Tourism represents 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Community of Valencia. As such, it is one of the most important economic industries of the province of Alicante and bases its development directly on the region and the use of its natural resources. In fact, the different consumption stages of a tourism product are closely related to the environment, from the accommodation cycle to the travel.
To talk about tourism, sustainability and the future, Juan José Berenguer, mayor of El Campello, and Vicente Arques, mayor of l’Alfàs del Pi, attended the “Tourist municipalities and sustainability” roundtable, emphasizing the importance of tourism. local councilors when it comes to managing municipalities’ environmental impacts responsibly and efficiently.
“Sustainability is a big deal at l’Alfàs del Pi and we always take that into account. This is a crossover idea. There is the management of water, the collection of garbage, the management of parking spaces…” Vicente Arques also said that he thinks “everything can be turned into tourism today”.
“Traditions, gastronomy, culture, beaches, cultural offer, heritage could be tourism,” said Vicente Arques. According to him, the future of the industry is inextricably linked to sustainability, and the trend in tourism is to move towards “active aging, which requires the delivery of an environmental heritage and a range of healthy services and activities”.
The mayor of El Campello was in line by ensuring that tourism municipalities no longer give up on their commitment to sustainability. “I don’t know of a mayor who would consider taking any action that violates his own municipality’s beaches, landscaping, tradition or culture,” Berenguer said. said. He also emphasized that considering sustainability means being aware of the fact that tourism is “an activity that will be lived for a long time, that must evolve and adapt to the needs of every moment”. At this time, he argued, tourism should think about “long-term and future generations”, betting on a model that is friendly to the ecosystem and has minimal impact on the culture and local community.
The two participants also agreed that sustainable tourism should strike a balance between the interests of visitors and those of the municipality’s neighbors and prevent coexistence problems from arising. To avoid such discussions, seasonalization plays a key role by avoiding concentrating tourism on a very specific time frame and also by providing more options when it comes to modulating the arrival of visitors.
“We are seeing more and more requests from European residents who want to live in Campello, our municipality and longer. Climate itself is what causes deseasonalization in one way or another. In fact, the high season demands are already going from May to September,” explained the mayor.
But he also wanted to be cautious in assuming this increased visitor numbers: “We must be aware of and know how far we can go. El Campello does not have a very large hotel complex, and tourist apartment offers are increasing. We must be vigilant so that these phenomena do not adversely affect our usual neighborhood.
L’Alfàs del Pi also has a substantial foreign population living in the municipality throughout the year. In fact, he recalled that it was the third generation of European residents who had come to the municipality decades ago. The municipality has been complementing its traditional beach offering for years with culture, industry, environment and gastronomy to meet its demands because “we understand tourism as a whole”.
From his point of view, tourism is moving towards active aging, which means that citizens and visitors must be offered options to “do sports, offer museums, healthy spaces …”.
A service and experience proposal that municipalities should provide in cooperation with each other. Arques said, “We mayors do not compete, we complement each other,” while Berenguer argued that “if a municipality declares war on its own, it will achieve very little.”