The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, announced yesterday that he has proposed to the Ministry and the Secretary of State for Tourism that Mesa Mota house a parador for the municipality. “We have already openly said that we are committed to La Laguna having a parador. We have even proposed to the Ministry and the Secretary of State for Tourism that we want the technicians to study and assess the possibility of starting it up in Mesa Mota. We are working together so that in a very short time we can finally say that our city will have a parador”, he affirmed.
The local councilor explained that this was one of the issues addressed at the meeting of the Heritage Commission that took place yesterday morning, within the framework of the General Assembly of the Group of World Heritage Cities, which meets this weekend in La Laguna to the mayors of the 15 cities recognized by UNESCO to address joint projects for the conservation, enhancement and tourism promotion of their heritage sites.
An assembly that supposes “a total and absolute support to the city”, affirmed the alderman yesterday morning, despite the fact that “we know the complication that the insularity has” for the displacements. “The first assembly that we do in person this year and what is being debated right now in this Heritage Commission is fundamental, we are talking about very important projects for dissemination, education, science and conservation and rehabilitation of our environments and monuments”, emphasized.
Heritage Commission
The Group’s Heritage Committee met in the former convent of Santo Domingo, under the chairmanship of Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, in order to prepare several of the proposals and issues that will be debated today at the Assembly. The Group’s Executive Commission also met yesterday.
“Right now those 45 million euros that the Ministry has transferred are already materializing,” the mayor continued. The different cities are already transferring what they are going to invest those three million from each one. La Laguna, as you well know, is going to use them in the last phase of the convent of Santo Domingo. We are also talking about future projects, about continuing to work together with this tourism strategy, which seeks not only to position our cities at the state level, but also internationally”.
The alderman thanked the “special sensitivity” of the Government of Spain with the Group, since “an investment of this amount had never been made before”, as well as the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands. “It is the result of the work we have been doing these three years of collaboration, of total and absolute respect and the involvement of the administrations. The City Council has a clear objective, which is to recover our municipality and, for that, our monuments and historic buildings have to be recovered, as we are doing with the ruins of the church of San Agustín and the future recova”, he indicated.
For his part, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, who came in the morning to hold a meeting with the members of the Group’s Heritage Commission, valued that “for an island that boasts of having sun and beach, of being a top-level tourist destination, it is not enough to offer that leisure space, we also have to be able to provide alternatives to visitors who are increasingly demanding, who ask us that the destination be careful, with environmental and cultural aspects” , such as La Laguna, “a World Heritage city, which contributes not only that cultural value to the island as a whole, but also the tourism claim that we want to bring. When we talk about quality, we have to offer alternatives that are in line with that tourist we want to bring, that is why this city is so important to us”.
“There are many contributions that have been made from the birth of this city to the present day and I am glad that today [ayer], in some way, be the capital of the World Heritage cities”, emphasized Pedro Martín in this regard. Likewise, the island president stressed that, “in addition to grandiloquent speeches saying how fantastic it is to have a World Heritage city, you also have to collaborate, and that means being by your side with investments and collaborating from the Council’s Heritage area to put in value and contribute to the projects that may arise. And not leaving the city alone, but being able to work together, the Government of the Canary Islands, the City Council and the Cabildo, and also the Government of Spain”. During the afternoon, the delegations took a guided tour of the main streets of the town before holding a reception with the President of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos.
Although in principle the visit of the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, was planned, in the end he was unable to attend, so the person in charge of the regional Chamber was in charge of attending the event.
After greeting the mayors and mayors of the Group in the Plenary Hall of the City Council of La Laguna, Matos expressed the “double honor” that participating in an act like this meant, both for having been part of this Corporation in the past and for having been present when, in 1999, the councilors were informed of the city’s entry into the “select club” of UNESCO. “It is the only historical complex that has this designation in the Canary Islands and it is not by chance, but because of its way of understanding the urban space that later served as a model to transfer it to all of Latin America. The first city founded without walls, a novelty at the time and a benchmark that enriches the Archipelago as a tourist destination”, he added.
For Gustavo Matos, meetings like the ones the Group held yesterday and today in the municipality mean “meeting points and experiences” that allow “learn from each other” and that, at the same time, contribute to “valuing Spain as one of the countries with the most important historical heritage in Europe and the world”.
The day ended with a concert by Los Sabandeños in the old convent of Santo Domingo.
today’s agenda
The agenda continues today, starting at 10:00 a.m., with the meeting of the Group’s General Assembly, where the agreements of the Executive Committee will be ratified, if appropriate, and the different issues proposed by the Informative Commissions of Heritage, Tourism and Culture, around the conservation actions of the monumental complexes, the international tourist promotion with the seal of quality granted by the Group and cultural activities in heritage environments.
