It has rained quite a bit since, in 2018, the Urban Consortium for the Rehabilitation of Puerto de la Cruz was awarded the Canary Islands Tourism Excellence Award. Eight years before that date, the four public administrations –State, Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, Tenerife Island Council, and Puerto de la Cruz City Council– decided to create this body with the aim of integrating and coordinating tourist and territorial and urban policies aimed at the tourist renewal of a destination like Puerto de la Cruz. That entente cordiale lasted a short time when the State, in 2016, decided to abandon the ship. Since then, the remaining three administrations are the ones that make up this entity that has had a lot to do with the significant process of change that the city is experiencing, bringing together public and private interests.
The actions of the Consortium are carried out under the umbrella of the Tourism Infrastructure Rehabilitation Plan and planning instruments such as the Modernization, Improvement and Competitiveness Increase Plan of Puerto de la Cruz (PMM), which is the figure provided for in Canary legislation to address the renovation and rehabilitation of tourist destinations that require it. This planning tool, approved in 2015, has sought to define a new model under the pillars of recovery of expenditure and occupancy levels with new market segments, convert existing facilities, enhance services, regularize accommodation offerings, create more and better employment opportunities, and promote new business lines. But under these good intentions, what has been achieved to date and where are we heading in that purpose?
An Alliance with no Expiry Date / Marta Casanova
The first PMM, still in force, was established with 17 programs that are articulated through 212 actions and subprograms, most of them of an urban nature with the aim of physically renewing the destination. Thus, the 90 actions in public spaces are related to infrastructures, facilities, open spaces, and roads, while a total of 60 are privately-oriented in lodging facilities and other amenities, as well as urban remodeling and reorganization. Within the first group, we can mention the Casa Tolosa or former Hacienda de San Antonio, which has completed a first phase of structural consolidation of the building and now a second phase of rehabilitation is planned for its use, or the adaptation and treatment of trails, which incorporate new healthy routes that would add to the Tafuriaste Trail, crossing the municipal area from north to south; the Coast Trail (east to west along the coast) and the Inland Trail (east to west through the interior).
The actions in open spaces and roads consist of actions such as the improvement of Mequinez Street or Blanco Street, the Coastal Promenade with the Cipreses Promenade and the new Agatha Christie viewpoint, as well as the project for the new El Cedro Park in La Paz. But if one work has to be highlighted, it is the Inclusive Laurel Park, also in La Paz, which has been awarded as the best work of landscape architecture and public space projects by the Official College of Architects of Tenerife, La Gomera, and El Hierro in the 2018-2020 edition of the Manuel de Oraá and Arcocha Architecture Awards, which we have already discussed in a previous article.
Still in progress, but with a near completion date, is the improvement of Tegueste Street in Punta Brava, which will give the municipality a new place for contemplation and a pleasant promenade by the sea. Little by little, that dream that Enrique Talg Sr. had, to unite the entire northern coast of Tenerife with a seaside promenade, is coming true.
Regarding the private sphere, it includes the renovation and improvement of the lodging facilities, actions of private amenities, and remodeling and reorganization, totaling 60 actions. Additionally, it should be noted that during the improvements, the initial 17 lodging facilities included in the PMM were joined by the Marquesa Hotel, Atlantic MirageSuites & Spa (formerly Bellavista Apartments), and Taoro Garden Hotel (formerly Atalaya Hotel), as well as the Tigaiga Suites Apartments (formerly Florasol Apartments), which involved the renovation, redesign, and modernization of the establishment. Within the framework of the PMM, 31 agreements were signed for the renovation of lodging establishments, plus two agreements for the construction of new hotels linked to Cultural Interest Sites, one four-star and the other emblematic, future Golden Cliff Tourist Complex and El Robado Tourist Centre Hotel.
An Alliance with no Expiry Date / Marta Casanova
As for projects currently in progress, the San Telmo Hotel, now Saaj Maar, and the Carabela Apartments stand out. The former will become a four-star hotel after the renovation and commitment to modernize the building. The Carabela Apartments project involves the rehabilitation of the establishments and their consolidation to form an operational unit. The opening is planned.From the café to the pedestrian promenade and new common areas and services. Its current tourist use is extrahotelero (apartments) with two and three-star categories, proposing the same use but increasing the category to four stars, while also aiming to increase accommodation capacity. La Chiripa is another significant renovation project that is temporarily on hold due to ownership issues.
However, without a doubt, the star action is the restoration of the Grand Hotel Taoro, whose comprehensive rehabilitation is in full swing and will represent a significant boost to the repositioning of the tourist destination of Puerto de la Cruz, with an undeniable increase in quality that will be a significant incentive for the rest of the accommodation establishments to start their renovation.
But beyond the works, the PMM considers other marketing and promotion programmes that propose the diversification and segmentation of markets, the online positioning of the destination, as well as the development of products related to nature, gastronomy, traditions, or the revitalization of the Open Commercial Area, as well as other actions related to the occupation of public space, signs and commercial supports, shop windows, etc. It also includes a programme to boost the destination’s quality, training and specialisation of human resources linked to training in restoration and hospitality, as well as the review and promotion of professional training and continuous training curricula. In addition, the tourist intelligence programme proposes the creation of statistics and tourist indicators within the framework of Tourism of Tenerife, as well as a harmonised methodology for the treatment of statistical information.
A Consortium without an expiration date / Marta Casanova
And now, what’s next?
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In November 2018, the Cabildo commissioned Gestur to draft the document of the Second Plan for the Modernization, Improvement, and Increase of the Touristic Competitiveness of Puerto de la Cruz. Since then, work has been carried out on this document, which includes a new package of renovation for the accommodation spaces in the municipality, one of the objectives set by the Consortium since its inception. However, the processing of this document does not seem to be complete, and the steps remaining to have a basic document that associations such as Ashotel deem vital are still complex.
Already in statements made in 2022, the hotel association feared that the electoral process of the past year would delay this processing. We do not know if that has been the cause, but the reality is that it seems that the deadlines set will not be met. The hotel association then highlighted the importance of PMM2 for urban planning, valuing the result of the first plan, which “has been a turning point not only for private rehabilitation actions of many hotel establishments in this tourist city, but also for the renovation of necessary spaces and public infrastructures to place a tourist destination in a good position”. This second PMM initially plans 35 actions in private areas and 16 in public spaces. Of the 35 private projects, 20 correspond to the rehabilitation and improvement of the tourist accommodation sector, among which stands out the Hotel Martiánez, which has been closed for many years, the Atlantic Hills (formerly Hotel Miramar, also recovered after some years) or the Risco Bello with its attractive water gardens.
Fermín García has been the manager of the Consortium since 2020. Four years of intense work at the helm of an organisation that combines public and private interests to position the municipality as a tourist and economic hub of the North. The necessary renovation that began with the creation of the Consortium cannot be left halfway, and for Fermín, something that started with good intentions on the part of all the administrations involved has had some shortcomings that prevent it from moving forward at full speed. In his view, one of the mistakes lies in the absence of a time horizon that defines not only the starting point but also the completion period of the plans.
The competence scope is another weakness of this organisation, which should have greater capacity for the integral management of renovation projects that are undertaken because “it is not logical for us to certify investments according to the law to manage incentives that then cannot materialise due to the peculiarities of the municipality’s accommodation facilities”. This would be resolved by delegating all the powers that affect tourism renewal and having a team of qualified technicians to streamline the procedures and licensing of these actions related to the rehabilitation of Puerto de la Cruz.
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