The mayor defends the “happiness industry” at the presentation of the Hosbec #Yotambiénsoyturista campaign

The Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, has once again defended this morning the tourist activity and tourism as “the industry of happiness” during the presentation of the campaign promoted by the hotel employers' association Hosbec, #Yotambiénsoyturista, which was held in the Levante beach library of the city and which was attended by the Minister of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism, Nuria Montes, as well as representatives of the entire tourist sector of the province.
This campaign, which is already present in the media of the Valencian Community, was born as a way of reacting to the tourism-phobic movement that is promoted from other places, as both the Mayor and the Minister have made clear.

Toni Pérez has highlighted that the initiative “aims to create a link between resident and tourist and, at the same time, to highlight responsible tourism”. It is a campaign that covers all the spaces of the Valencian Community “and that shows how the tourist feels identified with the resident”.

The mayor has insisted that the city “is once again getting wet for tourism, as it does every day”. “I am also a tourist, we all are. Wherever we are. Everyone is a tourist, and they do so thanks to the hospitality and generosity of a territory,” said Pérez, who added that “we are tourists thanks to the welcome, we do not forget to be hospitable. And here in Benidorm we open our arms to the world and we tell it that tourism is the most wonderful industry”.

In his speech, the mayor also emphasized “the social sustainability of the tourism industry” and, at the provincial level, he said that for the Costa Blanca Tourism Board, “it is a pleasure to participate in the Hosbec campaign, with the support of the Ministry because we are tourism, and we know that the world makes tourism an invaluable industry as is the industry of happiness”.

For her part, councillor Nuria Montes has emphasised the objective of the campaign “as a reaction to tourismophobia” and has placed tourism as one of the great achievements of society that we are not willing to abandon”. “Tourism enriches us personally and socially” she has assured before insisting that “the messages of tourismophobia are classist”.

Nuria Montes has also emphasised that the campaign “reflects the hospitable spirit of the Valencian Community, which has not brought us any harm, but quite the opposite. That is why this is a campaign in favour of tourism and sustainable tourism activity”.

Finally, the councillor has referred to the “open debate around the tourist tax” to emphasise that “tourists cannot be criminalised for other problems that the territory has such as economic, health or social problems”. On this point, Montes has said “We have a great underfunding in the Community and those who now want the tourist tax have not moved a finger to solve it. They only engage in demagogy to try to cover up their shame."