which will be responsible for hosting the third and final meeting of this second phase.

Finally, as for the challenge for this year, it is still to be defined and the plan is to make it public in the coming weeks, and then include it on the website.