The Government has unanimously agreed on the specific tourism projects and destinations in which 615 million euros will be invested from the Next Generation EU recovery funds dedicated to the Destination Tourism Sustainability Plans program.
The beneficiaries amount to 169 projects in the different autonomous communities.
“The program of Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destinations that we recover in 2020 has proven to be the best example of collaboration between the three levels of the Administration in a State policy such as tourism policy should be. The investment that was approved today, and that we will reissue in 2022 and 2023, will make our destinations more competitive, moving towards a model that is more respectful with the environment, digital, accessible to all and whose benefits affect both the sector and the resident population “, reported the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto.
For the Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdés, who also participated in the meeting of the Sectorial Conference: “The wealth of destinations that Spain has represents a true competitive advantage compared to other receiving markets that must be strengthened if we want to continue being leaders in tourism “.
Unlike the regular program of Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destinations -which has been running for two editions-, this first extraordinary call is not financed with the budget of the three administrations involved (Secretary of State for Tourism, CCAA and beneficiary local entities) Rather, it is fully covered by European recovery funds.
The presentation and selection of applications, as well as the distribution of funds between autonomous communities, has followed the procedure established in the Strategy for Sustainable Tourism in Destinations, approved unanimously at a Sectorial Conference last July.
Of the 169 projects selected (out of a total of 506 applications submitted), 153 will be managed by the requesting local entities, while another 16 correspond to territorial cohesion actions that will be carried out by the Autonomous Communities, but which will also have an impact on the destinations.
Interpretation Centre in the new Plaza de España in Madrid
Among the plans that will have a greater endowment is the city of Madrid, with 10 million euro with which a comprehensive digital transformation program will be implemented, an electric station will be installed in the Plaza de Canalejas and the Plaza de Interpretation Centre will be created, among other actions.
The Consell de Mallorca, with a project of 13 million euro focused on improving the sustainability of the destination; the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, with an investment of more than nine million euro that includes the rehabilitation of trails and viewpoints, or the city of Valencia, with 7.5 million to, among other actions, develop a program to reduce plastics in the tourism sector, are among the local initiatives that will receive a greater investment.
The selected plans cover all types of destinations, both sun and beach, urban and rural. Only in the projects that will be managed by local entities are 84 rural destinations in which it is intended that the development of tourist activity boosts the local economy, exerting its driving force on other sectors such as agri-food, and thus helping to generate employment and fix the population. .
General objectives
The program of Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destination pursues as general objectives to support Spanish tourist destinations, whatever their scale and the type of demand to which they respond, in their transformation process towards hubs or tourism innovation poles capable of integrating into its offer environmental, socioeconomic and territorial sustainability, and to develop resilience strategies in the face of new challenges in the tourism ecosystem, from climate change, to tourist over-demand or health and security crises.
The second general objective is to achieve, through the different intervention instruments, greater territorial cohesion, not only relating the offer and the destinations of each territory, but also creating connections between the destinations of different regions.
Among the expected results of this program is to improve tourist destinations by investing in improving their competitiveness so that they can exert a driving effect on tourist demand and a boosting effect on the private tourism sector; effectively incorporate sustainability and digitisation in the management of tourism resources, infrastructures and products at destinations; diversify the supply of tourist destinations to help generate opportunities for employment and activity, redistribute tourist income and favour territorial cohesion and deconcentrating of demand, particularly in rural areas, as well as promoting seasonal adjustment and improving the natural capital of the tourism system, guaranteeing its sustainability by reducing emissions.
