Fairs

The president of the organisation, Cesáreo Pardal, stressed that the work of the last ten years has highlighted the strategic importance of the sector for the community.

He showed the entity’s willingness to collaborate with the regional administration in the strategy for the coming years in order to consolidate Galicia as a more international, more sustainable, higher quality and more innovative destination.

The President of the Xunta especially valued the work of the Cluster and thanked the professionalism, collaboration and dialogue that it has always maintained with the Administration.

Madrid, 20 January 2023.- The Galicia stand at FITUR today hosted the presentation of the tenth anniversary of the Galicia Tourism Cluster. The event, which was attended by the president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, and the director of Galicia Tourism, Nava Castro, was also attended by the first president of the entity, Francisco González; the current president, Cesáreo Pardal, and the vice-president, Jesús Picallo. The latter three coincided in thanking the sector for the support and trust placed in the Cluster; the collaboration of the Administrations in the creation and consolidation of the entity and the effort and commitment of each and every one of the people who at one time or another made up the Cluster’s work team.

Cesáreo Pardal stressed that “the work of these 10 years has allowed society to be aware of the economic importance of the tourism sector; a sector that favours the transformation of our society, an ally of the environments in which it develops, contributing to the promotion of its economy and the enhancement of our heritage and our culture”.

The president of the Cluster recalled how the pandemic “upset all plans” and “forced to seek solutions to the unprecedented”. He regretted the hard blow that the health crisis meant for the sector, “taking companies and jobs with it” but he also wanted to highlight the resilience of the sector thanks to the individual management of the entrepreneurs and the sensitivity of the Administrations to alleviate the consequences of the crisis”.

After closing 2022 with figures that exceeded all expectations, the recently re-elected president pointed out that “now it is time to look to the future and see where we want our tourism to go.” In this sense, he showed the Cluster’s willingness to collaborate with the regional administration “to design the strategy for the coming years, which will surely seek to consolidate Galicia as a more international, more sustainable, higher quality and more innovative destination.”

The first president of the Galicia Tourism Cluster, Francisco González, thanked all those who made the creation and consolidation of the entity possible and stressed that the work of these ten years allowed the Cluster to consolidate itself as the voice of the sector and to advance internationalisation, public-private collaboration and support for increased competitiveness. Today the Cluster is made up of 72 entities including federations, consortiums and provincial associations that represent 95% of the Galician tourism sector and bring together more than 7,000 companies.

Jesús Picallo, vice-president of the Cluster, recalled that one of the main objectives of the Cluster is “to work to improve the profitability of the companies” and “to configure a quality, competitive and differentiated destination”. Picallo highlighted the fact that the work of this decade, with the dialogue of the Cluster and the involvement of companies and administration, has shaped a more cohesive, competitive and committed tourism sector.

For his part, the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, particularly valued the work of the Galicia Tourism Cluster, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and thanked the professionalism, collaboration and dialogue that it has always maintained with the Administration in order to overcome obstacles and achieve the success that Galicia can boast today.

Rueda ratified the Xunta’s support for Galician tourism, as shown during the pandemic with a rescue plan worth 120 million euros or, in 2022, with an allocation of more than 27 million in aid to improve quality, professionalism and innovation in the sector, in addition to the 8 million that this year are allocated to a line of aid to improve the energy efficiency of tourist establishments.