The Board members do not receive any remuneration.
Public sector representatives (24):
Private sector representatives (24):
The Assembly members do not receive any remuneration.
At the county level, Turisme Garrotxa is an integral part of DinamiG, the Innovation and Development Agency of La Garrotxa. At the provincial level, it coordinates with the Costa Brava Girona Tourist Board and is a member of some of its clubs; and at the national level, Turisme Garrotxa works in coordination with the Catalan Tourist Board, the body responsible for the Catalonia brand and the Pyrenees brand. It is also part of the Ecotourism in Spain association, linked to TURESPAÑA, through the product club Soy Ecoturista, which promotes ecotourism in Biosphere Reserve territories or, as in the case of La Garrotxa, those with companies accredited with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Natural Areas, a management tool created by the Europarc Federation.
Spain Tourism Experiences “Sustainability and digitalisation of the Ecotourism in Spain experiences network”
The State Secretariat for Tourism has approved the project “Sustainability and digitalisation of the Ecotourism in Spain experiences network”, which will be developed by the national Ecotourism Association together with six other partners, one of which is the Turisme Garrotxa association.
With a budget of €499,877, financed by Next Generation funds, the project falls under the “Experiencias Turismo España” programme (Order ICT/1524/2021, of 30 December; Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism). To deliver it, the Ecotourism in Spain Association counts on Turisme Garrotxa as one of its strategic partners, together with five other destinations—La Gomera, the Sobrarbe–Pyrenees Geopark, the Mariñas Coruñesas Biosphere Reserve, the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve and Sierra Espuña—as well as Rusticae and the Mister Plan platform.
The project, due to be completed by the end of 2023, seeks to bring about a genuine transformation of the ecotourism product with a qualitative leap by funding tools to digitalise tourism companies’ work processes, while strengthening the “I’m an Ecotourist” brand. An online commercialisation platform will also be created, and a digital marketing and communication plan will be drafted and implemented, among other actions.
The scope of all actions deriving from this project will cover the entire network of destinations and companies affiliated with the Ecotourism Club nationwide.
Tourism Sustainability Plan “La Garrotxa soft & smart county. A sustainable and smart tourist destination”
The project, financed through the extraordinary call for Tourism Sustainability Plans with European recovery funds (Next Generation Funds), has as its main challenge transforming the mobility generated by the more than 500,000 people estimated to visit La Garrotxa each year, encouraging travel on foot, by bicycle, by electric vehicle or by public transport, while discouraging the use of combustion-engine vehicles.
This mobility must also minimise unnecessary trips thanks to tourism-intelligence tools that make it possible to understand and anticipate the carrying capacity of resources and services of interest. Ultimately, the aim is to promote eco-mobility for all (accessible) as the basis of the visitor experience, minimise the ecological footprint of tourism activity, avoid the over-visitation that certain places suffer at specific times of the year, and highlight lesser-known natural and cultural assets.
Beyond mobility, the project’s other three major challenges are improving energy efficiency; making digitalisation a key tool for the management and promotion of resources and experiences; and enhancing the competitiveness of the business fabric, generating new job opportunities, products and tourism experiences adapted to new visitor demands (slow, health, well-being, ecosystem services) and involving citizens in the decision-making process.
The project has been prepared and coordinated by Turisme Garrotxa and, in addition to county-wide transformative initiatives, includes more specific actions in different municipalities across the county, in line with sustainable and responsible tourism.
This project is also part of the strategy of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST), shared by all tourism stakeholders in the county since 2001, with the first-time accreditation of the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park with the ECST.
ERDF “La Garrotxa, Land of Volcanoes, culture and identity”
With the aim of developing the county of La Garrotxa as a sustainable, inclusive tourism destination, the Garrotxa County Council applied to the co-financing call for entities under Axes 4 and 6 of Catalonia’s ERDF Operational Programme 2014–2020 with the project “La Garrotxa, Land of Volcanoes, Culture and Identity”. This grant, which makes it possible to subsidise actions already carried out since 2014, was awarded favourably, with eligible expenditure of €1,890,043.47 and co-financing of €945,021.74.
The project envisages actions linked to tourism for all, ranging from trail adaptation, improved access to information and investments in accessibility, to improvements in cultural spaces such as Can Musquera in Mieres, motorhome parking areas in the Vall d’en Bas and Sant Joan les Fonts, maintenance of Itinerànnia trails, and the installation of new cultural-heritage interpretation signage.
Garrotxa Approp. La Garrotxa in your pocket.
