The lagoon will preside over the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain (Gcphe) until July 2024, as decided by the Assembly of Mayors of the Group held yesterday in Córdoba. With this, the usual time frame of the presidencies is recovered, altered in 2020 due to the pandemic. The mayor of La Laguna and president of the Gcphe, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, explained that the measure “facilitates the organization of the Group, adapting it to the time of the political course, and gives coherence to the work of the presidencies, so that its management can have a continuity”.
La Laguna assumed the Presidency on Gcphe on January 1. Until 2020, the period covered from July 1 to June 30 of the following year, but then Ibiza extended her presidency for six months as a way of compensating for the limitations to which she had been forced by the pandemic. Therefore, Mérida and Salamanca held the Presidency from January 1 to December 31. Now, the management of the Group will recover its old periodicity.
La Laguna will once again host the Group Assembly at the beginning of June, as in March 2022. Among the outstanding acts of this call is the extraordinary concert for which an invitation has been sent to Queen Sofía, who traditionally supports this cultural initiative of the Group with her presence.
promotional actions
The Córdoba assembly also approved actions in patrimonial, cultural and tourist promotion matters. Luis Yeray Gutierrez explained that “in the coming months, the Group will promote itself at international fairs in Berlin, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Singapore and, in addition, we are working with Chinese tour operators to promote a campaign focused on attracting this tourism through an offer of services adapted to your reality. The president defends that “the commitment to the Chinese market is strategic for the Group of World Heritage Cities with a great projection for the future.”
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez announced that the Gcphe will carry out prepresentations in international markets, with Turespaña and Paradores in Belgium and Porto. In addition, it will be promoted with Madrid Destino in northern Europe, specifically in Stockholm and Copenhagen. Likewise, a delegation from the Group will carry out a good practices trip to Bordeaux, on March 13 and 14. The Group will renew the collaboration agreements with Paradores, Madrid Destino and Ciudades AVE and will sign another agreement with the ACS Foundation to organize, in Tarragona, a conference on Heritage Cities and accessibility, in autumn.
Another agreement was the renewal of the agreement with ONCE “to keep improving accessibilityone of the great challenges that heritage cities face: the conservation of our historic quarters with measures to make it easier for anyone with disabilities to fully enjoy them”.
After the Assembly, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez has also advanced that “we are working on the marketing of Heritage Cities tour packages, with trips and routes from our cities under the World Heritage seal, with a large national tour operator and travel agent, for which that we are already holding meetings to put it into effect”.
Other programming for the year
Today’s Assembly has also approved the events planned for this year, such as the IV Racing Circuit in the World Heritage Cities. The national presentation of the Circuit will be held on March 8 in La Laguna, with the president of the Group, and the first race will be on March 18 in Úbeda.
Among the great cultural events of the year for this year are the celebration of La Noche del Patrimonio, on Saturday, September 16, this year with an eye on America through the incorporation of some World Heritage cities from Mexico, Peru and Cuba, thanks to the alliances with the associations of those countries, which will organize an event that night to symbolically join the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Group.
The X edition of the Chamber Music Cycle in the World Heritage Cities, in collaboration with the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía is another of the Group’s cultural events of the year. Finally, the Aula Patrimonio contest has had the participation of 21 schools from 11 cities. The ‘Your City, Your Heritage’ program, aimed at students in Compulsory Secondary Education and Basic Vocational Training, will end on April 21, 2023.
The president, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, will meet the assembly in the municipality on June 3 and 4
Thirty years
He 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 enhancement 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.
The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba hosted the assembly held yesterday. The Cordovan mayor, José María Bellido, stressed that it is the first time that the Chapter House has opened for a meeting that is not internal to the Cabildo, for which he thanked those responsible for a gesture that gives visibility to the city’s heritage treasures.
