The president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, has announced that the Community will host a “great event” in 2025 as a summit of international gastronomy that is expected to be held in May in Salamanca, as he stated after the announcement. the president of the Community Hospitality Confederation, Jaime Fernández.
Fernández Mañueco has presented this project within the framework of the inauguration of the Intur and ARPA fairs that are held at the Valladolid Fair, a union of two events highlighted by the president as an occasion to promote the “great” tourist offer of the Community jtogether with heritage as a generator of “wealth and employment”.
In this framework, the president has highlighted that the Board works together with the Confederation of Hospitality of Castilla y León in the celebration of a “great event” on international gastronomy. Thus, after the presentation, the head of the Hospitality Confederation explained that, despite the fact that this “summit” It’s still “cooking”the objective is for it to take place around the month of May in Salamanca.
As Jaime Fernández has explained, it is planned to concentrate important international chefs in the capital of Salamanca. “We want to put the gastronomy of Castilla y León on the international stage,” has defended, while highlighting that the germ of this idea arose around the 1st Pinchos and Tapas Contest of Castilla y León that took place in Zamora and was a world “reference”.
The representatives of the hoteliers have explained that the presence of “great chefs” from the international and national levels is expected at this summit, an event that will conclude with a party that pays tribute to traditional culture and its evolution towards the current Michelin stars.
Dynamize the rural environment
In addition to this event, the president of the Board has insisted that the objective pursued in these two fairs is to “praise the value of culture, heritage and tourism, project the image of Castilla y León in the world and energize the rural environment”.
During his speech, the president of the regional Executive recalled that these events constitute an “ideal” showcase to expose the strength of this sector in the Community’s economy. Thus, he highlighted that the Community has received 8 million travelers between January and October 2024, which represents 4.4 percent compared to the previous year and, in turn, the employment of people linked to this activity reached the “record” figure of 78,000 people.
Another of the objectives set by Mañueco is to reinforce the leadership in interior tourism of Castilla y León, which received 17 percent of Spanish rural tourism travelers between January and October 2024, which represents an increase of 4.5 percent. percent compared to the previous year. Furthermore, between January and September 2024, and with the aim of attracting more foreign tourism, The number of foreign travelers and overnight stays have increased by 10 percent in the Community compared to the same period last year.
With these data, Fernández Mañueco has defended that the tourist growth of the Community is “sustained” and not merely “temporary” and has insisted that this positive trend is the result of the “great effort” made by companies and professionals in the sector with the support of the Executive who, as he has pointed out, is “firmly” committed to the iinnovation and sustainability to offer tourism of excellence.
The president has also highlighted the “extensive” cultural and heritage wealth of Castilla y León, which has 14 World Heritage Sites, 130 historical sites and 2,600 Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC), on which more than 5,300 companies and 25,000 jobs. To these are added 33 protected spaces that are part of the immense natural heritage of the Community.
At the opening ceremony, Fernández Mañueco stated that the objective of the Government of Castilla y León is to convert the ARPA and Intur fairs into the “great showcase” of cultural and inland tourism in Spain.
Under the motto ‘Together, promoting cultural tourism’, the regional Executive is committed to uniting all its strengths to position the Community as a reference in this sector and, in turn, offer a broader and more integrative vision that leads management and conservation. of the cultural heritage of Castilla y León, for which it has called for the union of all public administrations and national and international institutions, as well as companies, workers and the entire society.
Finally, the president has stressed the potential of the food and wine of Castilla y León, with high-quality agri-food products, such as the nine Spanish Wine Routes that attract a fifth of all national wine tourists, which represents an increase of more than 28 percent compared to 2023.
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