- The popular mayor also intends to redesign the events calendar of La Vila Gastronómica so that the brand can once again position Villajoyosa as a national gastronomic benchmark.
- "It is necessary to adapt the Strategic Tourism Plan to the real needs of the sector and establish a management and promotion strategy that consolidates Villajoyosa as a Smart Tourism Destination," says Marcos Zaragoza.
26 April 2023
The candidate for Mayor of Villajoyosa for the Popular Party, Marcos Zaragoza, proposes to value the tourism sector by promoting, with concrete actions, seafood gastronomy and historical and ethnographic heritage. The objective is to position Villajoyosa as a destination for cultural tourism and thus seasonally adjust the tourist offer. “La Vila has a rich historical heritage, an important fishing fleet and an excellent seafood gastronomy, assets that the rest of the towns in the region do not have. Therefore, we must promote them to differentiate ourselves from the tourist offers of the surrounding towns and offer, at the same time, a complementary offer in the Marina Baixa and that also complements our own offer of sun and beach”, explains the popular candidate.
An example of this is the commitment to convert the La Senyoreta de l'Hort farm, located on the central beach, into a cultural leisure space that serves as another tourist attraction for the city. The estate, included in the Vila Joiosa Historic Site, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, previously requires comprehensive rehabilitation of both its buildings and outdoor spaces for use in events, works that, according to Marcos Zaragoza , "will be done immediately." One of the leisure facilities that will make up this new cultural offer in La Senyoreta de l'Hort will be a visitable fishing boat. "The musealization of a fishing boat is a tribute and recognition to the life of the men of the sea who, with their work, have created our identity as a seafaring people", explains the popular candidate. With this initiative, visitors will be able to enjoy a guided tour inside the boat to learn about life on board for sailors and the most relevant fishing gear in Villajoyosa, trawling. In this way, "we provide greater visibility to fishing and recognize its importance in the economic and social development of the municipality," adds Marcos Zaragoza..
In addition, this museum ship will form part of the Cultural Corridor, a concept of a musealized city that will integrate the history of the city and whose itinerary, with its epicenter in Vilamuseu, will visit the most interesting places of historical and cultural heritage. The new leisure space at Senyoreta de l'Hort will also have a catering service and areas specifically set aside for holding events, such as performances and exhibitions, among others.
Since the city project proposed by Marcos Zaragoza is based on a transversal strategy, the actions to be carried out in the urban environment will be those dictated by the White Paper on the Urban Scene, the Universal Accessibility Plan, the Urban Cleaning Plan and the creation of the Cultural Corridor, so that, obviously, they will have an impact on places of heritage and tourist interest, seeking to improve the experience of tourists and residents throughout the year. And for this, the popular candidate proposes actions from different approaches.
One line of action will focus on improving municipal services. Marcos Zaragoza persists in his idea of launching mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the performance of certain municipal services, such as the collection of urban waste, cleaning, lighting and maintenance of urban furniture. "These services directly influence the experience of visitors and their perception of the destination, so we must maintain the highest quality in their provision so that Villajoyosa once again becomes an attractive and welcoming city for tourists and vileros" Zaragoza explains. Likewise, the popular candidate proposes remodeling the themed descents to the central beach, "which, in a very short time, have been deteriorated due to lack of maintenance and project a bad image." Another aspect to consider will be the control over the parking of caravans in areas public, vehicles for which specific parking spaces will be implemented.
Regarding the coastline, the popular candidate proposes to establish an agreement with the Provincial Coastal Service of Alicante, dependent on the Ministry for Ecological Transition, in order to regulate the use of the 14 kilometers of coastline that the municipality owns. In addition, "the declaration of our coast as a Place of Community Interest (SCI) that we intend to promote will allow us to maintain the beaches and the quality of the waters and, with the protection of the seabed, we will be able to turn these into another tourist attraction more add to the already well-known underwater Bou Ferrer deposit”, points out Zaragoza. Zaragoza.
On the other hand, Marcos Zaragoza is committed to public-private collaboration. “In order to diversify a tourism model and improve its competitiveness, it is essential to involve all the public and private agents that influence the development of tourism in the destination”, he explains. For this reason, he insists on the real integration of the private sector in the Municipal Tourism Council, so that they work together in the implementation of tourism initiatives. In this line, the popular candidate proposes the construction of a residence-hotel for family respite, in the area of El Torres-Galandú, intended for dependent people, in order to relieve their relatives. With this, a line of tourism would be developed in Villajoyosa until now barely implemented, socio-sanitary tourism.
In terms of gastronomy, Marcos Zaragoza intends to promote the La Vila Gastronómica brand as a national culinary benchmark. To do this, he proposes to redesign the calendar of specialized product contests and integrate the offer of gastronomic experiences of the Open Shopping Center within the brand. Likewise, the attendance of the brand at some gastronomic contests on the national and international scene will be studied.
On the other hand, in order to make the historical heritage more visible, in addition to drawing up the already mentioned Cultural Corridor, the popular candidate intends to promote scientific tourism, taking advantage of the municipal scientific endowments and research campaigns, currently focused on in archeology. In addition, and regarding the promotion of sports tourism, Marcos Zaragoza proposes expanding the offer by holding more national and international sporting events, in addition to those already consolidated, such as rugby and kayaking. It also proposes a complementary offer of active tourism based on the creation of routes through the Amadorio riverbed, through the mountains of the municipal area and the marine forests and the environmental recovery of the Mas de la Monja area, located next to the mountain of Puig Campana, where the candidate projects the rehabilitation of the existing building to turn it into a rural hostel.
Regarding digital transformation, Marcos Zaragoza proposes to consolidate Villajoyosa as a Smart Tourism Destination (DTI), a pilot project that began in 2013 and was a pioneer in terms of accessibility, but has not yet achieved certification from the category. Villajoyosa joined the DTI Network in February 2019 and prepared the Diagnostic Report and Action Plan for its transformation into a Smart Tourist Destination in 2022. In this sense, it states that the recently approved Strategic Tourism Plan has been prepared by a external company in a couple of months "solely for the reason of being able to opt for a public subsidy", for which he proposes to analyze it and modify it "in collaboration with private companies, to adapt it to the real needs presented by the business sector and the management public”. Marcos Zaragoza considers it necessary, likewise, to design and apply an efficient strategy for the management and promotion of the tourist destination, taking advantage of the digital and artificial intelligence resources offered by the sector, to achieve a digital positioning of the municipality, in addition to intensifying the presence of Villajoyosa as tourist destination in fairs and specialized congresses. The popular candidate explains that "we must adapt to the change in tourist behavior and adapt the offer to the preferences of the demand, monitor the entire trip cycle, from the search for offers, through their stay and to their subsequent evaluation, as well how to design segmented communication actions for each target audience”. The commitment to digitalization means, in addition to applying a comprehensive system for the intelligent management of tourist services, allocating specific training and technological tools for technical personnel in the tourism area in order to professionalize the public management of tourism.
In terms of accessibility, the popular mayor proposes, in addition to applying the Universal Accessibility Plan, increasing the tourist information centers in areas with the greatest influx, such as downtown beach and La Cala beach, expanding the offer of accessible beaches and designing signage, tourist maps and accessible terrestrial and underwater itineraries.
"Some of the fundamental factors of the tourism sector are the generation of employment and the promotion of the culture and heritage of cities, so the image of Villajoyosa must project the concept of quality, accessible and responsible tourism as a model of development with an emphasis on economic, environmental and sociocultural sustainability and the commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda”, adds Marcos Zaragoza.
