Eight municipalities of seven Spanish coasts, leaders of sun and beach, are allied to boost their requalification and to be more competitive
Salou, Benidorm, San Bartolomé de Tiraja, Lloret de Mar, Torremolinos, Calvià, Adeje and Arona integrate this 'pool' of destinations
They have been for the last 50 years, and are currently the "engine of Spanish tourism" to place it in a position of world leadership. And they intend to continue to do so by approaching the "integral re-qualification of their cities", "redesigning their offer with more value propositions that bring economic, social and environmental benefits" and "transforming their reality with a vision for the future." They are the tourist destinations of sun and beach.
The mayors of eight municipalities of seven Spanish coasts, leaders of this segment: Pere Granados, from Salou (Tarragona-Costa Daurada); Antonio Pérez Pérez, from Benidorm (Alicante-Costa Blanca); Marco Aurelio Pérez, of San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canarias); Jaume Dulsat i Rodríguez, of Lloret de Mar (Gerona-Costa Brava); José Ortiz, from Torremolinos (Costa del Sol); Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, from Calvià (Mallorca-Illes Balears); José Miguel Rodríguez, for Adeje, and José Julián Mena, for Arona - these last two of Tenerife - have formalized today at the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Madrid, the signing of the 'Declaration for an Alliance Of Tourist Municipalities of Sun and Beach '.
Milestone
The agreement marks a milestone in the history of tourism in Spain, and has been witnessed as hosts, the executive director of the WTO, Carlos Vogeler, and the president of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, Juan Molas. Also present were the director general of the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality (ICTE), Fernando Fraile; The senator Agustín Almodóbar; And the president of the hotel management Hosbec, Antonio Mayor.
This 'pool' of tourist municipalities was born with the aim of analyzing and sharing their challenges as destinations, exchanging experiences and knowledge from their singularity, proposing common strategies on how to guide and boost the progress of this important segment of the tourist business ; And of course, claiming to be a qualified voice before regional, state and even European administrations in their common challenges and in claiming financial support to be able to address them.
Specialization and segmentation
The mayors of the eight cities share a common opinion. "The development and promotion of 'sun and beach' destinations requires a greater degree of specialization of the offer to attract greater segments in preferences and motivations; And be able to offer combined vacations in the destination that complement the enjoyment of sun and beach with other activities and experiences.
Even though it is the leading segment in Spain, "sun and beach tourism has to be revised, reconverted, adapted to new demands and progress in sustainable development taking into account socio-demographic trends and the need to position itself in a growth environment Qualitative and competitive, where it is necessary to foresee a greater segmentation of the demand ", indicates the agreement.
Developing the model
The need to evolve its tourism model towards the concept of 'experiential destinations' and 'innovators' becomes common opinion of the eight leaders. And in this area, the improvement of the urban and environmental quality of their respective cities, the promotion of an offer with high levels of service and professionalism in all tourist activities, the configuration of an offer with complementary services and the fight against seasonality Tourism increasing the value of the product in the winter months from the specialization and the differentiation of destinations around segments of tourists with less seasonal profiles, become their most immediate challenges.
The eight signatory destinations of the 'alliance' represent, alone and with 10.5 million passengers, more than 10 percent of the almost 100 million tourist movements registered in Spain in 2016, and 16.5 percent of The 330 million nights of accommodation throughout the country (50 percent in sun and beach destinations, he added). "We are, therefore, an important part of the Spain brand," stressed the mayor of Torremolinos.
The mayor of Salou, Pere Granados, referred to the "paradigmatic case of the evolution of Salou from its natural and geographical reality." This singular fact "has allowed us to create and develop a great infrastructure with an excellent specialized tourist complex from the use of the sea, the beach and the sun."
Integral conversion of destinations
Granados has assured that "this alliance is generated in order to maintain our activity and our capacity of attraction creating a new space for reflection and debate." "It is necessary to be able to revise, modernize and reconvert the destination in an integral way, in accordance with the new demands, demands and trends of the market, in order to boost qualitative growth and a redesigned model with more added value The cooperation, "has bet.
The mayor of Adeje, José Miguel Rodríguez, has stressed that "with this initiative we want to intensify the promotion and development of new knowledge and advances aimed at improving the product and tourist destination, as well as offering more efficient public services." "Our ultimate goal should be to improve destinations, create wealth or generate quality employment, all thinking of well being and service to people."
"Creating this alliance in the framework of the WTO is to take advantage of all the synergies that we propose, their knowledge, the specific studies and programs they generate at the global level and, of course, join us in the proposals for sustainable development in a sector as important as The tourist, "he added. Promoting research and the use of new technologies that enable development and innovation, and promote cooperation between administrations, companies and agents in the sector, outline the road map of the alliance.
Rejuvenation Strategy
The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, has indicated the "key importance that, for the Canarian and Spanish economies, suppose our destinies and also have a very important pressure on the resources and the infrastructures that repercusses in our neighbors and, That we must demand more investment from the cabildos, the Government of the Canary Islands and the State and the European Union. " The first mayor stressed how Arona has already launched a new tourism strategy based on rejuvenating the profile of those who visit and on sustainability, and "only in 2017 we are investing more than seven million euros in improving infrastructure Township". Now we need more involvement from other institutions, "he added.
The 'sun and beach', successful tourist model
For its part, the mayor of Benidorm, Antonio Perez, has remarked that the 'sun and beach' is a successful tourist model, as evidenced by the fact that the eight municipalities of this alliance total more than 50 million overnight stays Per year. Perez stressed that "we must take care of what works", and also that "this is a task that involves not only the municipalities of these destinations, but the Autonomous Communities, the State and even Europe."
"It is necessary", he added, "that these administrations provide solutions to some of the problems that tourism municipalities have in common, especially in terms of financing", "to be able to offer quality services" so that "we remain Launches in innovation, technology, sustainability and universal accessibility ".
Tourism, key to the economy
His counterpart from the Mallorcan municipality of Calvia, Alfonso Rodríguez, has emphasized how "the tourism industry is being one of the main engines of the country, so the government has to understand that it must put resources within the reach of municipalities, and investment Direct for the conversion of mature zones ".
"When the industry of a country is capital, it is protected and aided," he added, adding that "the tourist economy is absolutely key in our country, so we must clearly bet on it." "We have to win our competitors - which are outside - in quality, and quality will come hand in hand with innovation, in all its fields," he has riveted.
The Councilor for Tourism Lloret de Mar, Jordi Sais, referred to the years of joint work that the tourism promotion body Lloret Turisme has been doing jointly with the City and the private sector for the modernization and tourist specialization of the destination. "The alliance signed today with these different municipalities, which also have a long and extensive tourist experience, will be a great help to exchange experiences and concrete actions that allow visibility and address the same issues."
Old aspiration
The mayor of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Marco Aurelio Pérez, has congratulated himself for the "step forward" and responds to an "old vindication" of the tourist area Maspalomas-Costa Canaria, 50 years ago, "for which We had a hard time getting a little echo. "
"Since always we have had as objective to carry out actions that result in the way to administer our resources, to achieve a comprehensible balance in the relation between de facto population and the one of right and to aspire that, once for
