The group that brings together the main tourism companies in Spain, Exceltur, has presented a manifesto for a "tourism with purpose, responsible, inclusive and regenerative, which includes the basic principles to be able to advance towards the tourism we all want", they propose.
The document addresses many of the challenges facing tourism in Spain and is also the basis of the Turismo Bien project, a brand to "promote the greatest advances and best practices that help achieve more sustainable tourism, with the greatest added value and increasingly closer to citizen aspirations, with the greatest respect for the environment and its identity values".
The manifesto is a declaration of intent and commitments to promote progress around a roadmap with the greatest consensus of all public and private actors in the sector, which also listens to citizen demands that arise in the destinations.
The document has the support of the companies associated with Exceltur and the main subsectoral tourism associations of national character: CEHAT (Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation), CEAV (Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies), Hospitality of Spain, ALA (Association of Airline Lines) and Feneval (National Business Federation of Vehicle Rental With and Without Driver).
José Luis Zoreda, executive vice president of Exceltur, highlighted the need to carry out a transition towards more competitive scenarios that ensure the greatest socio-economic contribution and citizen satisfaction, overcoming many of the problems of a growth that until recently was valued in a simplistic way and based on beating mere records of affluence per se.
The president of Exceltur, Gabriel Escarrer, explained: "We have specified 80 action proposals in five axes, associated with saturation, gentrification, employment, the environment and governance".
Among the proposed measures is the possible creation of "citizen tourism councils", formed by representatives of neighborhood communities, local authorities and different operators in the sector in stressed areas.
