The Meeting of Tourism Chairs of the AMT shows Benidorm's advances in mobility and exposes them as success stories

This morning the II Meeting of Tourism Chairs of the Alliance of Sun and Beach Tourist Municipalities (AMT) began, an event that addresses advances in mobility and is organized by Pedro Zaragoza Orts Chair of Tourism Studies of the University of Alicante.

Regarding the conferences and seminars, those focused on mobility trends stand out, such as the conference on 'Low Emission Zones in Spain. The digitalization of mobility by the CEO of PMUS and CIVIL, Jesús Alba López. After this, the 'Proactive Cities' session was held in which the Councilor for Mobility, Public Space, Works and Universal Accessibility of Benidorm, Francis Muñoz, presented the main advances of the city in recent years, with concrete examples and how Benidorm has become a success story.

The inauguration was carried out by Mayor Toni Pérez, who in his speech highlighted that the AMT municipalities "want to be pioneering destinations and we are so mature that we know what our role is." That is why he has emphasized that tourism “means seeking people's happiness” and “serving people even in moments of maximum difficulty.” The mayor has positioned tourism activity as “one of the great assets of the country's economy” and advocated “always getting to work knowing that the greatest benefit is the path.”

Toni Pérez stressed the commitment to "become Benidorm in the best city to live in." At that point, he specified the three different “communities” that Benidorm has: residents, residents who are not registered and tourists and visitors. “We treat everyone the same and there is a Benidorm for each one.” He once again made it clear that those who criticize the city “are those who do not know us or those who are envious of us.”

The mayor also assured that the city “was already sustainable even before the word began to be used” and has cited data that corroborates this, such as the fact that “we consume little land and 60% of it is protected". He also highlighted the commitment that began in 2015 “when we set out to recover urban space for people with mobility policies that have been widely accepted.” “There are those who criticize it without further ado, but in this time we have pedestrianized dozens of streets and 70% of the city's traffic is already pedestrian,” he detailed.

The mayor encouraged attendees to "get to know and visit Benidorm if they have the chance" and insisted that the city "has never understood tourismphobia because we have always practised tourismophilia."

For his part, Francis Muñoz highlighted in his presentation the pedestrian areas in the city centre and the “strong commitment” to cycling mobility with 117 kilometres of bike lanes. In this sense, the councillor presented the actions and works carried out in recent years "throughout the municipal area" in favour of sustainable mobility with streets with no sidewalks, bike lanes and the speed limit in the city to a maximum of 30 km/h.

Muñoz talked especially about the new Mediterranean Avenue in which not only have all services been renewed, but 19,000 square meters have been incorporated into the pedestrian flow of the town and it has been possible, among other effects, to lower four degrees of temperature in August on the avenue thanks to the shaded areas.

Despite this, the councillor concluded by delving into the City Council's motivation to continue working on issues such as park-and-ride, Emission Zones, public transport, pedestrian routes, universal accessibility and sustainable urban planning.

The Meeting has brought together outstanding and recognized chairs at a national level such as the Climent Guitart chair of Lloret de Mar, the Industrial Tourism chair of the University of Huelva, the New Green Transition in Tourism and the Ciutat de Cullera of the University of Valencia, the UB Chair of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy CETT of the University of Barcelona, the Chair of Tourism, Sustainability and Innovation of the Ramón Llull University, the CajaCanarias-Ashotel Chair of Tourism of the University of La Laguna, the Smart Tourism Chair of the UPV and the O-CITY Territori Valencià chair, also from the UPV. The board members of the Chair of Tourism Studies also attend; Benidorm City Council, Visit Benidorm, Costa Blanca Provincial Tourism Board, Inavettur and Hosbec.

This afternoon a guided tour of Benidorm will take place to complement the explanations that have been offered in the morning in the 'Proactive Cities' session, a visit illustrated by the chief engineer of the City Council, Juan Carlos Sánchez Galiano, in which they will be explored first hand in hand with the mobility initiatives recently launched by the City Council, which have been awarded several awards at the national level, such as the pedestrian mobility and accessibility project in the southern area of Jaime I (2nd prize in the Large Cities category of the II European Mobility Week Awards) or the redevelopment project of Avenida del Mediterráneo (IX Prize for Good Local Practices for Climate).