The Mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, yesterday attended the presentation of the National Food and Wine Tourism Plan 2022-2023 held in Logroño. Grimalt was invited to participate in a round table on gastronomic heritage and tourism-oriented food and wine events, moderated by the Deputy Director General for Tourism Development and Sustainability of the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Muñoz Llabrés.
The mayor shared the talk with Ana Redondo García, vice president of Saborea España and deputy mayor of the Valladolid City Council; María Mercedes Pérez González, president of the Intermunicipal Association Territories Agroecological Reserve Red TERRAE and Benjamín Lana, representative of Vocento Gastronomía-Madrid Fusión.
Grimalt outlined that wine tourism and food and wine are experiences that, in the case of Dénia and the Marina Alta, “are transforming and have already transformed our perception of tourism”. “In our land, food and wine tourism is part of our way of being and enjoying life. I like to say that we are recovering tourism "with soul", she continued.
Regarding the engine for Dénia to undertake this new path in its tourism model, Grimalt pointed out that the distinction as Creative City of UNESCO Gastronomy in 2015, renewed for four more years in 2020, "represented a turning point, because it allowed us to take awareness of the great wealth of our gastronomy and the great potential it has as a tourist asset”. Grimalt listed some of the gastronomic events with a great impact on tourism that have taken place in the city in recent years, such as the D * na Festival, curated by Quique Dacosta, the International Red Shrimp Creative Cuisine Contest, World Tapas Day, l'escaldà de Jesús Pobre, the Fòrum Arròs a banda or the gastronomic meeting of l'arròs caldós.
Once the commitment to experiential tourism has been consolidated, Dénia has obtained 3 million euros from the Next Generation funds to develop the Destination Tourism Sustainability Plan. The mayor explained that the objectives of this plan are to promote the renewal of the tourism model towards one based on the SDGs and to position the city as a global benchmark, consolidating the role of gastronomy as the backbone of the tourism model through projects such as the City Creative of Gastronomy and the Mediterranean Gastronomy Center. “It is, in short, about giving depth and variety to the tourist offer, improving the quality of the experience, increasing the profitability of tourism, favoring the ecological transition, which cannot be postponed; and also develop the Smart Tourist Destination project”, he added.
Likewise, the city has presented to the 2022 call for the Destination Tourism Sustainability Plans Program for local entities, also financed by Next Generation European funds, the Tourism Sustainability Plan "Gastronomy: recipe for a sustainable future / #TastingLife" , with actions to be carried out budgeted at almost 5 million euros. A plan, validated with the economic, social and political agents of Dénia, which will make it possible to place sustainable gastronomy and the Mediterranean diet as axes of the evolution of the city's tourism model and in which local products and producers have a special role. "because if we really want to turn it into an authentic tourist experience, we must go back to the origins and value what differentiates us and gives us excellence".
To end his contribution, the mayor referred to training, "essential for providing specialized human resources for this entire transformation", and mentioned that "from the CdT Marina Alta de Dénia and the María Ibars institute, a quality training in the hotel and restaurant sector. But we have taken a further step and we are in the process of creating a university center specializing in gastronomy, with the collaboration of the University of Alicante”.
Union and transversality
The National Food and Wine Tourism Plan, framed in the Modernization and Competitiveness Plan for the tourism sector, was presented by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, who stressed that the initiative is committed to "recognizable elements of our country, where, in addition to , food and wine tourism represents the union of two of our strengths, such as gastronomy and oenology, both with enormous capacity for growth”. The minister made it clear that "with this plan, food and wine is mainstreamed throughout all public tourism policies that the Secretary of State has provided for in the Plan for Modernization and Competitiveness of the Sector, to address it from all the perspectives with which we work: sustainability, competitiveness, digitization and quality”.
According to data from Turespaña, cultural tourism, in which gastronomic tourism in the broad sense could be included, is the third most important in our country, behind sun and beach tourism and other types of leisure. In terms of the volume of spending, the food and wine tourist represents a high added value. According to the latest available statistics, in 2019 gastronomic activities (haute cuisine, visits to wineries, vineyards, tastings) reached an expense of 22.420,5 million euros.
Objectives and investment
The plan seeks to convert the set of knowledge, knowledge, arts and crafts that allow eating and drinking in a healthy way into sustainable and integrated tourist experiences throughout the territory. Its objectives are developed around the three key dimensions of food and wine tourism and that involve its entire value chain: product, process and culture.
- Promote the food and wine destinations of our country by financing destination sustainability plans.
- Generate sustainable and diverse gastronomic tourism experiences.
- Improve the training of the agents that participate in the food and wine tourism value chain, through their training in digital skills and sustainability.
- Collect in an accessible and open space all the practices that already exist and that give meaning to the concept of Spanish gastronomy, generating a differential message and building stories that can be inspiring for other initiatives in the country.
- Delve into the use of food and wine as a basic message for promoting tourism in Spain abroad.
The Enogastronomy Tourism Plan has a global budget of 68,6 million euros, which is distributed in its four main axes:
- Tourism sustainability plans in food and wine destinations: €51.400.000
- Spain Tourism Experiences Program: €10.000.000
- Special Actions - Spain Tourism Experiences Program: €5.000.000
- International promotion program: €2.212.000
