SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 8 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Gran Hotel Taoro in Puerto de la Cruz will reopen its doors in the summer of 2024 after undergoing rehabilitation works that aim to return to the tourist offer of the island of Tenerife and the city this mythical establishment, which 130 years ago was born as the first luxury hotel in all of Spain.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, Marco González, and the president of Tropical Turística Canaria, Ignacio Polanco, accompanied by the architect Virgilio Gutiérrez, were the hosts of the symbolic act to start the rehabilitation works of the Gran Hotel Taoro.
Property of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Gran Hotel Taoro stopped hosting clients in 1975 and spent nearly 40 years closed as a hotel establishment, being operated as a casino between 1979 and 2006, the year it closed its doors. That is why the Island Corporation launched a contest to reform and lease the establishment, which Tropical Turística Canaria won with a project made up of a local technical team that seeks to modernize the hotel to give it the necessary standards that the luxury segment requires in today, while maintaining the essence of the history and prestige of this emblematic building.
The Gran Hotel Taoro will be managed by My Way Hotels, the hotel operator of Tropical Turística Canaria, and its remodeling will involve an investment of close to 35 million euros, which will allow it to offer 207 rooms (414 accommodation beds), spread over the four floors of the hotel and whose west wing will house three heated pools and a new wellness center.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, stressed that the rehabilitation and start-up of the Gran Hotel Taoro “will have a great impact on the local economy, by adding, together, more than 1,000 jobs.” “During the next 22 months, nearly 800 workers will contribute to developing the project to remodel, restore and modernize the property signed by the Tenerife architects Virgilio Gutiérrez and Eustaquio Martínez. Later, when it is 100% operational, the hotel will employ more of 250 professionals, also directly and indirectly”, he detailed.
“Puerto de la Cruz has returned with an emblem that is not only here, from the North, it is from the whole island. A hotel that started in 1890, which was the first tourist reference when still nobody spoke, is going to be rehabilitated. of tourism and that it has already managed to get the entire area to begin to be rehabilitated, even though the works have not finished, that there are hoteliers who invest in improving their facilities because they will be next to this new Hotel Taoro”, highlighted Pedro Martín.
The insular president also added that the Cabildo is committed because the facility is his: “We make a contribution of around 15 million euros, together with the one that will be made by the company awarded the lease of the hotel and from here, this It won’t stop anymore.”
The mayor of the city, Marco González, wanted to emphasize the milestone that the beginning of this comprehensive rehabilitation represents “of an iconic symbol of the history of the pioneering city of tourism in the Canary Islands that could not be understood without this emblematic hotel, which comes to reinforce the unstoppable hotel investment in Puerto de la Cruz, which is reflected in the high occupancy rate of recent months, welcoming both national and international tourism, attracting new markets, to continue on the path of profitability growth that shows that the tourist city is in a new era”.
The mayor of Porto highlighted the depth of the concept of Porto identity, and how it is closely linked to the history and development of the Gran Hotel Taoro, “a legacy that we now recover so connected to our local society and what we are and, above all, what we we want to be,” he said.
For his part, the president of Tropical Turística Canaria, Ignacio Polanco, stressed that the project with which they were winners of the contest “seeks to care for and respect the essence of the Gran Hotel Taoro as much as possible” in order to “restore its former splendor”. Polanco thanked the Cabildo and the Puerto de la Cruz City Council for “the continued collaboration and support”, in addition to extending his thanks to Cajasiete, the entity that finances the works for the company he presides over, to the construction company Dragados, which is carrying out the work, and to Arum Group, project manager of the execution.
As for the gastronomic offer, the hotel will have up to six different spaces, some of them signed by an internationally recognized chef. Sport will also be very important in the establishment’s vacation offer, as it has a complete indoor gym and takes advantage of the 100,000 meters of outdoor space offered by the Taoro Park to organize various running circuits and outdoor activities.
After its rehabilitation, the new Taoro will optimize the use of environmental resources to reduce the impact on the environment. Sustainability will therefore be one of the bulwarks of this hotel, which will have up to 700 square meters of solar panels on its roofs, the energy of which will mainly make it possible to generate Sanitary Hot Water and heat the pools in winter, pools that will be built with heat recovery and low salt electrolysis (to avoid the use of chlorine and chemical products).
The commercial director of My Way Hotels, Brendan Green, was the host of this symbolic ceremony to start the works, which allowed the media, personalities and authorities in attendance to check the state of the property, thus kicking off the countdown for the pre-opening of the Gran Hotel Taoro, scheduled for summer 2024.
