On Wednesday, December 4, we held the session “What should the TurismESS value chain look like?” at the El Clot Library – Josep Benet. This activity, which was organized with the support of Barcelona City Council and in collaboration with Calidoscoop, aimed to critically study the value chain of the tourist sector in Barcelona to collectively identify opportunities for improvement to promote the intersection with the Social and Solidarity Economy.

Theoretical session

The meeting started with a theoretical session led by Jordi Framis (Calidoscope), who defined the concept of “value chain” and presented several reference cases.

A value chain is a sequence of interrelated commercial activities that normally begins with the supply of raw materials, continues with primary production, continues with transformation and marketing, and ends with the final sale to consumers.

Starting from this traditional definition, he explained how value chains have evolved over time to the point where new technologies, innovation, creativity and the empowerment of users have made it possible to develop non-linear chains that skip intermediate points . For example: directly buying the parts needed to repair our bike, or installing photovoltaic solar panels to capture our own energy. So, nowadays, final consumers self-produce , self-manufacture and self-distribute the products and/or services they want to purchase.

On the other hand, it was also highlighted how at the end of the value chain, which traditionally ended with the sale to users, new processes have appeared that allow sharing and/or exchanging products with other users or even , return the products to previous links. At this point, dynamics such as reduction, repair, reuse, recycling or renaturation that are part of the so-called circular economy come into play.

After this introduction, teacher Inmaculada Díaz (Tudistar Tourism and Socioterritorial Dynamics Research Group) explained how the value chain of conventional tourism works and presented the agents who are usually involved. Broadly speaking, the following phases are identified: pre-purchase, purchase, transport, consumption and post-consumption.

This value chain has a perspective based on competitiveness and therefore, it would be necessary to rethink it from the values ​​of SSE to move towards a post-capitalist tourism.

In this context, new value chains in tourism were presented and something fundamental was pointed out in the framework of Tourism and SSE: thinking of the territory as a key and central player in the value chain.

Practical session

Once the first part was finished, the Aethnic and Calidoscoop teams organized a participatory dynamic with the attendees to co-create, jointly, the value chain of the TurismESS Ecosystem .

Firstly, a space for debate and reflection was created around the challenges that this task entailed and the participants were encouraged to propose key actions to address them. Some of the contributions were: “it is necessary to take a previous step and identify the actors involved in the Ecosystem”, “we must identify the value that each actor brings”, “we must define who the target user is” , “we need to find a space to cooperate”, “we need to find tools to promote mutual support” and “we need to identify common lines in such a diverse Ecosystem”.

With these reflections, it was decided to work together to identify existing (and desired) TurismESS actors in the links: pre-purchase, purchase, transport and arrival, consumption and post-consumption.

As a result, a map of actors was obtained ( see photos ) and the order of importance of each link was also agreed upon in order to prioritize them in future sessions. In summary, it was determined that the links should be addressed and worked on in the following order: 1) “Consumption”; 2) “Purchase”; 3) “Transport and Arrival” and that the “Pre Purchase” and “Post Consumption” areas should be transversal.

Finally, it was also emphasized that the agents who are part of TurismESS must be able to know each other, understand each other and work in a coordinated manner to generate value in an integral manner , and that competition must not occur within the chain itself but among others.