The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, took part in the Tourism Sector Conference where the 23 projects to be financed by the ordinary programme of Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destinations, with a total investment of 64 million euros, were agreed with the autonomous communities and local authorities.
“The applications we have received in this second edition of the programme, a total of 301, almost double those of the previous year (156 proposals), which demonstrates the enormous interest aroused by this initiative that invests in improving the competitiveness of destinations, through close collaboration between the three levels of government. Our commitment is to invest in destinations to improve the experience of tourists who visit us and this year we are going to mobilise more than 23 million euros from the Secretary of State for Tourism,” explained the minister during her speech.
Reyes Maroto thanked “the involvement of the three levels of government to promote this programme, which began last year but which has a clear vocation for continuity, as it has a driving effect on the transformation of destinations towards a model based on sustainability”.
Rural, urban and sun and beach destinations
The selected projects are located in rural, urban and sun and beach destinations in Andalusia (Granada Geopark), Aragon (Andorra-Sierra de Arcos, Cinco Villas), Asturias (Valles de Aller and Comarca de Avilés), the Balearic Islands (Villa de Ibiza and Formentera), Valencia (Altea and Peñíscola), the Canary Islands (Lanzarote), Cantabria (Alto Asón) and Cantabria (Alto Asón), Cantabria (Alto Asón), Castile-La Mancha (Campo de Criptana, Montes de Toledo and Molina de Aragón), Castile-León (Salamanca), Extremadura (La Vera-Valle del Jerte), Galicia (A Mariña Lucense and Ourense Termal), La Rioja (Valle del Alhama-Linares), Comunidad de Madrid (Cerdedilla-Puerto de Navacerrada), Murcia (Portmán); Ceuta (Salted Fish Market) and Melilla (Recovery of unique buildings). (More information in the press dossier).
The plans in rural destinations are more numerous as they represent 77% of the applications submitted. The funding that each plan will receive from the Secretary of State for Tourism ranges between 400,000 and 2,000,000 euros.
Extraordinary plans with European funds
In addition to the ordinary Sustainability Plans programme, which is intended to continue, over the next three years extraordinary editions of the programme will be called for, financed with 1,858 million euros from European recovery funds.
The Tourism Sector Conference chaired by Minister Maroto has approved the Tourism Sustainability Strategy in Destinations, the roadmap that will guide the distribution of funds, based on the projects presented, and the implementation of the programme.
From Friday 30 July until 20 September 2021, the deadline for local entities to submit their applications for the first extraordinary call for Sustainability Plans will be open, with funding per destination ranging from one million to 10 million euros, depending on the category of the destination.
Large cities and highly internationalised sun and beach destinations will have access to the largest investments, with minimum amounts of ten and five million euros, respectively.