Francis González fulfilled his illusion of tasting rabbit condumio, the star dish of Icodense gastronomy, and toasting with local wine, brought especially from the municipality, to celebrate the award for the Magical Town of Spain 2023, received on Thursday in the framework of the International Tourism Fair (Fitur). An award that recognizes the effort made by the municipalities that belong to the Network, serving as an example for their management, their strategies and their achievements, and that joins the award for cultural town of the year in the Canary Islands.
-In addition to confirming that things have been done well, what does this recognition mean?
“First, that we are on the right path of promoting the Icod de los Vinos brand, which unites culture, commerce and tourism, and makes it an attractive town. He told the anecdote that we met some tourists who came to the municipality in December and found out that we were a magical town because it was news that many media outlets covered, including Hola magazine. This is a value, a sign that the promotion is moving well, a boost to the strategy followed and encourages us to continue on the same path”.
-And does it entail any obligation on the part of the City Council?
“That of being an authentic town, that works for the historical heritage, for the culture and the different strategies to keep the city alive, and betting on sustainability. These are values that being a magical town embodies, as well as the rights and opportunities that being part of this network offers us by invitation and by fulfilling a series of commitments. In their day they appreciated that Icod de los Vinos deserved to be there and, obviously, the fact of recognition has to do with the strategy followed. The defense of the Icod brand and to continue betting on Icod itself, its traditions, its singularities, its cultural actions and the commitment to continue working for its heritage, both tangible and intangible”.
-In 2022 the municipality appeared in Fitur with Icod 360, a tourist revelation. What tool did you do it with this year?
“The path this year was augmented virtual reality. The one from last year was very noticeable and attractive, and this one is too, but more relaxed. It is one more step through which it is intended that, once the tables of San Andrés are known, with the possibility of crawling through virtual reality, this tradition of the people of Icodense of throwing themselves down the street when San Andrés arrives is deepened in the origin . We are passionate about our traditions and the fact of practically being born with a board under one’s arm has to do with a historical character, there are a series of visions and versions that come to justify the origin of the boards. Now we intend with this augmented virtual reality, through a code that is downloaded to the mobile phone, to make known where the tables of San Andrés come from and that is told by an actor dressed in different clothes through different characters ”.
-Are the tourist beds in Icod enough?
“We are working to have more, we have to update the inventory, which could not be done due to the pandemic. The Special Plan for the Casco will allow more tourist uses in the historic environment that can be incorporated into the historic buildings; That is why it is so important to move this document forward. We are also working in the future with a possibility that we will present in the surroundings of the San Marcos beach, so that there may be hotel and parking uses. I hope that between the next month and the next the General Plan (PGO) can be approved, and, given that the area of El Riquel must be left on hold, work to incorporate into municipal planning the photo of this area of enormous potential along the coast that we want, not the one that the insular planning obliges us to do. We have to see very well as a magical town how far we can go and reconcile the tourist and residential nature of a town”.
-Has tourism been able to recover after the pandemic?
“Yes, and also in 2022 the collection in Parque del Drago has been exceeded by 34%, the best pre-COVID year, a figure that is above the percentage increase in the island and Canary Islands. We are seeing that Sunday holidays (the possibility that businesses could open) are an attraction for visitors. I think it is important for a tourist town to be open as much as possible and that is why we want to extend the hours, but for this you have to talk to the merchants. At the moment it is an initiative linked to the Parque del Drago, but the idea is designed for the entire city, which receives visitors 365 days a year”.
