Calvià Daily

Madrid 21st March 2017

EIGHT MUNICIPALITIES OF SEVEN SPANISH COASTS, SUN AND BEACH LEADERS, HAVE TEAMED TOGETHER TO BOOST THEIR REQUALIFICATION AND BE MORE COMPETITIVE

-Salou, Benidorm, San Bartolomé de TirajaNA, Lloret de Mar, Torremolinos, Calvià, Adeje and Arona integrate this 'pool' of destinations
-The event was attended by the mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, and the director general for Tourism and Strategic Projects of the Town Hall, Juan Mesquida.

To read the statement, see here

Madrid 21st March 2017. They have been during the last 50 years, and are currently, the "driving forceof Spanish tourist activity" 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 proposals that bring economic, social and environmental benefits" and "transforming their reality with a vision for the future." These are the sun and beach tourist destinations.

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, from Lloret de Mar (Girona-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 Sun and Beach Municipalities'.

Milestone

The agreement marks a milestone in the history of tourism in Spain, and has been witnessed as hosts by the executive director of the WTO, Carlos Vogeler, and the president of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, Juan Molas.

This 'pool' of tourist municipalities starts with the aim of analyzing and sharing 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 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 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 what is on offer to attract greater segments in preferences and motivations; And to be able to offer combined vacations in the resort 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 the resort in a qualitative and competitive growth environment, where a greater segmentation of the demand has to be foreseen", indicates the agreement.

Evolve the model

The need to evolve the tourism model towards the concept of 'experiential destinations' and 'innovators' becomes the common opinion of the eight leaders. And in this area, their most immediate challenges become 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 tourist seasonality increasing the value of the product in the winter months from specialization and differentiation of resorts around segments of tourists with less seasonal profiles.

The eight signing resorts 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 accommodation nights 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 tourist resort specialised in making the most out 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 thought and debate." "It is necessary to be able to revise, modernise and reconvert the resort in an integral way, in accordance with new demands and market trends, in order to boost qualitative growth and a redesigned model with more added value increasing cooperation” he said.

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 the resort, as well as offering more efficient public services.” "Our ultimate goal should be to improve destinations, create wealth or generate quality employment, all thinking in the well being and service to people."

"Creating this alliance in the framework of the WTO is to take advantage of all the synergies that they suggest, their knowledge, the specific studies and programmes they generate globally and, of course, join in the proposals for sustainable development in an area as important as tourism", 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 “how important our resorts are for the Canary and Spanish economies, and also have a very important pressure on the resources and the infrastructures that affect neighbours and, that is why we must demand more investment from the cabildos, the Government of the Canary Islands and the State and the European Union". The 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 infrastructures in the area". Now we need more involvement from other institutions", he added.

'Sun and beach', successful tourist model

On his behalf, the mayor of Benidorm, Antonio Pérez, 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. Pérez 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 funding", "to be able to offer quality services" so that "we remain on the top 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 drving forces of the country, so the government has to understand that it must put resources within the reach of municipalities, and direct investment for the renewal of mature zones".

"When the industry of a country is capital, it is protected and aided", he said, adding that "the tourist economy is absolutely key in our country, so we must clearly bet on it." "We have to beat our competitors - which are outside - in quality, and quality will come hand in hand with innovation, in all its fields," he stated.

The Councilor for Tourism of 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 Town Hall and the private sector for the modernisation 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 everyone for the "step forward" that responds to an "old vindication" of the tourist area Maspalomas-Costa Canaria from 50 years back, "for which we had a hard time trying to get coverage "

"We have always had as an objective to carry out actions that help us to manage our resources, to achieve an adequate balance in the relationship between theorical and real population and hope that, for once and for all, the peculiarities of our territory are taken into account together with participation in the Municipal Letter and the extra services that we must work on, and meeeting the extraordinary demands that arise in this scenario, and that, in many cases, are out of our municipal competence, but subject us to a growing demand".

Finally, the mayor of Torremolinos, José Ortiz, has referred to this alliance as "a singular and transcendent fact" and has defended the thesis that "our union is our strength".

Contribution to GDP

"We are pioneer municipalities of 'sun and beach' product, the segment that has given a meaning to tourism in our country, which remains the cornerstone of our offer and makes us leaders in the world". After emphasizing the contribution to the national GDP of the tourism industry, and in an important part of the eight destinations, Ortiz has highlighted the role they play in the entry of tourists and European visitors to Spain, and in the traveler movements in the internal market.

"Our demands are none other than being able to respond to the great challenges of a globalized world and more and more competitive in the tourist sector", he framed. "We have before us the challenge of re-qualify our destinations; reconvert and make our city model evolve, be more attractive, diversify and complement our offer". "To do so will guarantee our present and future competitiveness, and also guarantee our contribution to general social welfare, employment and wealth generation," said the mayor of Torremolinos.

"Power and great strength"

UNWTO executive director Carlos Vogeler has mentioned the "enormous power and great strength of these municipalities in a country that is a reference for world tourism", and expressed the desire of the World Tourism Organization that the signing of the Protocol today in Madrid, "will be the beginning of an extraordinary alliance that contributes to the benefit of its municipalities and the whole of our country."

The president of CEHAT, Juan Molas, has highlighted the ability of tourism to unite the interests and Mayors of different resorts and signs "in an event without political content".

The first solid steps for the constitution of this alliance of beach and sun tourist municipalities were given in last edition of the World Travel Market of London, and later in FITUR. The "space for consideration and debate" created by these eight destinations will allow them to exchange experiences and knowledge about their different reality, and on "how to guide and boost progress with common strategies". Destination promotion strategies, the relationship with tour operators, the implementation of benchmarking actions or the ways of regulating tourist apartments are included in the working agenda of the group.

In the area of claims, the 'lobby' makes common cause as to the financial constraints of the current financing system of tourist municipalities which is insufficient to cover the costs of quality services for a population that multiplies seasonally.

In this sense, they call for the opening of a dialogue with the different supralocal administrations that can define "a new specific system of financing of tourist municipalities with an increase in the participation of the State revenues and those coming from the respective autonomous communities and the EU, which would allow us to access greater resources derived from the economic activity in each of the municipalities”.