The government of Castile-La Mancha will devote more than 100 million euros in its 2025 budget to the promotion of tourism and crafts, announced yesterday the president of the region, Emiliano García-Page, for whom this sector, thanks to his creativity, is today more than “the goose that lays golden eggs“. And faced with those who speak of tourism phobia, he clearly marked his position by affirming that “if we sin, I prefer it to be by excess than by default”.
This was the message he gave during the presentation of the Regional Tourism and Culinary Roots Awards of Castile-La Mancha 2024, which took place at the Palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli, in the town of Cogolludo, Guadalajara , to nine local companies and entities in the region, where he thanked all those who, like the winners, interact in what has become “a flag for the country and the region”.
Accompanied among others by the mayor of Cogolludo, Juan Alfonso Fraguas; the president of the Provincial Council of Guadalajara, José Luis Vega; the President of the Cortés, Pablo Bellido, and the Minister of Economy, Patricia Franco, García-Page fiercely defended tourism and the wealth it brings to this region.
Regarding some of the reflections that today focus on the excess of tourism in Spain, he assured that in the region the battle for quality “We won it”, knowing that if so many people come to visit us, it is not only because of the heritage, the culture and the beaches, since “that already existed”, but because of the creativity people.
Surprised by the ambient noise that exists in Spain, he declared that, for him, tourism is a big industry and insisted that “if we sin, if we have a problem, I prefer that the complaint relates to the management of so much tourism. Leave all the responsibility to me to regulate the people who come, because the real problem is when they are missing,” he said.
According to him, the crisis we are going through today has nothing to do with that of years ago. “It’s a crisis of opulence“, in which “the recipes are for dieting”, showing that even in tourism, any reflection must be made “with the participation of all” and “with a lot of calm” because “it is not about less of people coming to Spain but, perhaps, it is redistributed in another way.
He asked himself “how many people would give anything to solve our problems and difficulties?”, and defended the need to reflect, but he would like this to be done “without wavering”, because he believes that tourism is sensitive to global crises.
In this regard, he added that in the case of Castilla-La Mancha, tourism is part of a strategy in which, although we must continue to “deepen and invest more”, he believes that “it gives results” and that this government It would be “negligent” not to bet on something that brings much more wealth to the region. than what can be spent.
For García-Page, we must participate in this optimism which makes Spain the leading world power in terms of destinations, convinced that tourism is a “mark of the collective self-esteem of all people”.
The regional president highlighted the care and talent of all the winners, aware that they constitute the “best raw material that a society can have”.
The winners
This year, the Regional Tourism Trophies were awarded to Active tourism turiculein the business category and in the Best innovative tourism project category; In Alcarria Thermal Baths also in the Business and Best Tourist Product category; and in Business too, but as Best Sustainable Tourism Project, Tejadillos Hostel.
In the category of Local Entities, the Arbancón Town Hallas the best tourist destination; Bogarraas the best tourism initiative; And Mentridaas a sustainable tourism project.
For its part, within the framework of the Raíz Culinaria Awards, the prizes that will be awarded next Friday went, in the modality of Traditional Castellano-Manchegan Cuisine, to Mesón Pincelínfrom Almansa; in the mode of Avant-garde Castellano-Manchega Cuisine in the Hanging Houses Restaurantfrom Cuenca; and in the category of Best Wine List, in the Restaurant Ivan Cerdenofrom Toledo.
