The Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster (CTDPP) seeks to strengthen governance to increase competitiveness at all levels of the tourism value chain in the area, therefore, the free webinar “Smart Territories” was held as part of the project: “Improving the Integrated Management of the Puerto Plata Destination”.
The initiative, which introduces the first phase of the project, featured presentations by the expert in innovation and destination governance, Christian Arteaga, CEO and Co Founder of SmArt Tourism & Hospitality Consulting, and Felipe Veras, sustainability expert and vice president of Green Destinations, who through their respective entities, will be involved in the process of creating an accessible, transparent and globally available sustainability program for the Puerto Plata destination.
In his presentation, Arteaga highlighted the importance of making a call to action to strengthen local governance, through an active integration of all the actors that make 
up the tourism ecosystem of Puerto Plata, and with a conceptual model that includes collaborative innovation, new job opportunities and technologies.
Topics for a referral program
Veras indicated that, through Green Destinations and together with SmArt Tourism & Hospitality Consulting, they will seek to introduce a recognition program for destinations, which will include the following themes: Destination Management, Nature and Landscapes, Environment and Climate, Culture and Tradition, Social Welfare, and Business & Communication.
Nati Casado
Nati Casado, executive director of the Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster, thanked the speakers and valued the contributions shared during the webinar. She said that, as next steps, a co-creative workshop will be held in person, linking various stakeholders and representatives of local institutions to select the strengths needed to reactivate or reconfigure the destination.
He added that, in the process of developing this initiative, a training program in tourism sustainability will be offered to 20 SMEs prior to the Good Travel Seal program. This activity will serve to generate a base of content and technical concepts related to good practices in sustainability for participating companies, in order to incorporate the key elements associated with sustainability indicators under the Good Travel Seal standard, which is in turn aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council GSTC standard for the industry.
“With this project we seek to continue actively advancing towards a sustainability standard for the Puerto Plata destination, aligning ourselves with the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals. We are very excited about this process that begins in Puerto Plata, bringing for the first time to the country one of the most advanced models of self-diagnosis at the global level, to measure 18 axes of Puerto Plata, with a view to better integration, better governance, connectivity, and sustainability,” he pointed out.
Source:Arecoa.com
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