The Business Association of the Hospitality Industry of Cantabria (AEHC) and the directors of several Cantabrian media outlets have decided, unanimously, to award the Ecoparque Trasmiera the Horeca 2022 Award in a vote held at the Las Carolinas estate, in Santander. This is an acknowledgement that will be presented at the XXXIX Hospitality Gala, to be held next Tuesday, 29 November, at the Hotel Chiqui, and it will be collected by the Ecoparque director, Ramón Meneses, from the hands of the AEHC president, Francisco Agudo.
The Horeca Award aims to reward the person or entity that, over time, has contributed to the promotion of tourism in Cantabria, both within and outside our Autonomous Community, explains the AEHC in a statement. The jury made its decision during the course of two votes and as many deliberations in which they chose between numerous personalities and institutions linked to Cantabria.
The Horeca Award consists of a sculpture in the form of a mermaid made of bronze, by Cantabrian sculptor José Cobo Calderón. Since 1982, the year in which it began to be presented, they have been received by institutions — such as the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, the International Santander Festival, or the Albéniz Foundation — and by people such as Vital Alsar, Severiano Ballesteros, Ruth Beitia, Pedro Munitis, Raúl Gutiérrez (Rulo), Los 10.000 del Soplao or the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Cross of Santo Toribio. The recipient of the previous edition was Cantabrian journalist, Quico Taronjí.
THE ECOPARQUE TRASMIERA
A pioneering initiative in Spain
The Arnuero Town Hall, a municipality located on the eastern coast of Cantabria, has set in motion a project whose purpose is to enhance the municipality’s cultural and natural resources, as well as to establish a balance between the conservation of heritage and its use as an economic resource, through the offering of a cultural and nature tourism product in which the visitor is an active part of the experience.
This initiative, a pioneer in Spain, which translates into the creation of the Ecoparque de Trasmiera in Arnuero, places the municipality within the offering of cultural and eco-tourism, moving away from the exclusive projection of the “sun and beach” destination, extending the tourist season and redistributing the flow of visitors throughout the entire area. The Ecoparque is a large open-air museum in which history and landscape, culture and nature, beaches, sea and land will be combined.
The Arnuero Town Hall has taken part in the “Sustainable Tourist Municipalities” programme of the State Secretariat for Tourism, and has already been awarded outstanding prizes such as:
- Cantabria Environment Award (2003).
- FIDA Foundation Award and Parliamentary Processing for the Best Political Initiative in environment and sustainable development (2004).
- The Ecoparque has been honoured with the Award at FITUR 2006 for the best Active Tourism Product, Culture category.
- EDEN (European Destinations ExcelleNce) Award in 2011. Selection by the European Union of those sustainable tourism projects, characterised by their commitment to social, cultural and environmental sustainability.
- “Cabaña Pasiega” Award 2011, granted by the Cantabrian Rural Tourism Association, in recognition of the ongoing effort made in the recovery of cultural and natural heritage and the generation of a sustainable tourism product supported by the identity of the territory.
- Hispania Nostra Award 2012, “Award for intervention in the territory or in the landscape”. For the integral and sustained intervention carried out by the Arnuero Town Hall within its municipal area, following a local strategic action plan that promotes a new management and use of the territory based on the recovery and enhancement of historical, cultural and natural heritage; both are conceived as a single whole of heritage.
- Special mention from the Jury in the Europa Nostra Awards 2014, in the heritage conservation category.
- “Faros ApitCantabria 2020” Award, for the management they carry out of their heritage, focusing attention on the entire area and highlighting the Ecoparque’s heritage and natural values.
Major events that have been added to the Ecoparque de Trasmiera philosophy.
The Ecoparque was always conceived as a living project, which was born out of consensus and participation, and which should continue to grow and be updated in its structure and needs under those same criteria.
Thus, since the launch of the first projects that made up the Ecoparque de Trasmiera, ongoing work has been maintained to create and sustain projects that bring life to the Ecoparque, so programmes have been put in place that are now icons of an unceasing programme of cultural and social activity:
- Certification of Isla’s beaches with the Q for Tourism Quality, ISO 14001 for environmental quality, and universal accessibility certification, which are added to the Blue Flag.
- Ecoparque de Trasmiera Chamber Music Competition, which will soon hold its 20th edition.
- IslaJazz Festival, an evolution of the Ecoparque’s Jazz Nights that began in 2004.
- Contemporary Art Exhibitions Programme of the Art Observatory, which began in 2004 and has maintained all its momentum and relevance.
- Isla Pepper Fair, which has just celebrated its 10th edition.
- Ecoparque de Trasmiera Trail, which in 2023 will reach its 10th edition.
- Ecoparque de Trasmiera Literary Competition first held in 2018.