In order to strengthen competitiveness and thus increase the profitability of investments whilst creating a virtuous circle, companies and destinations need to find new business opportunities. Moreover, they need to develop innovative processes which allow them to offer more value for the same price as its competitors, or even the same value for less, or both at the same time.

THR's objective was to design, develop, implement and update the aforementioned database, information and know-how in a three year period. This obviously included the search, acquisition, treatment and analysis of the required information.

In order to do that, it was desirable to rely on two practical mechanisms which allowed us to do the following:

• To train users and to inspire them to use the system.
• To improve and to constantly adapt the system to users' needs.

The required information and know-how system, should cover, at least, the following fields in a practical way:

• The aggregate demand according to sources and sectors.
• The forecasted source-destination fluxes.
• The consumer, their social status and the key factors which define their behaviour.
• The evolution of the highly complex distribution system and of air transport.
• The key regional and global events which might have an impact on the sector.

For this to happen, both primary and secondary sources as well as source market and Spanish stakeholders needed to be consulted.

Main tasks for THR to carry out in this project:

• Situation analysis and diagnostic.
• Study of (bimonthly) demand and of potential consumption indicators.
• Market research to identify different leisure activities.
• Competition analysis report.
• Business requirements for technology.

The resulting system was welcomed by users. This brought about an improvement in the quality of the companies and destinations' strategic decisions which will produce greater competitiveness in the Spanish tourism sector.