European Tourism Innovators Address Real City Challenges Through Co-Creation Methodology
Boldest participated in a significant milestone for the ST3ER programme: a collaborative workshop titled “Challenging the Mindsets in the Tourism Sector” hosted in Cádiz, Spain. This gathering brought together all ST3ER grant recipients for intensive collaboration focused on addressing real-world tourism challenges through innovative technology solutions.
The workshop exemplified the European Union’s commitment to fostering collaborative innovation that serves communities while advancing technological capabilities in the tourism sector.
Innovative Workshop Methodology
The ST3ER workshop employed a unique co-creation methodology that combined direct destination experience with collaborative problem-solving. Rather than traditional conference formats, participants engaged in active learning through guided exploration of Cádiz followed by structured collaboration sessions.
The program structure included:
Guided active tour of Cádiz designed to provide participants with firsthand experience of the urban tourism environment. This experiential learning approach enabled consortium members to observe visitor flow patterns, infrastructure challenges, and authentic discovery experiences within a historic European destination.
Multidisciplinary co-creation sessions where teams addressed specific sustainability and digitalization challenges identified by the municipality of Cádiz. Teams worked collaboratively to develop practical solutions that integrate multiple technology approaches.
Addressing Real Municipal Challenges
The workshop focused on genuine challenges facing Cádiz’s tourism sector: Improving tourist distribution throughout Cádiz while enhancing visitor experience and supporting local businesses in underutilized neighborhood
Technology Integration and Innovation Outcomes
Boldest reimagines the travel map as an immersive discovery platform, transforming how destinations are explored, experienced, and shared. The co-creation process demonstrated significant potential for technology integration across different ST3ER projects, positioning Boldest as the central digital solution capable of leveraging and integrating capabilities from diverse stakeholders across the tourism ecosystem.
During the workshop, Boldest provided a practical demonstration of rapid digital transformation capabilities by delivering a complete interactive map and accompanying microsite for Cádiz’s town center within hours of the morning exploration session. This real-time implementation showcased how modern tourism technology can achieve premium results with unprecedented speed and efficiency.
The demonstration proved particularly valuable for participating DMO managers, illustrating that sophisticated digital transformation initiatives need not require months-long development cycles. Instead, professional-grade interactive experiences can be conceptualized, developed, and deployed within a single working session, fundamentally changing expectations for tourism technology implementation timelines.
Readers interested in accessing the interactive map and microsite demonstration created during the Cádiz workshop are welcome to contact us directly. We are pleased to share these working examples of rapid tourism technology deployment.
Knowledge Transfer and Continued Collaboration
The Cádiz workshop established ongoing collaboration frameworks among consortium members, including planned virtual collaboration sessions and potential joint presentations at international tourism conferences.
More significantly, the workshop provided validation that AIMTO addresses genuine challenges identified by European destinations. This market validation from municipal stakeholders reinforces our development priorities and confirms alignment with real tourism sector needs.
Future Collaboration and Development
The relationships and collaborative frameworks established in Cádiz will continue throughout the ST3ER development timeline. These partnerships represent genuine opportunity for European tourism technology to develop as an integrated ecosystem rather than competing individual solutions.
We extend our appreciation to Fundación Bahía de Cádiz para el Desarrollo Económico for exceptional workshop coordination and to all consortium members for their collaborative engagement and knowledge sharing.
The future of European tourism technology is being developed through exactly this type of collaborative innovation: community-focused, multidisciplinary, and committed to genuine problem-solving rather than purely commercial objectives.
