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- The speakers have analyzed, from each of their sectors and contexts, the situation of tourism in Cartagena, its strengths and weaknesses, and have contributed various suggestions and proposals for its strengthening and development.

Cartagena, Thursday, October 14 -.

The Municipal Group of Citizens has organized today in the Casino of Cartagena a working table to evaluate and evaluate the behavior of the tourist sector of the municipality in 2017, as well as to offer proposals for its dynamization.

The speakers were attended by the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Cartagena, Miguel Martínez, the vice president of the Confederation of Business Organizations of Cartagena (COEC) Juan Carlos García, the technician representing Cartagena Port of Cultures, María Dolores Ponce , the president of the Federation of Associations of Neighbors of Cartagena, Cristina Roca, the spokesman of the Board of Hostecar, Carlos Francisco García, and the local spokesman of Citizens, Manuel Padín, as moderator.

The meeting was also attended by the national deputy of Citizens in the Congress of Deputies, José Luis Martínez, who is also deputy spokesman in the Climate Change Commission, and the regional deputy for training in the Regional Assembly, Luis Fernández , among other organic and public positions of the formation.

The speakers have analyzed, from each of their sectors and contexts, the situation of tourism in Cartagena, its strengths and weaknesses, and have contributed various suggestions and proposals for its strengthening and development.

COEC proposes an autonomous entity to manage the tourist promotion

The Vice President of COEC and representative of the Hotel Association of Cartagena, Juan Carlos García, has taken stock of how tourism has evolved in Cartagena and has offered a comparison with other nearby destinations, such as the city of Murcia;

In addition, it has shared some recommendations, based largely on a report published by Exceltur, an association for tourism excellence that brings together the most important companies in the entire tourist value chain and related subsectors.

In the opinion of Juan Carlos García, "when it comes to positioning a tourist destination, such as that of Cartagena, fundamentally cultural, we have to take into account four keys, the first is that there is a political leadership that brings together all actors involved in tourism, and it is necessary that an autonomous entity, separate from the Department of Tourism, be set up to manage the promotion of the city's tourist offer, an entity that is eminently professional, and that continues in time regardless of who rules at a given moment in the City Hall ".

Another of the keys that Garcia has contributed is "to transform unique tourism resources into differentiated tourist products, this has been successfully achieved elsewhere, and we must learn and apply that experience."

"In order to position a destination, everything related to transport and mobility, transport infrastructures, such as the arrival of high speed and the connection with the Mediterranean Corridor, are crucial," said the vice-president of COEC. appealed to "the awareness of the citizen of the resident of Cartagena who has to be aware that tourism is a source of well-being for Cartagena and its region."

"Cartagena has done the homework to a great extent, everything that costs money is made, has taken the resources, has put in value as the Roman Theater, the Forum Quarter, Roman, the Treasury of Mercedes in the Arqua, the city ​​is very beautiful, great investments have been made, but there remain outstanding accounts of relevance as the enhancement of the Amphitheater ... now it is about being coordinated and planning for the future for Cartagena, "explained Juan Carlos Garcia.

Chamber of Commerce, to develop the lines already marked for years

Miguel Martínez, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Cartagena, stressed that his organization can and has done much for tourism, which is within its competencies as a brand of its regulation, "serve as example, that we were in the Region of Murcia the first to organize a route of the cover that already takes 10 years, in Spain we were pioneers in creating the association of friends of the cruisers to power this sector, we have made countless congresses, as the which we did a few months ago on the occasion of Holy Week.

Martínez asks, "what can we do from now on in Cartagena: I believe that insisting on a path and lines of work that we set out many years ago, continue working on opening the city to the sea and linking the sea more the city, through the development of nautical sports, such as diving that is starting to take force but still has a lot of leeway ahead.

For the president of the Chamber of Commerce, "a second pillar that has been very important from the point of view of social rehabilitation and historical heritage, in the implementation of the Polytechnic University in the city of Cartagena, this was an important milestone , a regeneration of very depressed areas, such as the marine hospital area, another pillar is without sweat the creation of Puerto de Culturas and the unification of plans and cultural offerings, in addition to which led in its day the final accolade for the birth of Carthaginians and Romans. "

Finally, Miguel Martinez believes that, closely linked to tourism in the city, we must continue with the recovery of the Historic District, "has many gaps still, and it is important to continue creating spaces for the enjoyment of citizens and tourists, such as that pedestrianization which should extend in San Diego Street, Duke Street, St. Francis Square, that pedestrian spot must extend much more.

