There is interest in converting several mansions in the historic center of La Orotava. This was stated yesterday by the mayor, Francisco Linares, who added that “he is aware” that projects have been presented at the Municipal Technical Office to restore them and transform them into small hotels, in accordance with the sustainable, alternative and differentiated tourism model offered by the Villa.
If materialized, these properties will be added to the three accommodations that exist in the municipality and “for this, it is necessary to follow certain patrimonial procedures that will be fully complied with,” stressed the president.
“We have a beautiful but uninhabited old townthat is why we are not advocating building more hotels, but rather protecting and caring for what we have and betting on the rehabilitation of the buildings in the historic center”, he declared.
The municipal councilor made these statements during the presentation of the balance of the Municipal Tourism Office last year accompanied by the councilor of the area, Delia Escobar, and Sonia Sonia Kamstra, a worker for many years in the department who is retiring shortly.
In this sense, Linares considered that the tourism qualification model should be changed since the municipality “has great potential for visitors due to its charms and exceptional values, both patrimonial, natural, ethnographic, landscape, gastronomic, museum and artistic.
In addition to being the only town in the Canary Islands and among the ten in Spain, which maintains the essence of being a Cittaslow city with the seal that it entails of tourist quality and sustainability”.
The councilor confirmed that the tourist information points served a total of 23,140 users in 2021, 49.74% more than in 2020.
Specifically, 21,213 users passed through the Municipal Tourist Information Office, which in March last year moved to its new location on Carrera Escultor Estévez street, while at the tourist information point in Plaza de Casañas, in front of the church of La Concepción, which was not operational in January and February, served 1,927 people.
Regarding nationalities, Spaniards (12,737) are the ones who most visited La Orotava, followed by French (3,898), Germans (1,779), while 3% come from the United Kingdom and the rest, 10.19%, come from more than 40 different nationalities, mostly Italians.
“With these data, it is beginning to be detected that it goes back slightly with respect to 2020, the year in which the pandemic began and in which 15,453 users were counted,” Escobar pointed out. And, he trusted that this year figures similar to those of 2019 will be reached, when 42,501 users were registered at the Tourist Information Office since in the first 8 months 20,000 visitors have already been reached.
Most tourists request information on local gastronomy, emblematic spaces such as the Teide National Park, viewpoints, gardens, the five museums, and hiking or historical routes such as the old water mills.
Delia Escobar highlighted the good results of the Strategic Tourism Plan, which works with a clear objective: that tourists “spend as much time as possible in the municipality” and for this it has been necessary to create “tourism products” that have an impact on the local economy. .
