A chatbot that is assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance communication and access to resources and services for both residents and travellers, through a regular and harmonised open procedure is proposed by Benidorm Council. The council will advertise this project for tender as part of the initiatives outlined in the “Benidorm Vision 360” Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan. The project’s basic budget is €327,349.58, according to Mayor Toni Pérez.

The mayor of the tourist capital of the Valencian Community stated that the objective of the development of this chatbot is to “provide information and assistance efficiently and accessibly through a conversational virtual assistant, implementing advanced artificial intelligence technologies.”

As stated in the tender documents, this virtual assistant must “provide detailed and up-to-date tourist information on local attractions, events, and services; facilitate interaction with municipal services, ensuring accessibility and multilingualism; integrate with the City Council’s existing digital platforms to optimise the user experience; and ensure informational consistency.” Additionally, it must ensure that this solution is scalable, allowing for its future evolution and integration with other municipal tools.

The mayor emphasised the “improvement in information, experience, and user satisfaction” that this tool will provide to the City Council. A chatbot enables “real-time responses to queries about transport, accommodation, tourist attractions, cultural events, municipal procedures, and environmental information,” providing citizens and tourists with a dependable tool that can be accessed from any internet-connected device.

A variety of languages

It also enables the dissemination of information that is more inclusive, accessible, and multilingual, which is “essential for Benidorm due to the large influx and diversity of tourists it attracts.” Lastly, this tool will also facilitate the advancement of transparency and citizen engagement, as well as its integration with the DTI Platform and other municipal open data systems. This will enable the City Council to refine its tourism, cultural, and environmental strategies by generating metrics and indicators based on user interaction with the ‘chatbot’ and orienting them towards the genuine needs of the community and visitors.

The Parks and Gardens brigades of the Elche City Council can take comfort in the fact that the service they have been providing has been gradually outsourced. A new contract that is presently being tendered, which is similar to the one that was already signed in 2024, guarantees them “extra” work. This year, the municipal government plans to acquire over 22,000 flowers, plants, and shrubbery of up to 150 distinct species to enhance the city’s aesthetic appeal, a practice that has been a defining characteristic of Pablo Ruz since his appointment as Mayor in June 2023. More than €88,000 will be allocated from public funding for this purpose.

Last year, a contract was awarded to a company in Valladolid in June, with a value of just over €82,600. In February of last year, a decision was made to acquire additional flowers, plants, and shrubbery, totalling just over €8,000. This was due to the fact that there were no additional plants to be planted and the contract was set to expire in June. In other words, they completed the entire year’s worth of plantings in just eight months, but they believed it was worthwhile to acquire additional plants.

Complaint filed by the PSOE

The Ruz administration has acquired additional flowers in addition to this one. Councillor Patricia Macià has lodged a complaint alleging that the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) submitted €60,000 in purchases from nurseries to the Anti-Corruption Office in 2024 without a contract. In December 2023, the Socialists also discovered an additional €40,000 in purchases that were dispersed across flower and plant enterprises.

This new contract is anticipated to be implemented in June. However, it is not the sole ornamental plant initiative for 2025. The newspaper reported that another contract is being negotiated with a company to oversee the maintenance of all gardening and replacements in the Municipal Park. This is similar to the work being conducted on the Ronda Sur for the Elx Oasis project, which includes grass meadows.

Mayor Ruz disregards the opposition’s criticism, particularly that of Socialist spokesperson Héctor Díez, concerning the expenditures on flowers and their maintenance. In a plenary session, Díez denounced the payment of nocturnal overtime to water plants, which he regards as a “waste of public funds.” The governing team did not contest the accusation. It is possible that they intend to maintain this policy.

“Significant pressure”

What is the reason for the increased demand for plants? In accordance with the contract document, “it is due to the ornamental necessity to enhance the city’s living conditions.” These plants are subjected to a significant amount of stress in the urban environment, as they are constantly plagued by pests and diseases, as well as vandalism, accidents, and damage from trenching or other construction activities. This leads to a relatively high mortality rate among these plants, necessitating the implementation of campaigns to replace shrub species and floral plants in order to preserve the municipal plant heritage.

The City Council is not economising on plants and will acquire a diverse array of species, including shrubs, bushes, and subshrubs, climbers, ground cover plants, perennial plants, roses, seasonal flowers, and native plants for revegetation. With the exception of herbaceous plants and seasonal floral plants, which will be guaranteed for one month, a six-month guarantee is required. The plants must be delivered to the Municipal Nursery in a state of readiness for planting; in reality, the contract stipulates that transport conditions must be maintained to prevent dehydration. When would you like to plant them?

Fifteen days

The City Council specifies a five-day deadline for the delivery of the material if it is accessible at the company’s facilities, or a 15-day deadline if it is not. The technicians are requesting the ability to inspect the nurseries themselves in order to verify the quality of the material they are receiving. Additionally, they are requesting the ability to divide deliveries according to the municipal program’s forecasts. For instance, this involves associating a particular flower or plant with a particular season. This would be the case for the chrysanthemums in the vicinity of All Saints’ Day.

Two individuals, a man and a woman, have been apprehended by the National Police in Elda. They are accused of thieving from two establishments in the town, namely a restaurant and a bar.

The 39-year-old is accused of robbing a restaurant, swiping a cash register containing €1,750 after forcing open the establishment’s metal shutter to gain access.

The 35-year-old, in turn, robbed a bar, escaping with €800 in cash, a cigarette machine valued at €2,000 that contained packets of cigarettes worth nearly €1,200, and several bottles of alcoholic beverages, bringing the total stolen to over €5,000.

A second individual, whom they are also endeavouring to apprehend and locate, was present with the woman who was apprehended.

In other news, the National Police announced on Tuesday 18th March that the individual arrested for the robbery at the restaurant in the Medio Vinalopó municipality was in the Foncalent prison in Alicante. He had been detained during the investigation for incidents unrelated to the current case.