The regional secretary of Tourism, Francesc Colomer, and the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, have signed today in the City Council the collaboration agreement to make possible this year a new edition of D * na Festival, which will take place on the weekend of the bridge in December, days 3, 4, 5 and 6, and will have as its protagonist the local hospitality sector, "a sector that was severely hit during the pandemic: our bars and restaurants, cooks and producers who have been behind, so longed for throughout this strange period, so punished by the sacrifice that they have had to assume, closing doors, for everyone ", Grimalt recalled.
The contribution of Valencian Community Tourism amounts to € 200.000, with which the new appointment with D * na will materialize, this year with a new format: the locals adhering to the initiative will offer a program of menus associated with local products or complementary activities such as tastings, pairings with music, sessions with guest chefs, etc. In addition, gastronomy promotion activities will be organized in different public spaces ('showcookings', lectures, sale of special products under the D * na brand, specific activities for the press, critics and 'influencers', among others).
According to the agreement, "D * na 2021 is designed because the entire agri-food and tourism value chain can be claimed, as it forms tourism excellence as a whole", also linked to Dénia as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. For this reason, this new experience of D * na accommodates restaurants, bars, cafes and ice cream parlors, workplaces and agri-food trade and tourist service companies.
Francesc Colomer has pointed out that the new dates chosen for the celebration of the festival (originally scheduled for the end of October) bring this great event even closer to the Michelin Gala, which is based in the city of Valencia and the chef as gastronomic coordinator Quique Dacosta, creative director also of the D * na Festival de Dénia. "I am aware of Quique's interest and efforts to link the two appointments, to turn the D * na into a preamble to the Michelin awards and to take advantage of it to value all the good that we have in Dénia and the Valencian Community".
Finally, the regional secretary of Tourism has claimed the resilience of the hospitality sector, "which from an apparent weakness has given a lesson in life, respect and behavior during the pandemic." "Our tourism sector, in constant evolution, will be vital in the future that now awaits us for reconnection with life, for an emotional comeback. Tourism is the answer for these new times."
For our mayor, there are 200.000 reasons to change your mind, and forget words about not depending only on restaurants and tourism.
Playgrounds in a sorry state, climbing wall with a 30 thousand budget, nobody wanted to build it, deficient sewage, non-existent parking, the palm trees in the parks will have to be cut down due to the poor condition in which they are due to the neglect of the Consistory.
But to promote four chefs with their restaurants, we put 200 thousand PUBLIC money into them.
In fact, more power has AHETMA, HOSBEC and more hotel and hospitality associations that are the ones that move the roost, and they are not interested or hearing about alternative plans to their only business model / gold mine.
They are the so-called "economic engine" car.
They say they have had a very bad time ... and who hasn't?
Reductions in fees for water, electricity, municipal taxes, they have lacked time to put all the staff in ERTES, so where is what went so bad?
What did they not have the juicy benefits of all the years?
And the electricians? And the workers? And the bakers? And the seamstresses?
And all the workers not dependent on tourism, these were saved?
Pure and hard hypocrisy.
With 200 thousand of PUBLIC money the promotion of their own PRIVATE companies is free, they will not have to spend a penny on it, it is that in the end it is a bargain !!!
Let's hope that the Consistory and its governing party begin to think about how we can get rid of the burden of the hospitality industry, an industry with little or no added value, which neither creates quality jobs, nor offers stability and fits us into a The only economic plan, which we have seen recently, when things go wrong, it only costs us PUBLIC money.
That the elections are approaching.
Yes, this also surely provides for at least two family-size photo albums, which appear in the photos that are not missing.
You are absolutely right Pau, thank you for explaining it so detailed and exact. What is needed here is more people with this clarity of thought and not the large group of weak and lazy clappers who allow all this to happen.
I'll stick with the last sentence.
»Tourism is the answer for these new times»
Already, we are enjoying it these last months.
You can't be more hypocritical, you can see that the regional secretary does not live here.
Exactly that little brother crying so much that the economic model had to be changed and the revelation did not last two days. They remain entrenched in the same thing because they do not know or want to allow any other type of economy.