Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plan was subject to some conditions: the fi rst
was the need for detailed strategic planning, to
avoid improvisation and waste of resources.
The second condition was that the local popula-
tion had to be involved in the plan, and had to
share its benefi ts. Another prerequisite was the
creation of an agile and dynamic management
tool, the Plan Management Offi ce. Finally, there
was the obvious requisite that any tourist prod-
uct issued from the Plan had to be extremely
innovative in order to make Ávila's tourism offer-
ings competitive with those of other nearby cities.
A series of objectives were defi ned, in order to
achieve the generic goals: (i) increase of over-
night stays; (ii) the improvement of the tourist
urban offerings; and (iii) positioning of Ávila as a
competitive inland cultural tourism destination.
The pursuit of the objectives of the devel-
opment plan generated a series of actions, some
of which are strongly related with the image and
the mental representation of the city from the
tourist's point of view: (i) restoration of built
heritage and design of a logo (Fig. 10.2) inspired
by the fortifi ed wall of the city; (ii) reinforcement
of the religious tourism offerings; (iii) diversifi ca-
tion of the offerings; and (iv) creation of a tour-
ism observatory.
The fi rst action was the restoration and
enhancement of the built heritage of the city,
focusing particularly on the city wall, in order to
open it to visitors. Ávila's wall is the longest and
best preserved medieval fortifi cation in Spain, and
together with the Cathedral represents the most
remarkable built heritage attractor of the city. The
purpose of the restoration was to provide Ávila
with a monument that could work as a 'logo', as
the fl agship of the built heritage of the city.
Subsequently, other kinds of cultural offer-
ing were associated with the wall (story-telling,
theatre on the walls and dramatized visits),
enlarging the attraction but also risking to crys-
tallize it around a 'Middle Ages'-related array of
activities.
On the other hand, Ávila is frequently asso-
ciated with Saint Therese, a historical character
famous for her religious mystical experiences,
refl ected on the poems she wrote. Many fi lms,
books and exhibitions have been dedicated to
this character, keeping alive this relationship
between her and the city. For this reason, Ávila
has always been an important destination of reli-
gious tourism, interested mainly in the monastery
founded by Therese and on the beautiful gothic
cathedral. On the basis of these facts, supported
by a specifi c, unreferenced survey, the local
authorities took a courageous choice and
decided to take advantage of this specifi c appeal
of the city, organizing an important religious art
exhibition in the cathedral (in 2004), and creat-
ing a museum devoted to the mysticism phe-
nomenon from a multi-religious point of view.
In the last 5 years the local authorities
decided to further diversify Ávila's tourist offer-
ings, following three directions: (i) knowing that
the city is renowned for its regional cuisine, they
organized in co-operation with bars and restau-
rants a fair of ' tapas ' (appetizers) that is held
once a year with good results in terms of audi-
ence; (ii) Ávila lies only 100 km away from Sala-
manca, the university of which is one of the
main destinations for people interested in study-
ing the Spanish language; the local authorities
have decided to make the most of this proxim-
ity, and engaged in a partnership to offer lan-
guage courses and lodgings; and (iii) Ávila is
strategically located at about 1 h by car from
Madrid, Salamanca, Valladolid and 1.5 h from
Toledo; local authorities have decided to take
advantage of this to offer a new product, a con-
gress and municipal centre, to enter the market
of business tourism.
Finally, the last initiative issued from the
Plan de Excelencia and related with Ávila's
image and tourist's gaze, is the 'Tourism Obser-
vatory'. This platform, devoted to the monitor-
ing of tourism fl ows and visitor studies, was
created thanks to a convention with the Univer-
sidad de Salamanca. Actually, the convention is
between the Municipality and the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid. The Observatory
started work in late 2001 with the purpose of
collecting and analysing on a real-time basis
any information about the situation of tourism
in the city, in order to provide updated reports
to the Municipality staff and to other stakehold-
ers. The information collected is of quantitative
kind, and aims to identify the profi les of the
Fig. 10.2.
Ávila's logo, inspired by the city Wall.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search