The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, participated today in the Barbanza Arousa Tourism Gala, in which he highlighted the government’s commitment to make the region of O Barbanza a tourist destination of excellence, contributing with an investment of more than 2.5 million euros.
Pedro Blanco, who was accompanied by the subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, acknowledged the effort for the transformation of the tourism sector and for the quality promoted by the Barbanza Arousa Municipal Community with the support of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. This support translates into two projects that are already underway in this region: the Tourism Sustainability Plan “A journey through flavors” and the project “Experiential Translatio”.
Precisely, during the Barbanza Arousa Tourism Gala, the badges that accredit the tourism quality of companies and institutions of this region were awarded within the framework of the SICTED (Integral System of Tourist Quality in Destination) program.
This accreditation system is promoted by the Secretary of State for Tourism with the support of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and is granted annually in the field of tourism companies and services that meet demanding quality standards to improve the experience and satisfaction of the tourist.
Pedro Blanco explained that the implementation of the SICTED is one of the actions contemplated in the project ‘Traslatio Experienciales’, which seeks to promote and consolidate the route Mar de Arousa and Río Ulla, the path that evokes the arrival of the Apostle to Galicia by boat and that decorates by the Barbanza. This project received about one million euros from the Government in the framework of the aid for the digital transformation of the entities that are part of the Camino de Santiago and that are integrated in the Network of Intelligent Tourist Destinations, financed from the funds of the Recovery Plan.
To this initiative we must add the Tourism Sustainability Plan ‘A Journey through the Flavors’, which has been implemented by the community since this year with a contribution of 1.5 million euros from the Government within the Recovery Plan. The Plan aims to enhance the value of the gastronomy and production processes in this area, such as fishing and the capture of molluscs and seafood, salting and preserving. The latter will have their own respective museum in Ribeira and Boiro, respectively.
“We are facing a small sample of the historical investments of this Government in the transformation of tourism in Galicia. About 200 million euros in four years to promote the modernization of 43 destinations, benefiting one in two Galician municipalities,” said the delegate.
Pedro Blanco also took the opportunity to highlight the latest data from the Ministry of Industry, which indicates that last year 750,000 tourists from Spain came to Galicia for cultural reasons, “many of them attracted by the Camino de Santiago”. That is why it encouraged companies and municipalities not to miss the opportunity to promote the Xacobea route of O Barbanza and the other tourist attractions of the region. “We are convinced that initiatives such as those promoted by the Barbanza Arousa Community will allow us to consolidate this new tourist model and continue on the right path,” he concluded.