The City Council of La Laguna will assume the presidency of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spainthe non-profit organization that brings together the fifteen Spanish cities recognized by Unesco for their exceptional universal values.
The mayor of La Laguna and new president of the Group, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, faces this new responsibility “with the intention of continuing to work to strengthen the positioning of our cities as an international destination of reference, with a differentiated tourist offer that combines the wealth monumental, numerous alternatives for culture and leisure, quality of life and a thriving service sector, especially in the field of catering and gastronomy”, it reported in a statement.
Gutiérrez indicates that another of the objectives of the presidency will be to work so that residents feel more and more participants in the advantages and possibilities of living in a Heritage City.
“We add more than a million and a half inhabitants, we have extraordinary human capital and we must involve our citizens so that they identify with the values of Unesco and feel proud to live in unique urban environments in our country”, says Luis Yeray Gutierrez.
In addition, among the challenges that La Laguna poses during the presidency of the GCPHE is advancing in the preparation of management plans for a correct administration of the historic quarters; the development of the Smart Destinations platform of the Ministry of Tourism, which is committed to the digitization of tourist destinations; and the consolidation of strategic alliances with other national and international organizations in the field of conservation and dissemination of heritage.
The note informs that during 2023 the aid of 45 million euros from the Ministry of Culture for rehabilitation and conservation projects of heritage spaces in each of the 15 cities will materialize, which in La Laguna will translate into the execution of the sixth and last phase of the rehabilitation works of the old Convent of Santo Domingo.
Coinciding with the presidency, in the first half of the year, La Laguna will again host a General Assembly of Mayors, as it already happened in March 2022, and it will be up to it to preside over the acts on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Group of Heritage Cities , which is fulfilled in 2023.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez recalls that San Cristóbal de La Laguna is the only city in the Canary Islands that is part of this group, which brings together an enormous diversity.
The Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain was created in 1993 as a non-profit association (declared by the Ministry of the Interior of Public Utility), with the purpose of acting jointly in the defense of the historical and cultural heritage of these cities and in the maintenance and empowerment of certain forms of life that these historic centers need, carrying out common projects and proposals, establishing policies for the exchange of experiences and facing common problems.
La Laguna became part of the Group in 1999, joining its name to those of Alcalá de Henares, Ávila, Baeza, Cáceres, Córdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza, Mérida, Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona, Toledo and Úbeda, whose representatives meet once every six months in person.
