Clúster

Several entities associated with the Cluster are part of the new body responsible for ensuring the development of the Tourism Sustainability Plan promoted by the Ourense Provincial Council, Galicia Tourism Agency and the Secretary of State for Tourism.

The Tourism Sustainability Plan in Ourense Termal already has its own Quality Board. The body was constituted in recent days with a first meeting chaired by the head of the Ourense Provincial Council, Manuel Baltar, and in which several associations and local, regional, provincial and autonomous entities took part, including several members of the Galicia Tourism Cluster. This is the case of the Confederation of Hospitality, Commerce, Tourism and Service Entrepreneurs of Ourense, the Professional Association of Tourist Guides of Galicia and the Galician Association of Travel Agencies, represented at this first meeting by Ovidio Fernández, Rubén Araújo and Juan Rivadulla, respectively. The Galicia Tourism Agency, the Ourense Business Confederation, the University of Vigo, and the geodestinations Ribeiro-Carballiño, Celanova-Xurés and Verín-Monterrei complete this Quality Committee.

Among the functions to be carried out by the members of the new body are to analyse the overall tourism situation of the destination, propose objectives and corrective actions aimed at overall improvement, annually assess the situation and the results of the participants in the SICTED project, propose to the committee of distinction of the award, renew or withdraw awards of the participating tourism companies/services of the SICTED destination and study the results of the surveys conducted at the destination.

As Manuel Baltar explained in that first meeting, the first stage of this Tourism Sustainability Plan in Ourense Termal, promoted by the Provincial Council, the Galicia Tourism Agency and the Secretary of State for Tourism through an agreement for the period 2022-2024, has already completed both the training and the evaluation of 25 tourist services, of which 23 did not previously have any certification. The provincial president also stressed that this tool “of governance and public-private cooperation will allow to show off the corresponding certification and, above all, to bet on continuous improvement and the analysis of the satisfaction of our visitors, at a crucial moment after the arrival of the High Speed Railway”.

Likewise, Manuel Baltar proposed Rosendo Fernández, first vice-president of the Ourense Provincial Council and head of Inorde, an autonomous body within the provincial government responsible for tourism development, as president of the Quality Committee. After the constitution of the Quality Committee, the proposals of the tourist services that have completed the training and passed the evaluation were analysed, to be submitted to the National Distinction Committee, which will meet in December at the Secretariat of State for Tourism, and from there to achieve their certification.