Tourism data platforms move centre stage in Spanish cities
A new multimodal data system for a major tourist hub signals how Spanish destinations are using EU-backed platforms to manage tourism more tightly.
A new multimodal data system for a major tourist hub signals how Spanish destinations are using EU-backed platforms to manage tourism more tightly.
Follow Tenderlake on LinkedIn for concise insights on public-sector tenders and emerging procurement signals.
A project in Málaga to provide technical support for a smart destination platform will create an integrated tourism data system, designed to link city management more closely to European funding rules and to Spain’s growing network of smart destination platforms.
On 21st November 2025, the Junta de Gobierno del Ayuntamiento de Málaga published a contract notice for “Technical Support for Smart Destination”. The brief centres on deploying technological platforms and digital solutions to enhance tourism management in the city.
According to the notice, the project will create an integrated multimodal system that centralises data capture, storage, processing and analysis. Centralising these stages of the data cycle is intended to give the city a more complete view of what is happening across its tourism activities.
The contract also stresses coordination among stakeholders. Tourism management usually involves multiple municipal departments and external partners; the new system is described as a way to support coordination across these stakeholders rather than operate in isolation.
A further objective is compliance with European fund requirements. The notice makes clear that the digital architecture is not only about tourism operations, but also about how activity financed with European money is managed. By linking the platform to these requirements, Málaga signals that traceability and reporting obligations will be built into the way tourism data is handled.
Málaga’s move sits within a wider push in Spain to build smart tourism destinations based on shared digital platforms and data spaces.
In July 2025, the Dirección de la Fundació Mallorca Turisme launched a contract for Smart Platform Development for Mallorca. That project covers strategic advice, design, development, integration, evaluation and maintenance of a smart platform for tourist destinations, including the creation of modules and the management of infrastructure and cloud services.
In the same month, the Ayuntamiento de Vinarós advertised Smart Destination Platform Development, combining the development and implementation of a smart destination platform with dissemination and communication services, funded by the European Union’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Earlier in July 2025, the Ajuntament de Castelldefels sought a mixed contract for a Smart City platform to enhance its intelligent tourist destination, also supported by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Larger cities are moving in the same direction. In October 2025, the Ajuntament de València published a notice for the development and support of PID-Valencia, a technological platform that integrates and analyses real-time data from various sources to support tourism management and municipal services. A day later, the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona tendered Smart Destination Platform Development for Pamplona-Iruña, seeking assistance with design, development, integration, evaluation and maintenance of a platform focused on tourism and interoperability with the national smart destination platform.
At state level, the Sociedad Mercantil Estatal para la Gestión de la Innovación y las Tecnologías Turísticas (SEGITTUR) is building the national layer of this ecosystem. In July 2025 it issued a contract for Support Services for Smart Infrastructure, covering support for the evolution of the central node of the smart destination platform for a smart urban infrastructure data space, including software development and deployment. The description of this contract as a “central node” points to a shared national layer that local systems such as Málaga’s can connect to.
The Málaga tender focuses on technical support as much as software. That emphasis echoes other Spanish procurements that pair platform development with long-term governance, training and communication tasks.
In November 2025, the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla advertised a contract for Digital Capability Enhancement for Tourism, seeking a strategic office and software development capacity to improve the digital capabilities of the city’s tourism operations. In June 2025, the tourism department in Valladolid signalled its intention to procure Valladolid’s intelligent destination platform implementation, explicitly including a technical support office for project management alongside development of the platform itself. And in October 2025, the Diputación Provincial de Cáceres published a prior information notice for a Technical Office for Smart Tourism, tasked with creating and coordinating support for the province’s smart tourist management platform, with a strong focus on awareness, training, communication plans and graphic design.
Taken together, these notices show that smart destination investments are not only about procuring software platforms. They are also about building internal capability to manage complex data flows, coordinate multiple actors and explain new tools to local businesses and residents. Málaga’s requirement for coordination among stakeholders and alignment with European fund requirements fits squarely within this pattern.
While Málaga’s notice concentrates on the data backbone, other contracts show how smart tourism platforms are being made visible to visitors. In November 2025, the Ayuntamiento de Nerja went to market for Information Kiosks and AI Avatar Installation, covering LED information kiosks and posts in tourist areas, data analytics reports and a customisable AI-powered avatar, together with support and maintenance services. In October 2025, the Ayuntamiento de Cádiz tendered an Intelligent Tourist Signaling System to replace existing signs with a comprehensive intelligent system, including software for an intelligent tourist platform, interactive screens and a visitor control system.
Elsewhere, local authorities are linking digitalisation to sustainability and basic services in tourist spaces. In November 2025, the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Sierra de Cádiz tendered for Electric Propulsion Street Sweepers to improve cleanliness in tourist public spaces using clean technologies and zero-emission vehicles. In August 2025, the Diputación Provincial de Jaén launched a mixed contract for Digital Transformation for Tourism, aiming to enhance the tourist model through innovative technologies and sensor systems that facilitate data capture and advanced analytics for sustainable tourism management.
In June 2025, the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Sierra de Cádiz also set out plans for Digital Services for Sustainable Tourism, including a flow quantification system, a new website, digital brochures, immersive cultural heritage experiences and maintenance of a destination management platform. Later in the year, councils such as Medina del Campo and Montilla moved to procure Smart Tourist Platform Implementation and a Smart Visitor Center Project, combining platforms with digital content and immersive visitor experiences.
Regional bodies are also preparing to join this wave. In September 2025, the government of the Principality of Asturias outlined plans for a technological solution for its destination platform, covering analysis, design, development and implementation of a comprehensive platform for smart and sustainable tourism, with integration to existing systems and support services. And in August 2025, the municipality of Las Rozas de Madrid set out plans for an Intelligent Destination Platform for Tourism, requiring both system integration with existing platforms and project management oversight.
These examples point to a layered approach: back-end platforms to manage data and governance, visible infrastructure in public spaces and a growing concern for environmental impact. The Málaga smart destination support project fits into that structure as a central data and coordination layer on which more visitor-facing services can be built.
The Málaga contract notice leaves important details – such as specific datasets and technologies – to later stages, but its core message is clear: tourism management is becoming a data and coordination challenge as much as an operational one. The integrated multimodal system, and the emphasis on stakeholder coordination and European fund compliance, place governance at the heart of the project.
As Spain’s network of smart destination platforms expands through 2025, observers will watch how effectively local systems connect to the central node being developed for the national smart destination platform and smart urban infrastructure data space. For Málaga, the test will be whether its new support arrangements and data infrastructure can turn integrated information into practical improvements in how the city plans, manages and evaluates tourism.
Follow Tenderlake on LinkedIn for concise insights on public-sector tenders and emerging procurement signals.