The plenary session of Calp City Council yesterday gave final approval, with the support of all political groups, to the Strategic Tourism Plan 2020-2030, a document that sets out the roadmap for tourism to make the city a more competitive and sustainable destination and to ensure that tourism has an impact on a better quality of life for citizens.
The plan is the result of an intensive year of work and is the outcome of a broad process of citizen participation. Indeed, the proposals have emerged from input gathered through online surveys conducted with both residents and the business community, in-depth interviews with socio-economic actors linked to the tourism sector, and two focus groups on sustainability and innovation and tourism marketing.
With all this, the actions to be developed by the Department of Tourism over the next ten years were elaborated, which among other things will seek to promote gastronomic, sports and nautical tourism, as this is where it was found that the municipality offers the most opportunities. It was also concluded from the input of entrepreneurs and residents that celebrating events is a priority tool for developing tourism in the municipality.
The plan sets out 15 major strategic lines, including the development of an observatory for smart tourism destinations, the implementation of a local awareness campaign to promote hospitality, a study on the carrying capacity of natural resources (beaches, Penyal d'Ifac Natural Park), the monitoring of local perceptions of tourism, measures for the accessibility and internal mobility of visitors, and measures for the modernization, qualification and safety of tourism businesses, among many others.
This strategic plan was also born from the consensus of all political forces. The document includes part of the requests presented by Defendamos Calpe during the public exhibition period, such as the proposal to increase the number of staff assigned to the tourism sector by reorganizing existing municipal resources, as well as the definition of monitoring indicators for this plan to assess the evaluation of its application. It also includes a commitment to develop training activities in the field of tourism by the Economic Development Department of the Calp Municipality.
The spokesperson for Defendamos Calpe, Paco Quiles, stressed the need for strategic tools such as this to achieve improvements in the different areas and thanked the other groups and sectors of the population for the good reception of his proposals.
Compromís spokesperson Ximo Perles pointed out that the great challenge of the plan will be its execution and stressed that "only for the effort in drafting this document" would his formation give its support.
Socialist spokesperson Santos Pastor said that the plan is "technically very good", although he qualified that it is not compatible with the PGOU. "The development of the plan is very difficult because the urban planning approach of the municipality is very expansive," he said.
For his part, Ciudadanos spokesman Juan Manuel del Pino said it was a very ambitious plan "that will give a big boost to this municipality".
And the PP spokesman and councilor for tourism, Paco Avargues, stressed the citizen participation that has been in the elaboration of the plan and thanked all the political forces for their support.