The Covid-19 crisis had a major impact on the economic sectors of hospitality, tourism, retail and leisure and, in general, on the services sector. This impact created the need to boost shopping in local businesses and the use of hospitality establishments in La Garrotxa, to offset the economic downturn caused by the slowdown resulting from activity restrictions implemented across the country.
With the aim of reactivating the county’s local economy, the Garrotxa Approp project was launched: a mobile application to encourage local consumption and the economic development and dynamisation of the territory in a responsible and sustainable way. This app seeks to foster customer loyalty through a multisector network of businesses, as well as generate spending within the county and promote local purchasing.
The application allows users to obtain discounts and points with every purchase and also works as a wallet card for companies wishing to reward their employees. Garrotxa Approp was created in response to the need to promote local shopping. It is one of the actions included in the Garrotxa Economic Reactivation and Employment Plan. The project is subsidised by the Catalan Public Employment Service and the European Social Fund.
Garrotxa Approp is a collaborative project within the County Reactivation Plan that brings together the joint work of various entities and organisations in the county: the Garrotxa Hospitality Association, the Olot Traders Association, the Olot Market Stallholders Association, Turisme Garrotxa, DinàmiG, the Garrotxa County Council and Olot City Council; with support from Cercle Euram, the Garrotxa Young Entrepreneurs Association and the Bianya Business Forum.
For the first time in the territory, a project is being carried out that involves and creates a network among all the economic actors, helping to boost La Garrotxa’s economy and creating a closed circuit in which all resources remain within the county. All municipal and county commercial and tourism associations can take part. In addition, Garrotxa Approp aims to encourage association-based participation; therefore, establishments that belong to any of the participating entities enjoy advantages.
Garrotxa Approp, available free of charge on Android and iOS platforms, provides benefits for users and participating businesses. The application features products and services (food, clothing, restaurants, accommodation, etc.) from around the county and offers advantages and discounts. Specifically, users get a 3% discount on all purchases made at participating establishments. It also seeks to encourage companies in La Garrotxa to give monetary vouchers to their employees to spend in participating establishments and, at the same time, to function as a local currency so that the economic resources generated remain within the county.
Its operation is based on three lines of action:
– Garrotxa Approp is made up of service companies, shops and hospitality businesses, which provide the offer, product diversity and promotions to attract the general public. At the same time, the application enables all companies to collaborate by offering employment incentives and rewarding their staff, since it also functions as a wallet card.
– Thanks to the initial contributions of collaborating companies such as Zoetis, La Fageda Foundation and Cubus, during the first weeks there will already be around €40,000 available for employees to use in the establishments participating in the application.
– The app also makes it possible to create specific, time-limited promotions (Christmas, anniversaries, Sant Jordi, etc.) with gift vouchers to be redeemed at participating establishments in their towns and villages.
– As for app users, the main target audience is residents of La Garrotxa. But it also aims to attract visitors so that they can enjoy the county’s offer (obtaining direct discounts on their purchases and accumulating points redeemable in euros); therefore, it will also be promoted among people visiting us.
In short, the application’s main objectives are to increase the competitiveness, sales and profits of participating businesses through customer loyalty; to generate a multiplier effect through cross-selling; to encourage sustainability in its three dimensions—social, economic and environmental; to make the application a benchmark tool for campaign dynamisation and promotional actions; and, finally, in the long term, to consolidate it as the reference application for local shopping, both in-person and online.
Companies interested in joining the project and leveraging the synergies generated by the app have the website www.garrotxaapprop.cat
at their disposal, where they will find all the information and conditions to become part of the Approp network. The project is open to any commercial association in La Garrotxa.
Accreditation of companies with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism
In 2001, the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park obtained accreditation with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST), a recognition of tourism management systems awarded by the Europarc Federation. It is currently held by 58 natural areas in seven European countries (Finland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Portugal). Since then, the Natural Park has been working jointly and in cooperation with tourism stakeholders and administrations across the county to implement a sustainable tourism management model. Among the key agents is Turisme Garrotxa, the common meeting point for the public and private sectors.
From the second half of 2008, the ECST was opened to tourism companies in a voluntary process through which businesses had to demonstrate their commitment to the territory.
The ECST business accreditation process has been completed by around 50 tourism companies, which received a diagnosis of their environmental and social aspects and their ties to the territory. These companies had to meet the conditions set by the Natural Park and by Europarc Spain, and finally define a three-year action programme that forms the core of their commitment to sustainable tourism in the county.
This accreditation strengthens and improves the close cooperation between the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park and the county’s private tourism sector, with Turisme Garrotxa as a key partner in the process.
For their part, the Natural Park and Turisme Garrotxa also make commitments to the companies, such as promoting them in a differentiated way or supporting training.
