Benidorm advocates promoting new circular economy actions to attract increasingly responsible tourists

Promote circular economy and regenerative tourism actions to attract tourists who are increasingly responsible for sustainability and the environment. That is the invitation that Benidorm launched today to those attending the second day of the Digital Tourist Congress being held in the city, during a round table titled 'Circular economy and sustainability in the tourism industry', in which the manager participated of Visit Benidorm Tourism Foundation, Leire Bilbao, and the person in charge of Smart Tourism, Celia Romero, who served as moderator.

Accompanied by other representatives of the public and private sector, such as the Director of Transformation of Hidraqua in the Valencian Community, Cristina Baixauli; the director of Tourism Innovation of Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, Olivia Estrella; or the CEO of GVAM, Jaime Solano, Leire Bilbao has recounted some of the projects linked to sustainability and intelligence in tourism that has been developed or are being developed in the city, to account for the importance that the city gives to both concepts.

Among them, the manager of Visit Benidorm has cited how the city has gone in recent years from simply obtaining data to analyzing it to measure the impacts on the territory and in the different areas of interest, to ensure that both The Administration and the private sector can manage and make the best decisions. Likewise, she has referred to other much more recent projects, such as the one started this week with the first clean point located on Levante Beach to promote the circular economy and the reuse of tourists' beach items once their vacation is over; or the regeneration of Racó de l'Infern Quarry, 60,000 square meters of land in Serra Gelada Natural Park that are being recovered environmentally and landscape to become municipal land heritage and become a new urban park, such as it has already happened with Séquia Mare or El Moralet.

In addition, Leire Bilbao has also given an example of other circular economy actions promoted by the private sector. Among them, the network established between hotels in the city to share furniture, bedding, televisions or other objects when they are removed from an establishment, but are still in good condition. All this to, finally, defend Benidorm's ability to "take advantage of any opportunity to continue weaving a network of green, sustainable and circular economy actions", with the conviction that "to the extent that we work in the circular economy and regenerative tourism, we will be able to attract increasingly responsible tourists,” concluded the head of the Tourism Foundation.

In addition to the ideas launched by the manager of this public-private management entity, Benidorm has also been set as an example of water management by the Transformation Director of Hidraqua. Cristina Baixauli recalled that the company, concessionaire for the management of the integral water cycle in the city, “is aware of the value of this resource for the sustainability of tourism, since without water there would be no tourism” and has defended the importance of “ being able to guarantee the supply when the population doubles or triples in high season” as well as properly managing waste and rainwater to avoid spills.

Concerning actions to promote the circular economy, the representative of Hidraqua has presented the research and innovation that is promoted by centres such as Dinapsis to search for new formulas for reusing water, such as street washing, agricultural irrigation or gardens or more recently for pilot projects such as fire protection and extinguishing or for the industrial sector in the field of logistics.

The director of Tourism Innovation at Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, Olivia Estrella, has announced that Turisme is working on the development of the Valencian Strategy for Tourism Sustainability and, in addition, for being the first autonomous community certified by AENOR as a sustainable destination, a certification that They hope it will arrive next September. Furthermore, Estrella has transferred the advantages of the merger of the autonomous areas of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism into a single Department; she has advocated strengthening public-private collaboration; and she recalled the tourism sustainability plans that are being developed in different destinations in the Community to continue positioning ourselves as a spearhead.

Finally, the CEO of the interactive guide company GVAM, Jaime Solano, has presented some of the projects that this firm has designed for tourist territories and destinations throughout the country and has advocated the use of experiences between destinations to improve their results.