Ainhoa Raso, founding partner of the company TDDS (Tourism Data Driven Solutions), took part in the seventeenth session of the Planeta UAB lecture series, an initiative of the Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación (UAB) aimed at students of its master’s degrees.
This cycle of conferences is part of the project “Planet UAB: The journey to the other – equals in differences” organised by the UAB Cabinet during the academic year 2020-2021, with the support of the Fons de Solidaritat of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which organised a series of activities and awareness-raising actions based on the concept of the UAB campus as a “planet” and which dealt with major issues such as the culture of peace, sustainability, the environment and interculturality, among others.
Students from the Master’s in Travel Journalism, the Master’s in Environmental Communication and the Master’s in Communication and Education participated in this seventeenth session with Ainhoa Raso, entitled ‘Technologies applied to sustainable management in the tourism sector‘. The session discussed digitalisation, sustainability and different tourism and environmental projects. The co-author of the report ‘Spain, excellence as a destination’ addressed the changes that the tourism industry must face in order to consolidate itself as a benchmark in the commitment to sustainability and quality. In this regard, she analysed the role of BigData and digitalisation in the tourism sector, showing some key projects such as the Tourism Observatory developed by TDDS on the island of Formentera, a tourism intelligence system that provides information on what is happening in this town from different perspectives (employment, urban planning, meteorological information and environment).
Ainhoa Raso holds a BA Travel & Tourism Management from Thames Valley University of London. VP Innovation and New Developments at Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS). She has more than 20 years of experience in the international tourism industry and has worked advising governments, public entities and private companies in the development of innovative and sustainable management models.
The Gabinete de Comunicación y de Educación is a consolidated group specialised in scientific research and dissemination, which belongs to the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the UAB. Recognised by AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) of the Generalitat de Catalunya as a Consolidated Research Group on the basis of its trajectory, projection and development, it develops projects and research in the field of convergence between communication and education. Since its creation, it has developed initiatives aimed at integrating, with awareness and freedom, communication technologies in the so-called global or knowledge society. Under the direction of Santiago Tejedor, the Office organises several of its own master’s degrees, such as the Master’s in Travel Journalism (on-site and online), the Master’s in Communication and Education, the Master’s in Environmental Communication and the Master’s in Political and Electoral Communication Management. The group has a wide and varied collection of publications, in the form of scientific articles, books and book chapters, and other works, which is constantly being renewed. It also has a laboratory for teaching innovation projects, transfer and new formats that are conceived and developed from a perspective based on creativity and multidisciplinary work. Every year, the Cabinet organises an academic expedition that travels around the world with students from different universities and degrees. This is the Tahina-Can Expedition, which has been awarded as the best educational project in Spain. It also has the portal Tu Aventura, the educational platform infoEDU and the newsgames and science project Reporteros de la ciencia.