By accrediting companies, La Garrotxa once again becomes a pioneering county in Spain: it was the first natural park in Spain to obtain the ECST and has now served as a pilot park in the company accreditation system (together with five parks in Andalusia).
Attendance at the Garrotxa Tourism Sector Knowledge Course, and regular participation in ongoing training sessions, is one of the prerequisites for obtaining ECST accreditation.
Tourist Offices Network
Providing quality information is one of Turisme Garrotxa’s main objectives. This is why the association coordinates the county’s tourist offices and information centres, regardless of their ownership and management (public, concession, etc.), through a working group made up of their municipal managers and front-desk managers, designed to exchange information of mutual interest as well as to coordinate and standardise projects and procedures among the different tourist offices.
Itinerànnia Trail Network
Itinerànnia is a 2,500-km network of trails spanning the counties of Ripollès, Garrotxa and Alt Empordà. Itinerànnia recovers the old communication routes between towns so that you can reach any corner, any small place. The network is made up of the natural and cultural assets of three areas—key attractions for visitors to our country—and allows you to walk from the Pyrenees to the sea and from the sea back to the Pyrenees.
The launch of this network in 2008 was made possible by a LEADER cooperation project. The first step was to inventory the county’s paths and select the historic ones through path inventories and conversations with local residents, mountaineering clubs, etc. The second step involved creating a map of tourism, natural and cultural resources. The third step was to create a map of tourism services.
By overlaying all these maps, a set of scoring criteria was established that gave higher scores to trails closest to tourist establishments, the county’s basic services or resources of very high interest linked to culture, heritage, gastronomy, history and the identity of the territories. The trails with the highest scores were those that eventually formed part of the Itinerànnia core trail network.
All of this was—and continues to be—possible thanks to the collaboration of town councils, natural parks, tourist offices and mountaineering clubs working together with a single objective: to create a new network of trails that brings new opportunities to the territory.
Across Ripollès, Garrotxa and Alt Empordà, more than 2,500 kilometres of paths have been signposted, enabling multiple hikes depending on the time available, the level of difficulty, and cultural, architectural or natural interests. In short, everyone can plan a route to suit their needs or choose from the proposed routes available on the project website.
Garrotxa Cultour
Ensuring that information about heritage is accessible to everyone is of vital importance in order to better understand our surroundings and appreciate their value. For this reason, in recent years a series of actions have been carried out to highlight Garrotxa’s historical heritage through signage and digital resources.
Between 2009 and 2014, the Garrotxa County Council commissioned an Inventory of Garrotxa Historical Heritage, an essential tool for identifying all resources of heritage interest. This was the starting point for all subsequent actions.
In 2012 and 2013, a collaborative working group developed the project. The following year, the County Council obtained two grants—one from ERDF funds and another from the Government of Catalonia’s Tourism Promotion Plan—for the project “Garrotxa Cultour: innovation in routes for heritage interpretation”.
Through the Promotion Plan, a minimum of four signs were funded in each municipality. Some town councils, however, requested additional cultural resources to be signposted, co-financing the extra signs themselves. Ultimately, the app, the website and the videos were created.
Between 2015 and 2017, the County Council was able to signpost more items of heritage interest thanks to the second Tourism Promotion Plan of the Government of Catalonia, entitled “La Garrotxa, land of volcanoes, culture and identity. Phase II”.
In 2017, the County Council signed agreements with town councils to define aspects such as sign ownership and maintenance; today, Turisme Garrotxa monitors the condition of the signs and advises town councils that need to repair them or wish to renew or expand signage.
Innovation and Product Service (SIP)
In 2016, Turisme Garrotxa created an advisory service aimed at the most active tourism companies committed to the territory, in order to strengthen them and generate economic impact in line with global tourism trends and the local tourism model based on sustainability.
This service currently offers technical support and advice to more than 40 tourism companies of different types (accommodation, restaurants, activities and inbound travel agencies). The support focuses primarily on adopting sustainability measures that enable companies to obtain ECST accreditation (INNOVATION), as well as improving the specialisation and differentiation of their services based on three products: nature, gastronomy and small-format meetings (PRODUCT).
As a result of joint work between inbound agencies and companies within the SIP, the “Garrotxa Incoming Experiences” catalogue was created— a publication aimed at trade professionals to market La Garrotxa as a sustainable, high-quality destination, including 10 tourism packages focused on active tourism, ecotourism, hiking, cycle tourism, gastronomy, health and well-being, culture and accessibility for all. This catalogue received the Catalonia Tourism Award in 2019.
All information on the services offered by SIP companies can be found at https://ohgarrotxa.com/area-professionals/
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© Turisme Garrotxa
