On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, a meeting was held between the DECI GLOBAL research group and the Valencian Community Hotel and Tourism Business Association (HOSBEC) in order to meet research objectives set for the Valencian Agency for Innovation (AVI) in the tourism sector of the Valencian Community (InnoEcoTur), in which the University of Alicante participates for the development and implementation of the project in the province of Alicante.

Specifically, as a representative of HOSBEC, has participated Jorge Ferrándiz Roche, from the area of Sustainability, Innovation and Digitization, and from the DECI-GLOBAL group the researchers Bartolomé Marco Lajara, Mercedes Úbeda García and Esther Poveda Pareja. The meeting began with the presentation of the research objective by the representatives of DECI-GLOBAL, highlighting its orientation to the generation of value in the Valencian tourism ecosystem and its relationship with Circular Economy practices. In this sense, the researchers focused on detailing the research stage of the project, requesting HOSBEC the possibility of collaborating to create joint synergies from a double perspective. On the one hand, the direct participation of HOSBEC in the development of a focus group whose duration is estimated to be around 60-90 minutes, which will take place in the period between the end of novemnber and the beginning of December. On the other hand, the possibility that they help us to contact two or three hotels that are willing to participate in said focus group. The response to both proposals by HOSBEC was favorable, so this meeting marks the beginning of a mutual-help relationship for both groups that certainly, will generate information of great use for the project InnoEcoTur.