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📦 Paraty Tech, a tech firm specializing in direct sales, and Summarooms, a revenue management and hotel investment consultancy, announced a strategic alliance aimed at fostering innovation and competitiveness in the hotel industry. The collaboration will initially focus on the southern region of Spain, particularly on the Costa del Sol. Together, they aim to merge technological capabilities with expert revenue management to boost the commercial and operational performance of hotels and chains. Guillermo Laguna, CEO and founder of Summarooms, emphasizes the importance of reliable tech partners in implementing effective strategies, while Daniel Romero, director of alliances at Paraty Tech, highlights the success of spontaneous collaborations that have become case studies with common clients. The alliance also seeks to contribute to the technological modernization of the regional hotel sector and promote a culture of direct sales.

📋 The conciliation of accounting accounts ensures accurate financial reflection by comparing transactions with book entries, allowing for correct deductions and adjustments in case of discrepancies. This process, particularly for expense notes, can be complex without automation. Automatic conciliation through accounting software streamlines this, ensuring entries match bank transactions for deductions and inspections. It is essential for business travel expenses to reflect in accounting, comply with legislation, and integrate with travel management software, enhancing real-time data synchronization, expense transparency, and financial information access. Manual methods are error-prone, hence the recommendation of integrated, automated solutions like Zucchetti Spain's ZTravel for business travel management.

📢 Key players in the hotel industry's technology debate at Jardines de Sabatini Apartosuites on April 8 agreed that technology should enhance customer experience without overshadowing human contact. Beatriz Oficialdegui from Destinia, Jaime Colom from NICE, and representatives from Meliá Hotels International and Jardines de Sabatini highlighted the importance of invisible, user-friendly technology. Examples included seamless check-ins via WhatsApp and an AI search tool that didn't catch on with users. The discussion differentiated between digitalizing for communication variety and automating to replace human processes, emphasizing customer-centric tech deployment and staff training. A unified platform for customer understanding and personalized loyalty programs such as Destinia Rewards were also discussed, along with the use of simple tools like WhatsApp for customer service in smaller hotels. The ultimate conclusion: technological integration must focus on improving the customer experience, not just tech adoption.

🛫 Pymes turísticas en España solicitaron prórroga al Gobierno ante retrasos en pagos de ayudas de digitalización “Última Milla”. Convocatoria cerró el 13 de marzo de 2024, con ejecución previa al 31 de marzo de 2025; única prórroga hasta el 30 de junio de 2025. Ministerio de Turismo inició pagos parciales en abril siguiente al cierre, pero empresas aún sin financiación. Pendientes de hasta 300,000 euros causan problemas de tesorería. Sector urge extensión de plazo y agilización de pagos para evitar paralización de proyectos y pérdida de competitividad.

🏢 In 2024, Madrid hosted 54,784 MICE events (+2.3% from the previous year), with 2.58 million attendees (+2.28%), generating an economic impact of €5.674 billion (+8.3% from 2023). The average stay for national MICE tourists was 2.8 days (+28.6% from 2023), and for international tourists, it was 4.5 days (+2.22% from 2023). Almudena Maíllo presided over Madrid Convention Bureau's assembly, which introduced a new board for 2025-2027, focusing on sectors like fintech and e-health.

🏨 Andalucía and Cataluña each have approximately 121,000 hotel rooms, the highest in Spain. In 2024, Spain had an average of 14,613 hotel establishments with about 743,000 rooms and a 61.4% occupancy rate. Baleares and Canarias topped the efficiency chart with close to 75% occupancy. Baleares had a 77.05% occupancy rate, followed by Canarias at 74.23%. Castilla-La Mancha recorded the lowest occupancy at 35.47%.

🏖️ Govern balear will pass a decree on Friday preventing the creation of new tourist rental spaces in multi-family buildings throughout the archipelago. Marga Prohens announced the measure in October, aiming to regulate tourism in high-pressure areas. It won't affect semi-detached houses, paired homes, or rooms rented in the host's main residence. The decree will also unlock about 90,000 old tourist places previously irregular and non-reusable under the old law. Two temporary pools of tourist places per island will be created for hotels and holiday rentals, valid until each insular council determines its tourist carrying capacity, with no initial deadline of 2026. New establishments can buy tourist places without the former two-for-one penalty. Hoteliers criticize these measures as insufficient, with some preferring a model like Catalonia's, where tourist places expire with activity permits.

🏖️ Booking.com reports a surge in Spanish traveler interest for Easter 2025, comparing searches from March 7-14 for stays between April 17-21 to the same period in 2024. Top domestic destinations include Madrid (+74%), Sevilla (+129%), and Salou with the highest increase (+772%). Andalusia has four cities in the top 10, while coastal areas and cities like Bilbao (+277%) show significant growth. International destinations see Portugal leading, with Oporto (+346%) and Lisbon (+283%) at the top, joined by other European capitals. Flight searches from February 1 to March 15, 2025, also increased notably, except for Madrid (-9%). Popular destinations favor sunny locales like Gran Canaria (+41%) and emerging international spots such as Istanbul (+108%). Booking.com expresses optimism for Easter travels in 2025, with 57% of Spaniards rating local tourism highly.

🏖 Cataluña manages €206 million from Next Generation EU funds for 55 tourism sustainability plans, with a 48.3% execution rate as of now, exceeding EU requirements. Maximum execution deadline is mid-2026. Over €340 million invested in 227 tourism projects for digitalization, sustainability, and heritage in recent years. Miquel Sàmper and Jordi Hereu discussed the plans on April 3, focusing on climate change, efficiency, and green transition in tourism. Projects range from Amposta's sustainability to "Cataluña, tierra de sabores" for destination cohesion.