Digital transformation and training define Hotel Innovation Day Mallorca

The closing day of the Mallorca Digital Hospitality Program held at the Hipotels Playa de Palma Convention Center was marked by a high attendance of more than 200 people linked to the tourism sector. It featured 3 round tables and 2 inspirational talks discussing the latest technological trends in the hotel sector in terms of training, profitability, operations, and customer experience.

The event, organized by Schôolers.io and the Mallorca Hotel Federation (FEHM), brought together hotel professionals from the Balearic Islands in a day highlighted by top-tier speakers who emphasized the importance of human value and technological innovation to face the challenges of the present and the future.

The President of the Balearic Islands Government, Francina Armengol, opened the event by expressing gratitude to hotel companies as drivers of digital transformation and innovation, and the public-private collaboration to create synergies. She stated, "We feel that we need to link ourselves to a more digital economy." She also highlighted that the tourism law is related to sustainability, which is closely linked to digital transformation, another challenge we face as a community and society.

Francina Armengol, President of the Balearic Islands Government, giving her welcome speech.

Maria Frontera, President of FEHM, noted that technology is here to help us, to relieve us of cumbersome procedures, and, of course, to help us be more effective, to better understand operations, to make accurate decisions, and to be more sustainable.

Bernat Cañellas, CEO of Schôolers, made his intervention alongside a digital avatar that conducted the speech. He thanked the authorities for their collaboration and highlighted the need for technological training to be not only more effective but also more sustainable as a destination and society.

The Future of Hotel Operations and Business

The tourism sector business as we know it today will receive a significant impact from technology, leading to a radical transformation, similar to what has happened in other markets that seemed like they would never change, such as music, film, or dining. 

Although it may seem that the digitalization of the tourism sector is advancing rapidly, Beatriz Heras, Project Manager at ITH, confessed that "more than 70% of hoteliers think they are digitally transformed, but we have found that only 35% of the sector is in line with digital transformation." She also mentioned that incorporating technology to optimize staff work is one of the big challenges, and at ITH, they are working on collaborative robotics "to improve working conditions for staff with elements such as motorized beds or Scratch programming so that staff can focus on higher-value tasks." 

Jose Carrillo, CSO of EISI SOFT, emphasized the need to "apply big data to measure asset management indicators and compare them with other hotels in the chain or with the compset as is done with reputation or price. This data collection, if adequately analyzed and contextualized, can generate new business opportunities."

Xavi López, moderator of the panel; Beatriz Heras of ITH; Mateo Ramón of Grupo Piñero; Antonio Moll of Dynasoft; and Jose Carrillo of EISI SOFT.

At Grupo Piñero, their CIO Mateu Ramón detailed that the digitalization strategy is associated with sustainability, profitability, and customer experience: “We have the data to govern, to produce real-time P&Ls, apply artificial intelligence, and make future forecasts,” but also to improve the customer experience, and make “things happen that the customer enjoys,” through correct and timely use of data.

Antoni Moll, CEO of Dynasoft, emphasized that "no one doubts that artificial intelligence applied to business in the medium term will result in a drastic change in the time we spend working. In the much shorter term, technology will allow us to optimize and automate through data, but first, we need to obtain and analyze those data in real-time."