The Sustainable Tourism Project "Cieza, much more than what you see" receives a European grant of 3,150,000 euros
This is the second shipment from Europe in a week. On Monday, 2 million were announced for operations in Camino de Murcia and Jardín del Partido.
Through the Tourism Sector Conference, the Government of Murcia has approved the launch of six projects in the Region of Murcia, beneficiaries of the Second Extraordinary Call for Proposals for the 2022 Sustainable Tourism Destination Plans program, fully funded by the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan.
The Region of Murcia will receive €23,600,000 for the development of approved projects in the Autonomous Community. In total, the Spanish Government will invest €720 million from NextGenerationEU funds in sustainable tourism.
This is an important step toward improving tourist destinations and making them the driving force behind the competitiveness of the offer. With the implementation of these projects, we are moving toward sustainability and digitalization, which are key to the future of tourism in all of the country's regions.
At its meeting this Wednesday, the Tourism Sector Conference definitively approved a total of 196 tourism sustainability projects in all autonomous communities. Of these, 175 will be managed by the beneficiary local entities, one of them Cieza, and 21 correspond to cohesion actions that the autonomous communities themselves will develop and will also have an impact on the destination.
In Cieza, the Sustainable Tourism Project "Cieza, much more than what you see" has received €3,150,000. It is a rural destination with a tourism identity located in the interior of the region, specializing in natural and cultural products. In recent years, it has become nationally known for its beautiful flowering landscapes, rock art, and the Almadenes Canyon National Park, among other resources.
The Mayor of Cieza, Pascual Lucas, stated that "this grant will provide us with extremely important tourism facilities that build on the initiatives we have been carrying out since 2015 to make Cieza a major tourist destination and to make the corresponding economic development in this sector a reality. I would like to congratulate Councilors María Jesús López, Head of Strategic Projects, and Antonio Moya, Head of Tourism, who have worked for more than three years on this plan, which has finally been positively considered. We are proud because behind this lies the tremendous work of the councilors and also of municipal technicians, as well as external companies and groups. The City Council will not need to contribute any funds to this project; everything is covered in the funding we received from Europe."
For his part, Antonio Moya outlined the actions to be developed with these more than 3 million euros, which revolve around four axes of action on which the tourism sustainability project has had to focus: the green transition and sustainability project, which includes the study of the Almadenes Canyon's reception capacity and access regulations, improving the accessibility of the Cueva del Arco (Arco Cave); the GR127, which aims to link the Paseo Ribereño with the Almadenes Canyon through a hiking and cycling route, in addition to connecting the Argaz Bridge with the Menjú; improving energy efficiency with efficient lighting of the municipality's important monuments, connecting Cieza and Ascoy through a bike lane and rewiring the electrical system of tourist buildings and facilities; the digital transition with the Cieza 4.0 project, Meta verso, a social intelligence strategy, and inclusive and intelligent signage for the conservation of protected areas and all our cultural heritage, as well as the digital enhancement of the municipality's tourist complex; finally, the competitiveness axis, which includes the museographic rehabilitation and exhibition of the Siyâsa Museum, the creation of a hostel in Almadenes, specifically in the former rural school of La Veredilla, to simultaneously provide accommodation in the area, the communication and marketing plan for tourism products, and the improvement of tourist accessibility signage, while also strengthening the Smart City office.
Finally, María Jesús López clarified that the set of actions is included in the Cieza 2030 Urban Agenda and that citizen participation has been used in its development. “Since Pascual Lucas arrived in 2015 with this government team, I believe the firm commitment to tourism is undeniable. This is the second piece of news this week that we have received funding; it's important to highlight this because when we began talking about the 2030 Urban Agenda in the Plenary Session, some groups questioned it. All these funds and the projects supported by them will comprehensively transform Cieza, supporting the tourism policy that has been implemented since 2015.”