Carlos Bello: “We must become a tourism benchmark in innovation”
Our Innovation Director, Carlos Bello, is an expert in combining innovation management with business knowledge to enable the transformation of companies. After a long career, he joined ILUNION Hotels following leadership roles in Innovation and Sustainability at companies such as Iberdrola Inmobiliaria, Iberdrola, and LEAD Innovation. He is also an expert and Innovation advisor to the European Commission.
Q: What does the word #InnovAction mean to the Innovation Department at ILUNION Hotels?
CB: “It’s a call to action for all ILUNION Hotels employees. For us, it carries a lot of meaning, as it was created based on an assessment we carried out with employees on the state of innovation. In that survey, when we asked ILUNION Hotels employees to define what innovation should be for the company, we identified a definition that perfectly captured this new stage: IN (within), NOVA (new), and -CTION (action) — that is, the action of introducing something new. We want everyone to innovate, and what better way than using a word born from the thoughts of the people who make up ILUNION Hotels. For us, #InnovAction is a commitment from all ILUNION Hotels employees to innovate.”
Q: The Innovation Plan was also published this year. Within this Plan, you strive to put employees at the center. How did the Inno-leader position emerge?
CB: “The Innoleader is someone committed to innovation who leads a project throughout the entire innovation process — not just during the pilot stage. They act as the transmitter of knowledge and lessons learned, ensuring that the scaling of tested innovative solutions is done correctly across the company.”
Q: The Innovation Department also published a new policy. What stands out most from this document?
CB: “The Innovation Policy is a key element in the implementation of a company’s innovation strategy. At ILUNION Hotels, we began with an internal diagnosis of the state of innovation, then built the new 2023–2025 Innovation Plan, published the Innovation Policy, and are now defining the innovation processes. The most important aspect of the Innovation Policy is that it allows us to define and establish the principles and criteria that guide innovation actions in line with our purpose. It’s also crucial because it enables us to share the innovation strategy with our stakeholders to inspire transformation in both business and society. It’s worth highlighting that we’re the first hotel company to publish an Innovation Policy and one of the first in the tourism sector. Our goal is to inspire stakeholders by explaining what innovation means at ILUNION Hotels.”
Q: From Innovation, you also promote a synergy network — from sector companies to classrooms, through partnerships with university centres such as IE Business School. What do you aim to achieve with these kinds of actions?
CB: “From the Innovation Department, we contribute to the purpose of ILUNION Hotels. To ‘Build a better world with Everyone Included’, we want to raise awareness and work with our stakeholders, sharing knowledge with them and learning from them too. Open innovation ecosystems are essential in current innovation processes. We aim not only to make an impact at the business level but also in universities, research centres, associations, and among entrepreneurs. That’s why we collaborate with organisations like Cotec, Les Roches, Tecnalia, ITH, Madri+d, and IE Business School. Our partnership with IE marks a milestone in attracting top international talent to collaborate with ILUNION Hotels in identifying the technologies that should be adopted in the hospitality sector.”
Q: You’ve attended many conferences and forums this year. What do you try to highlight when you’re at high-profile events like South Summit?
CB: “I try to highlight our unique value as a purpose-driven company, where social, sustainable, and economic aspects all matter. The innovation we promote contributes to that purpose and is based on a hybrid-decentralised model. In this model, all ILUNION Hotels employees can take part, and synergies with stakeholder ecosystems are key (Open Innovation). I also like to emphasise that innovation is a structured process that facilitates value creation.” In fact, Bello was invited to the Startup Olé forum in Salamanca to explain this week how innovation contributes to the creation of purpose-driven services.
Q: What would it mean for the tourism sector to be more innovative 10 years from now?
CB: “For the tourism sector to be more innovative, we must rethink how to innovate in a constantly evolving industry, prioritise innovation, and understand it as an investment — a means to achieve medium- and long-term sustainability.
To become more innovative, we would need:
- A widespread innovation culture within organisations — the solid foundation needed for true innovation.
- Fans as clients — people who are loyal to our hotels because of our social and business model. In other words, shifting from mass tourism to purpose-driven tourism.
- The creation of new business models.
- To stop equating innovation solely with digitalisation.
- Interdisciplinary innovation — it’s vital for the sector to learn from what’s happening in other industries and adapt those solutions to our own. We’ll know we’re leaders in innovation when other sectors look to us for inspiration.
That’s why ILUNION Hotels must become a benchmark in tourism innovation and a model that inspires other sectors.”
Q: Do you believe AI or Big Data will be part of that innovation?
CB: “Big Data is already being used in tourism and still has a lot of room for growth in terms of leveraging data from various sources. As for Artificial Intelligence, according to Gartner’s 2023 Hype Cycle, AI is currently in an overinflated expectations phase, but over the next few years, some of those expectations are expected to solidify, leading to more widespread use. The tourism sector will follow a similar path, and the answer is yes — AI will clearly help boost innovation in the industry. We’re already seeing a lot of AI-related news in tourism, but it’s important to distinguish between real value-adding innovations and mere marketing.”
Q: What are the Innovation Department’s most significant achievements this year?
CB: “First, the transition to a Hybrid-Decentralised Innovation Model, where departments take on more responsibility for managing innovation. The Innovation Department supports by coordinating or leading innovation projects and actions.
Second, the definition of the 2023–2025 Strategic Plan, which builds on the previous plan’s philosophy and strengthens new areas such as innovation culture, competitive intelligence, and fostering an open ecosystem with stakeholders. We’ve set the roadmap for the coming years, which will be updated every two years.
Third, the implementation of an internal support structure and innovation management processes to facilitate coordination, execution, and scaling of our projects.”
Q: What actions are planned for the future within this area?
CB: “As with any transformation, we need to focus on consolidating what we’ve built in the first year: the innovation model, the processes, and the structure — to ensure everything works properly and creates value.
An innovation strategy needs a monitoring system to identify new solutions (technologies, services, products, etc.) and build toward the future. We’re currently defining our innovation funnel — the process through which we seek solutions that can be implemented in our hotel chain.
Opening up to the innovation ecosystem is still essential, so we’ll increase our engagement with innovation leaders to implement our strategy.
To inspire change, we also need to communicate with our stakeholders — this will be one of the main focus areas next year.
Last but not least, we’ll develop an innovation report to continue sharing what we’re doing at ILUNION Hotels.”