Suncruise Andalucía, the association that brings together the seven ports of general interest present in Andalusia and the Public Agency of the Ports of Andalusia, has celebrated the fifth edition of its CITCA Forum, this time under the title "Open Innovation: an opportunity for Cruise Tourism".
Within the framework of the Carmen Thyssen Museum Auditorium in Malaga, the association has addressed the importance of open innovation in the cruise industry, with the support of public administrations together with private entities interested in participating in the launch of startups with disruptive projects.
During the opening ceremony of the day, Rafael Carmona, president of Suncruise Andalucía and president of the Port Authority of Seville, pointed out that "it has been a success to try to take advantage of the innovation ecosystem that is emerging in Andalusia, which has two very powerful hubs with the technology parks of Malaga and Seville."
For his part, Víctor González, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport of the Andalusian Regional Government, noted that “the public and private sectors must work together to develop projects that improve society. We want Andalusia to be a leader in cruise tourism and to establish a cruise line that connects the main Andalusian ports. In this regard, new technologies will play a fundamental role in managing a tourism sector that has evolved better than other segments, adapting to the post-COVID era in an innovative and sustainable way.”
Subsequently, Esther Molina, general secretary and manager of Suncruise Andalucía, was in charge of directing the interventions of Eduardo Rodríguez, head of Digital Services at Orange Spain; Luigi Surace, director of Marketing and Sales at MSC Cruises; and Carlos Lora, founder of Espacio_RES; and José Antonio Zamborain, Technology and operations Transformation Manager at Banco Santander.
The event also included the presentation of the Success Story “From need to the development of a business model through Open Innovation. Process to turn the need of a large corporation into a business model supported by a startup”, by Manuel Ibáñez, Innovation Director of Espacio-RES.
Suncruise Andalucía has taken advantage of its fifth CITCA forum to announce the names of the three winning projects of the Suncruise Open Innovation Challenge Prize, an initiative whose objective is to find disruptive ideas and projects capable of generating new ways of traveling on cruises that are sustainable, innovative and digitized.
Representatives from the Port Authority of Malaga, the Public Agency of Ports of Andalusia, MSC Cruises, Santander, Orange and Espacio_RES studied all the applications submitted for the three challenges posed by Suncruise.
The first challenge, “Transformation of Transit Berth Management,” was proposed by the Public Ports Agency of Andalusia and sponsored by Banco Santander. The winning project was Search Marina, a SaaS compatible with any software to offer real-time berth availability.
For the second challenge, “Sustainable management of cruise tourism”, proposed by the Port Authority of Malaga and sponsored by Orange, the winner was the startup Unblock, a super app and smart tourism destination platform that connects city, spaces, businesses and people.
In the third and final challenge, “Improving the cruise passenger experience in cities,” proposed and sponsored by MSC Cruises, the winner was the startup Cactusoft, a platform that imagines, designs, and develops the digital solutions that customers need. It has two centers of excellence, one in Eastern Europe and the other in Spain.
