2015 was a good year for tourism. The beach season, annual data of overnight and business stays, and the organization of events are a perfect indicators. Results were good, but we must manage and interpret them with a clear mind, but with a well fundamented confidence to continue our path. These three areas (beaches, conferences and events) are the three routes, all necessary and complementary, that are allowing us to maintain a good position. But at the same time, such areas constitute unique future challenges. If we can properly manage the moderate growth, and at the same time generate and take advantage of opportunities that arise in such three areas, we will ensure the future.
1. Beaches
No need to dwell on the crucial importance of beach tourism for Sitges. But it is also true that beaches are not enough to maintain our current level. But without competitive beaches, our future would face uncertainties. For this reason, during 2015, 2013 and 2014, we did not hesitate a second to pour sand to our beaches to save the season. Storms in recent years, especially during 2014, seriously threatened our beach season, and without beach season, everything starts to look bleak in Sitges.
I am fully aware that the timely actions of the last few summers to gain sand are just temporary patches. Those interventions are no long-term solutions, their only goal was to save their respective seasons. A very essential action. The solution to prevent investing new resources every summer to bring sand is the definitive regeneration of our beaches. Sitges has been expecting this project for over 20 years, but until now no Ministry has backed us with the guarantees and requirements needed for such an intervention. In recent months, however, we have been working with various stakeholders to finalize the necessary project, that we want to agree with the new Ministry arising out of elections next Sunday. The Deputy Mayor, Aurora Carbonell, together with Councilor Jordi Mas and myself, are totally committed in the project, which will require patience, skill and support from other governments where we can make our voice heard.
2. Night stays
The summer of 2015 has been remarkably successful. And the annual aggregate gives us positive results overall thanks to full recovery of the arrival of congresses. This year, there has been an overall increase in the organization and reception of conventions and corporative visitors, and such data confirms two trends:
- On one hand, an improvement in economic indicators in Catalonia, which confirms the strength of our economy despite the abondance of biased bad omens.
- And, on the other, the positioning of our town as a town of congresses is gaining positions and improving results. Sitges was again this year, the second town of Catalonia in the organization of conferences, having lost that status for several years. And that fills us with satisfaction.
In anticipation of closing the data for the year, 2015 will exceed the figure of 600 professional events held in Sitges and a global turnover of 40 million euros distributed among all stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in services.
The data and results are positive and invite to a tempered satisfaction. But we must be aware that other localities are also celebrating a successful 2015. Competition is growing and you know better than anyone that every client and customer requires special attention and extra effort.
In Sitges, we certainly have some very important elements that support our commitment to conventions. We have a brand- that is undeniably. We have the experience of generations in managing political and tourist facilities, and in addition to its privileged location, hotel facilities are tailored to the needs, although some improvements must be addressed in the future.
But we are still missing some features that until now could be necessary but that now are increasingly essential. This is the case of a congress and exhibition center, which responds to a real and growing demand. This is a challenge both the private and the public sector, a challenge we must face together immediately. We can not wait any longer because we risk losing vital opportunities.
For this reason, our City Hall has envisaged a Governance Plan to pave the way to complete an infrastructure of this kind for Sitges. Facilities that ensure the future of Sitges as a convention center, but that help at the same time to retain the present. If we do not do it, if we keep looking the other way because we believe that we already have the brand and the other virtues that I mentioned, we would be at risk of taking a step back.
In this regard, authorities and the tourism sector must act as one voice, capable of unifying efforts needs. The first step is to decide which profile -and which location- should host fairgrounds.. And, in parallel, to explore all possibilities and find suitable investors. For this reason, Joan Anton, in the coming weeks we will summon you to a meeting that must lay the foundations of this required facility and where we will present preliminary work.
3. Events
If the first two poles of future challenges (beaches and convention tourism) require additional effort, the third should not appear as relegated. I mean the organization of events intended to transform Sitges into a relevant point of attraction. Namely, festivals, fairs, sectoral initiatives or cultural facilities such as renovated museums, which next week will be a year since we reopened and constitute an excellent business card: in the first year they received 50,000 visits.
This year we have added two more festivals in our stable calendar. On one hand, Sitges Next, the festival of innovation and communication, which brought together 500 advertisers and creatives past April, some coming from the United States. We are already working on the next edition. And, again, just ten days ago, the Sitges Christmas Festival, which has enabled us to strengthen our position as a patchwork town, extending the offer with a complementary event with great quality.
In parallel, we are working on two festivals in which we want you to be particularly visible and significant. First, an international music festival that we would love to hold summer months in the gardens of Terramar. It would be a fastival following the format of Cap Roig, Peralada or Pedralbes, hosting groups of different profiles and music allowing to generate quality and attractiveness. And, again, a summer sports festival, in which Aurora Carbonell and Carmen Almirall are already working for 2017.
We want to make Sitges a land of festivals. What We want Sitges to be what Cannes was in France during the second half of the twentieth century, not only in Catalonia, but in the whole of the western Mediterranean. The Councillor of Culture, Rosa Tubau, is considering other proposals to promote festivals during the coming years. She wants to set a stable timetable positioning Sitges as the first Catalan city, besides Barcelona, in this field, and with a clear international projection. And to further progress in this field, fairgrounds for fair and congresses will be increasingly essential.
Last week, the Board of Film Festival confirmed the growth figures recorded this year, a 20% increase of tickets sold and 10,000 news appearing in the media. A promotional tool, and as you can ascertain, a extraordinary tool that keeps growing. For this reason, this year we wanted to add new screens and activities spread around the town, with the intention that the direct impact of the Festival is also clearly noticed in the center of town.
The Municipal Government's commitment is clear and unequivocal in its quest to provide the necessary tools to Sitges. The current Mayor is totally devoted to such an end, wether as Mayor and as Deputy of Tourism in the Provincial Government, a condition which will advance the cause of our town. The Governance Plan, which can be visited at the web of Sitges City Hall, describes such goals and all the future challenges we have full ahead. Our dream is to transform Sitges into a entrepeneurial town that champions high quality and sustainable tourism and that becomes an international cultural capital.
