The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and Tourism councillor, Oswaldo Betancort, has made an analysis of his time at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) last week in Madrid. In a presentation made in the Islote de La Fermina, he presented his experience this Monday to public and private agents of the island's tourism sector.
“We attend this type of forum with the main objective of establishing links and agreements that contribute to consolidating and strengthening the tourism model that we want for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, based on sustainability, innovation, digitization, tourism intelligence and all those actions that contribute to the qualification of the destination”, Betancort started.
“These axes contribute to the definition of the tourist model of the destination and the international positioning, in a complex scenario with great challenges. At the same time, we try to identify interlocutors to accelerate the qualification of the type of client with greater profitability for the destination”, explained the president of the Cabildo conejero.
The president congratulated the large professional team made up of the staff of the Cabildo and the Sociedad de Promoción Exterior-Turismo Lanzarote, directed by Héctor Fernández, “with whom we deployed a work agenda that included more than fifty actions adding meetings, signatures, presentations, round tables and other events”.
“A tight work agenda designed in coherence with the model that, I insist, we want and defend for Lanzarote, based on excellence, in the search for segments with greater spending capacity, greater profitability and less impact for the destination, and in which public-private collaboration plays a fundamental role in the impulse towards that sustainable and differentiated tourism model”, Betancort assured.
Commitment to tourism intelligence
For his part, the CEO of SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote has highlighted the commitment to tourism intelligence, thanks to which Lanzarote aspires to be one of the first destinations in which all of its municipalities obtain the consideration of Intelligent Tourist Destination (DTI).
“We took advantage of our presence at FITUR to present this model promoted by the State Mercantile Society for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technologies (Segittur) in which we have already been working in the tourist municipalities -Teguise, Tías and Yaiza- and that we want to extend to the rest of the Island”, explained Fernández, valuing that “the development of this Tourism Intelligence will provide us with capacities to interpret data and improve the tourist experience".
At this point, he highlighted the Cicerone Project. "This pioneering initiative will radically transform the experience of tourists when demanding information at the César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport, which will have the first office to use artificial intelligence to offer an immersive and personalized experience to the people who visit us." Thus, the Cabildo of Lanzarote presented this project together with iUrban, the company promoting this initiative.
Green tourism brand and surf
Regarding the evolution towards a green tourism brand, Lanzarote presented the report prepared by Mabrian Technologies together with SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote, also developed through the application of Tourism Intelligence and Big Data analysis, and which has confirmed the path undertaken by our Island towards the "revaluation of the tourist offer and consequently the reception of a tourist with greater cultural and economic capital", the Cabildo indicated.
“Linked to this last point, during our presence at FITUR, we received the certificate that accredits the renewal of Lanzarote's certification as a Biosphere Destination, after successfully completing the audit carried out by the Responsible Tourism Institute (RTI). This seal ratifies the destination's commitment to the methodology based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UNESCO”, Fernández pointed out.
Audiovisual industry and sports tourism
Regarding the diversification of the tourism offer, the collaboration agreement with the Portuguese municipality of Nazaré and Lanzarote was highlighted, to promote both destinations as enclaves for surfing. This is linked to the development of the Blue Economy, focused on attracting a type of sustainable tourism, making better use of all the potential that the sea offers to the destination, organizing top-level nautical events.
Also related to the diversification of our tourism offer, highlight the signing of the agreement with FesTVal to promote the audiovisual industry in Lanzarote, which entails the celebration on our island of this prestigious Television Festival born in Vitoria.
Both the agreement signed with Nazaré and the celebration of FesTVal on the Island are two examples of the commitment undertaken by this Cabildo and SPEL Turismo Lanzarote to the segmentation of our tourism offer with the creation of brands that enhance the quality of the destination such as Lanzarote European Sports Destination and Lanzarote Film Commission responsible for promoting international prestigious sporting events on the Island as well as facilitating the work on our island of companies and professionals in the audiovisual sector.
In short, the Cabildo of Lanzarote has defended that "FITUR continues to show itself as an essential fair for Lanzarote and La Graciosa and their economic prosperity, and a forum from where also the president of the Cabildo, coinciding with his taking office as president of the FECAI, took the opportunity to show the absolute and unanimous rejection of all the Canary Islands to the increase in air taxes".
"Oswaldo Betancort: We don't want one more tourist, but we don't want one less tourist either. What we want and will do from the Cabildo is to promote the modernization of infrastructures and an industry capable of generating employment and economy."
“The objectives of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa in relation to what is the main industry of our island are clear: we want to promote and continue building the tourism model that has differentiated us from the rest of the world, a tourism model that prioritizes sustainability, and for this it is necessary to provide those who visit us with an exclusive and environmentally friendly offer”, added Oswaldo Betancort.
“We have the necessary ingredients for this. We have an offer that generates sensations for those who visit us thanks to our spectacular landscape, the possibility of practicing sports 365 days a year, and our rich gastronomy, but to increase spending at the destination it is necessary to look for a differentiated client and we are able to attract tourism that seeks excellence”, Betancort concluded.
“That is why we took advantage of our stay at FITUR to establish contacts with American, Canadian, Asian agents, to look for tourist profiles in those markets that have greater spending capacity. But we must give equal relevance to our traditional markets, with which we also maintained multiple contacts, in order that our tourism prospects continue to be encouraging. The good state of the sector on our island continues to be evident”, concluded Héctor Fernández.
