The Costa Teguise Tourism Marketing Plan, which was publicly presented this Thursday, includes the diagnosis made a few weeks ago in a seminar in which the University of Las Palmas collaborated, and aims to make Costa Teguise the best tourist destination in the Canary Islands through claims that are not interchangeable with other destinations.
The intention is to return Costa Teguise to the prominence lost in recent years, with a plan that stems from the collaboration between technicians from the company Inerza and experts from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, such as Sergio Moreno and Héctor Fernández.
According to the latter, the Plan analyzes the tourist situation that Costa Teguise is going through, one of the destinations that, compared to Puerto del Carmen or Playa Blanca, have lost considerable weight in a year described as good in the world sphere, although with losses in 2005 for Lanzarote.
New attractions
"The Plan establishes the annulment of threats to the destination, the possibility of new attractions and detects infrastructural, environmental, landscape and complementary leisure deficiencies," said Héctor Hernández, one of the drafters of the project.
The objective of the Plan, in the words of its members, is to make Costa Teguise a tourist destination "not interchangeable" for another, that is, that offers its visitors something exclusive that no other destination with which Lanzarote currently competes can give.
Among some exclusive factors for Costa Teguise, the drafters highlighted the promotion of the figure of Manrique, as well as the environmental and landscape excellences of the urbanization, without forgetting an attractive complementary offer of leisure.
Some of the measures that this Plan recommends are based on the inclusion of a technician specialized in the destination by the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, as well as the provision of better infrastructures, the renovation of the obsolete plant and the creation of a technical office from which a follow-up to the evolution of the destination would be carried out.
Marina and island plan
This absence of a complementary offer, the proliferation of all-inclusive, unfinished infrastructures that give a feeling of marginality, and the incompatibility of many resident beds with tourist beds, have been hindering the development of Costa Teguise.
The Marketing Plan includes recommendations on new complementary leisure offers, which would be added to attractions such as the water park and the upcoming opening of an aquarium, such as a convention center, theme parks of different nature, a marina or a nautical station.
The aforementioned marina could be the one that does not fit into the Tourist Territorial Plan planned by the Island Council of Lanzarote, but which both the Councilor for Tourism, Alfredo Cabrera, and the Mayor-President of the Corporation, Juan Pedro Hernández, announce that the City Council of Teguise does not intend to renounce.
"Right now there are technicians who are analyzing the possible inclusion of the marina in the Island Plan, but in the end it will be the Government of the Canary Islands that will have the power to decide on the matter," explained Hernández.
For his part, the Councilor for Tourism specified that, "although the convention center is already included in the Island Plan, for the marina we find an enemy on the Island" - in reference to the Island Council of Lanzarote itself. "We will fight to the end for the inclusion of the port, because it is something that Costa Teguise cannot renounce," he added.
Tourist Excellence Plan
The presentation also discussed the project to rehabilitate the coastline of Costa Teguise and the state of execution of the Tourist Excellence Plan. According to Cabrera himself, the first of these projects already has funding after the approval of the Directorate General of Coasts. In the second aspect, the items corresponding to the year 2006 are about to be invested, within the four-year period of the Excellence Plan, which lasts until 2008.
At the end of the event, the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández, who made an initial presentation on the impact of the Marketing Plan on the urbanization, announced that the degree of consensus with businessmen on the measures to be taken, as well as their involvement and that of the tourist employers with the project, invite him to optimism, also taking into account that the Plan "will be executed and fulfilled to a high degree, due to the viability of the actions in infrastructure and services that it proposes."
According to experts, this Tourism Marketing Plan will allow Costa Teguise to once again be the main destination in the Canary Islands, but for the dream to come true, a strong commitment from public and private institutions will be needed.
