SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 19. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain will form part of the Smart Destinations platform that is being promoted by the Ministry of Tourism, through Seggitur, with an investment of 130 million euros from European resilience funds.
This was announced this Saturday by the president of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain and mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, after the celebration of the General Assembly of the Group that took place in the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife.
Carlos García Carbayo has indicated that this platform will place Spain at the forefront of tourist countries, with a commitment to digitization that will improve the competitiveness of the cities that make up the Group and that will allow them to address the challenge of digital transformation.
“It is great news that our unique cities are included in the preferred destinations, along with the large Spanish cities and traditional beach destinations, which are going to be promoted through this platform. We are already working on collecting the necessary data to advance in the first phase of this ambitious development”, advanced García Carbayo.
The Assembly of the Group of World Heritage Cities was held in the old Convent of Santo Domingo, after the family photo in the Jardín del Drago, a space of “enormous heritage and natural value”, as highlighted by the mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, who has emphasized “the importance that this assembly at the highest level has been held in La Laguna, as the epicenter of the great jewels that our country has.”
“Our city has hosted a very productive Assembly, in which we have worked on conservation and future projects to continue projecting our monumental and coexistence spaces”, assured Luis Yeray Gutiérrez. “I want to emphasize the strength of the Group of World Heritage Cities and their determined support for the preservation and promotion of UNESCO World Heritage,” he said.
The meeting also took place under the Ukrainian flag, “in solidarity and support with the population of Ukraine and to show our indignation at the invasion”, according to the Group’s president, who added that in the Assembly “we have advanced in plans and projects in each of our areas of action and that we are ready to deploy, once the health crisis allows us to intensify our actions to recover tourist flows, despite the new threat posed by the war in Ukraine, a country that has all our solidarity, as we made clear through the institutional declaration that we approved a few days ago,” said García Carbayo.
TOURIST PROMOTION AND CULTURAL EVENTS.
With regard to the new actions in terms of tourism promotion, the Group’s president has also announced that they have finalized the calendar of the next national and international promotion actions that are going to be carried out this year. Thus, on April 29 they will be in Malaga and with the help of Paradores they will visit Lisbon on May 10 and Mexico in the week of June 13. The Group is also going to promote itself at the international fairs in Paris, Brussels and at the tourist conferences that will take place in Miami, where the Group is in contact with the main tour operators in Florida, in collaboration with Turespaña.
Carlos García Carbayo has reported on the national advertising campaign that they are preparing, which this year reaches 250,000 euros, continuing the effort made by the Group of World Heritage Cities in 2021 in advertising.
Among the upcoming cultural events, the president has reported that the mayors of the Group will accompany the mayor of Santiago de Compostela, Xosé Sánchez Bugallo, on May 13 and 14 in his city, on the occasion of the Holy Year of Compostela.
In terms of culture, whose commission is chaired by the mayor of Santiago de Compostela, the Group Assembly has also agreed to resume the Heritage Cities Racing Circuit, which had to be suspended due to the pandemic. According to the president, “at the beginning of April we are going to announce the details of the programming of this activity in a presentation that we will host in Salamanca.”
In addition, García Carbayo has stressed that they are working “intensely” in the preparation of the fifth edition of the Heritage Night 2022, which will take place on September 17 simultaneously in all the cities of the Group, an unprecedented initiative in Europe, which this year it will once again have the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
The Group has proposed, in the words of the president, to give a 180-degree turn to the Heritage Classroom program, with a view to the call for the 2022-2023 academic year. “Precisely, on Monday, the 21st, our Education technicians will meet to address the novelties that we will incorporate into this initiative and with which we want to include new technologies and new languages to make it more attractive and participatory,” he advanced.
The calendar of cultural events for 2022 includes the organization of the Chamber Music Cycle of the Reina Sofía School of Music, which this year will reach its tenth edition, and which is scheduled for autumn. Carlos García Carbayo has advanced that as a prelude to the Cycle, in the month of July, the School will offer a very special concert in Salamanca, which will be broadcast live on TVE’s La 2 and with which they want to repeat the success of the event that took place last year in Merida.
HERITAGE DAY.
In terms of heritage, whose commission is chaired by the mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérez, the Group’s chairman has made it clear that they are going to continue in the wake set by the seminar on heritage management recently held in Salamanca and that It had a great reception and the presence of high-level experts.
Along these lines, on April 19, in Úbeda, they are going to hold the Information Day ‘World Heritage and Sustainable Development Goals’, coordinated by Paradores and aimed at those who work in the Tourism departments of our Heritage cities, to reinforce their training in this area with which the 15 cities are aligned and committed”.
Finally, the president of the Group has announced the celebration in Mérida of the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention signed in Paris in 1972, with a first-rate event, which will include the participation of the 49 Spanish properties inscribed on the World Heritage List UNESCO World Cup, of which they will offer details when the time comes. “This celebration will be accompanied by the XVI Meeting of World Heritage Managers, also in Merida, which will be an added value to the commemorative events of this outstanding event,” he said.
Carlos García Carbayo added that the World Heritage Cities share “a way of living and being, each with our own identity, which explains why we are a cohesive group, capable of joining forces and designing common strategies above any other consideration.”
Carlos García Carbayo concluded by emphasizing that the World Heritage Cities have wanted to convey their affection “for this land and its people” and their solidarity with the Canary Islanders and palmeros, who “continue to experience hard times and suffering the terrible consequences of the volcano’s eruption”.
