The Lanzarote Conference Center already has the ten finalists of the ideas competition called for the construction of the 15,756 square meter surface. It is an ideas competition for drafting a project, with a public and open nature, in which its first phase has already been held, with a total of 52 participants and restricted to a maximum of 10 candidates in its second phase, selected with the intervention of juries.
For this ideas competition, the Tourism Department of the Autonomous Community has collected proposals from the sector in order for Lanzarote to have a building agreed upon by all and capable of satisfying the sector's needs for holding congresses, conventions or conferences, among others.
The Tourism Department will award each finalist with 15,000 euros and will publicly exhibit the 10 preliminary projects and models winning the second phase of the ideas competition. Of the ten finalist preliminary projects, three are international studios, five national and two from the Canary Islands.
The Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Rita Martín, pointed out that, "Lanzarote will be able to have the definitive project of the Lanzarote Conference Center at the beginning of 2009 when the only winner is chosen".
Regarding the decision of the competition and award, once the submission period, which ends on December 31, has expired, the Jury will meet, within the established period, to award a first prize, consisting of the commission of the Basic and Execution Project and the Health and Safety Study, as well as the Works Management and the Coordination in terms of Health and Safety, through a negotiated procedure without publicity.
For the planning of the Lanzarote Congress Building, the experience of the Maspalomas Conference Center and the Magma Arte & Congresos Conference Center has been taken into account, while also taking into account the studies of the latest Congress buildings developed in Spain.
Rita Martín reiterated the importance of having this infrastructure as soon as possible since meeting tourism will grow by around 78.36 percent in the next ten years, with an average higher than the European average, and also above the world average
"With the implementation of this work we will be able to respond to the congressional demand of the Island and that Lanzarote enters the circuit of promotion and actions of event and congress tourism that has been initiated from my Department", highlighted the Minister of Tourism
The highest responsible for the autonomous department insisted on "the need to encourage the Congress tourism product and how the Tourism Department has made an investment of more than 100 million euros to provide the Canary Islands with Quality Infrastructures that provide services to this type of tourism. The Island of Lanzarote is highly appreciated in the incentive travel market and has all the necessary attractions and infrastructures to develop this market".
Promotional actions
The Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Rita Martín, has initiated specific actions to attract Congresses, Conventions and Incentives and Conferences to be held in the Canary Islands. For this, a strategy has been planned aimed at this tourist market that multiplies by four the income at the destination compared to conventional sun and beach tourism.
The initiatives for this market are carried out through the public company Promotur and have been divided into two types; one aimed at the associative market, mainly medical, pharmaceutical congresses, etc. and another action focused on the corporate market, events and meetings of the business world.
Rita Martín points out that "the Canary Islands will present candidacies, based on studies of the national and European market, where we have detected more than 400 congresses that have never come to the Canary Islands even though they have the ideal destination and product to host them". In this sense, she indicated that "in the next 6 months the first 30 candidacies will be presented, with new recruitment procedures for this market based on a new image of the Canary Islands meeting destination and with the support of the Convention Bureaus of the Islands".
For the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, "with this plan the existing offer in the Islands is unified, managing to present a more complete destination for the client's choice compared to the divided offer of the destination that was previously promoting each island".
The Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands has begun the actions called Canarias Weekend aimed at senior executives of companies that are usually called decision makers or prescribers, "those who finally choose the destination of their companies' meetings before the different proposals of specialized agencies in event organization. With this system, the Canary Islands destination is taught first-hand to the main heads in the decision pyramid", says Rita Martín.
The first action was carried out this weekend on the Island of Lanzarote coinciding with the world regatta of the Tp 52 class of sailboats where a large part of the best sailing skippers in the world participated, "and where a group of five senior executives from different national companies have verified in situ the changes in the new quality of the nautical offer, highlighting the possibilities in activities and leisure". The groups of executives will rotate through the different Islands to mainly learn about the new offer for this segment of meetings.
Finally, Rita Martín indicated that "with these actions we want to position the Canary Islands as a new first-level meeting tourism destination; we have a product that meets all the characteristics required by this segment, but it is necessary to change the perception that is had of the destination mainly of sun and beach. We must seriously bet on this segment with very studied and specific actions that favor the growth of this market".