Cartagena Port of Cultures: It has already reached the visitors of 2016

The representative at the table of Cartagena Port of Cultures, Maria Dolores Ponce, has evaluated as very positive the evolution of Tourism in Cartagena, "since 2015 we have noticed a remarkable increase, and today we can say that we have reached the same visitors as in all 2016 with two and a half months remaining until the end of the year, so we expect to reach a new record this season. "

"We are working to make the spaces much more dynamic and make cultural tourism attractive to everyone, not only for the international or national tourist, but also for the internal tourist, the people of Cartagena and the surrounding area, that is one of our main objectives, "said Ponce.

The Federation of Neighbors: Cartagena as European Capital of Culture

For her part, the president of the Federation of Neighbors of Cartagena, Cristina Roca, has taken advantage of the work table to transfer the projects they are developing to improve and enhance tourism, "one of the ideas in which we have been working for many has to do with the strengthening of our city at an international level, we need more foreign tourists to arrive and that is why it is important that we present a project to make Cartagena the European Capital of Culture. "

This title is conferred by the Council and the European Parliament to one or two European cities, which for a year have the possibility to show their cultural development and life.

Roca explained that European cities have taken advantage of this designation to transform their cultural structures and be recognized in the international arena, "when a city is named European capital of culture, it develops all kinds of artistic manifestations."

On the other hand, the representative of Cartagena's neighbors maintains that so far Cartagena has focused on a single axis, "four streets of the center where all the hostelry and the heritage routes are concentrated, but Cartagena is much more, invest in our neighborhoods and councils to extol the many attractions they have, and create a strategic plan that includes them, pay attention to that interior tourism of the weekend so that the neighbors of the west zone visit Sierra Minera, the Mar Menor ".

Hostecar: learn from mistakes and win in promotion

Hostecar's spokesman, Carlos García, has described this year as somewhat complicated by the image that has been offered the Mar Menor among other factors, "in addition, it has been a low-cost tourism in the months of July and August 2017, compared to last year we have calculated a 20 percent profit detriment, the formula for reversing this is easy: to promote, promote and promote, and pay close attention to the training of professionals to offer a Quality service".

According to García, "this has to be tackled together, until we have a consolidated tourism over time, hoteliers will not make an investment in staff, if I only have a few unstable tourism peaks, I put an extra once in a while but not I provide continuous training. "

For Hostecar, the administration has to compromise and stressed that "aerial connectivity is vital, now the tender is being taken from Corvera airport on the 30th, because we have to be connected with important cities like Paris, Munich or Sanghai, we need that connectivity that makes us fall into an economy of scale, and arrive a tourist of very high purchasing power.

Asked about the high tourist seasonality, the representative of Hostecar has lamented what happened with the chiringuitos this year, "bad road is that if you want to be seasonal, what you can not do is get the tenders of the chiringuitos in June, take them out at least in January, give time for Easter to enjoy our coasts, from March we are lucky enough to enjoy good weather in Cartagena and we have to take advantage of it, what has happened this year can not return to be repeated ".

In addition, Carlos Garcia has announced that, although he has not been able to offer more details, that from Hostecar is organizing by the end of February a gastronomic event very relevant at regional level, "which will undoubtedly serve as a base, to know the possibilities that Cartagena has to be, in next editions, Spanish Capital of Gastronomy ".

Citizens Cartagena collects the brainstorm

The spokesman of the Municipal Citizens Group, Manuel Padín, thanked all the speakers for their presence and valued the working session as "very enriching, many interesting ideas, many proposals have arisen, which we will certainly collect to channel them into our municipal activity and transfer them to the mayor of Cartagena, Ana Belén Castejón. "

According to the spokesperson for the Orange Training, "since Citizens we are convinced that we must work at various levels, short, medium and long term, there are certainly many small things that can already be done and ranging from protection and putting in value of the Roman Quarries, passing by the inclusion in the touristic circuits of the Tower of Santa Elena in the Azohía, the handicrafts like the one of the Albujón, the rural visits, the hiking like the one that arrives until the Girl, the baths of the sow in Isla Plana, among many other examples of actions that can already be undertaken with a bit of political will. "

"In the medium term, the arrival of High Speed ​​is inescapable to strengthen and position Cartagena as a tourist destination, and it is something that we are fighting for all the political groups, the air connectivity through Corvera airport, or the necessary adaptation of the entry to Cartagena after controlling the decontamination of the Hondón and to develop a project with green areas that is a source of pride for all Cartagena, "said Manuel Padin who believes that in the long term," even if I run the risk of being called a dreamer or iluso, I can not imagine a cable car like those that exist in Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​from which we can observe 3,000 years of history.

"Cartagena must be, and to a large extent already is, the door to tourism and culture of the Region of Murcia," said the spokesman of Cs Cartagena

Source: Ciudadanos Cartagena