Dénia receives 3 million euros to promote and reinvent tourism in the city
More sustainable, better adapted and more competitive. This will be the new tourist bet of Dénia that is projected thanks to the "important economic injection for the municipality", in the words of Vicent Grimalt, which they have received from the European Union. Nothing less than 3 million euros to carry out different works in order to transform the city, and this time 100% financed by the European body, without requiring co-financed by local administrations.
The mayor and councilor of Tourism of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, has announced this week that Dénia is one of the eleven Valencian municipalities selected as beneficiaries of the first extraordinary call for the program of Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destinations, as Dénia.com anticipated a few days ago. The subsidy for these plans will be 100% and comes from Next Generation funds, a financial tool that the European Union has made available to Member States for the recovery of the social and economic crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. . In the absence of the definitive notification, our municipality will receive about 3 million euros for the development of the actions of the Sustainable Tourism Plan in Destination that it presented to this extraordinary call.
Along with Dénia, Alcalà de Xivert, Alcoi, València, Benissa, Orpesa, Finestrat, Bocairent, Cullera, Torrevella and the Mancomunitat de l'Interior Terra del Vi have been beneficiaries. The Valencian Community will receive a total of 139,1 million euros of Next Generation EU funds to be executed in three years to promote these plans. The eleven destinations that will be beneficiaries have been chosen after exceeding the required score from the total of 45 applications submitted to this extraordinary call.
According to the mayor, the implementation of the Sustainable Tourism Plan of Dénia "is fully justified and is especially timely for reasons such as the current tourism situation and the consequences derived from the pandemic; climate change and its consequences on the tourism sector; Dénia's need to reflect on its tourism model and incorporate the SDGs as the backbone of the new strategy; the need to respond to the problems of a sun and beach destination that can put sustainability at risk (consumption of water, waste, energy) and the need for diversification in the offer.
The objectives of the Dénia plan are to promote the renewal of the tourism model towards one based on the SDGs and position the city as a global benchmark, consolidating the role of gastronomy as the backbone of the tourism model through projects such as the Creative City of the Gastronomy and the Mediterranean Gastronomy Center. It also seeks to contribute to the economic and social reconstruction of the tourism sector after the COVID-19 crisis and to recover and activate the cultural and natural heritage of Dénia and the Marina Alta.
Giving depth and variety to the tourist offer, improving the quality of the experience, increasing the profitability of tourism and favoring the ecological transition and developing the Smart Tourist Destination project are other goals set in the plan.
The four axes to which the grant will be allocated
A plan that unfolds in four axes of bankable actions in this extraordinary call. On the one hand, actions in the field of green and sustainable transition. This section includes a “key project for the city's green strategy and the recovery of the natural environment: the second phase of the Bosc de Diana, together with a proposal to promote the ecological transition of the tourism sector, with measures to boost the circular economy and the improvement of human capital.
In the axis of improving energy efficiency, it is planned to promote key projects to guarantee accessibility and sustainable tourist mobility, projects to humanize and enhance urban space and the Bicycle Strategy, which aims to transform the urban mobility model. In this section, projects such as the improvement of the Glorieta and its surroundings and of Marqués de Campo street and the tender for public transport in the city stand out.
The third axis to be developed includes actions in the field of digital transition that facilitate the continuous improvement of the processes included in the tourism value chain through the use of technology. Dénia will develop the Smart Tourist Destination Master Plan, which will be completed in the first months of 2022.
Finally, actions are required within the framework of competitiveness that involve a constant improvement in the management of the destination. Included in this axis are the strategic projects of the Creative City and the Mediterranean Gastronomy Center, projects to activate the cultural and natural heritage, such as the recovery of the castle and the renovation of the city's museum facilities.