Lloret de Mar’s resident population of around 40,000 people triples in the summer to an average of over 150,000 in the months of July and August. This reality requires Lloret de Mar to carefully adjust its services and improve its sustainability policies every year.
The town’s campaign for this year aims to get visitors and residents actively involved in the environment and responsible waste management. Their involvement is a crucial factor for minimizing the environmental impact of tourism.
SUSTAINABILITY AND CIVIC CONDUCT CAMPAIGN
- The civic conduct campaign: “Don’t treat Lloret like rubbish. Help us keep it cleaner and make it sustainable”
For the third year in a row, within the framework of the campaign “With respect, we all fit in Lloret”, this year’s message focuses on raising environmental awareness with the slogan “Don’t treat Lloret like rubbish. Help us keep it cleaner and make it sustainable”. This campaign will be implemented in the various formats on the streets and in publications available at tourism establishments.
Beach management: an investment of €1,700,000
In the high season, a daily average of 4 tonnes of waste is collected from the beaches in Lloret de Mar, including waste discarded in bins and thrown on the sand or in the water.
Much of this waste is disposed of in the corresponding bins, either by users or in the selective recycling bins in catering establishments.
Beach kiosks are included in the door-to-door waste collection service for large producers, which collects glass containers from 203 establishments and organic waste from 106.
Approximately 70% of the selective recycling waste collection comes from large producers, primarily the hotel and catering industry.
The beach cleaning protocol intensifies throughout the high season, including the daily mechanical cleaning of all the beaches before 09:00; the daily manual cleaning of smaller elements before 09:00 and after 18:00; emptying bins 2-3 time per day; daily cleaning of the coastal paths in the morning and afternoon. In the high season, there is a daily team of 15 people providing this service, with the use of 7 vehicles: beach cleaners, quads for emptying bins, a boat for collecting floating solid waste and a dustbin lorry.
- Use of recyclable materials
The Lloret de Mar Town Council promotes the implementation of environmental measures, including the use of recyclable or reusable materials. In addition, there is a general ban on taking glass containers onto the sand, while beach establishments are not allowed to sell drinks or products in glass containers to the public.
- Smoke-free beaches and ashtray campaign
In view of the success of last year’s smoke-free beaches initiative, these demarcated and duly signposted areas will remain in operation on the beaches of Lloret, Fenals, Santa Cristina, Canyelles and Sa Boadella (the entire beach). Moreover, the ashtray distribution campaign will be reinforced on the beaches with the support of the civic information agents on the beaches themselves, in order to minimize the impact of cigarette butts in the sand.
QUALITY OF THE BEACHES
- Blue flag for all the beaches
Good beach management has enabled Lloret de Mar to renew the Blue Flag rating for all its beaches once again this year: Lloret, Fenals, Santa Cristina, Sa Boadella and Canyelles. Lloret de Mar, L’Ametlla de Mar and Barcelona are the three municipalities with most Blue Flag beaches in Catalonia.
- European Best Destinations
Moreover, the European Best Destinations organization, which promotes the most attractive areas to visit in Europe, has named Cala Sa Boadella in Lloret de Mar as one of the “Best Beaches in Europe”, ranking it as the best in Catalonia, the second best in Spain and the sixth best in Europe.
SAFETY
- Daytime, night-time and commercial civic information agents
In view of the great response to last years’ initiative and to ensure compliance with the civic regulations, this year, 4 civic information agents will continue to operate on the beaches, as well as the 4 night-time agents, whose duties include informing the public, and detecting and discouraging antisocial attitudes and behaviour. In addition, 4 more commercial information agents have been incorporated in the destination’s main shopping areas.
- Residential Tourism Properties
Lloret de Mar sets the standard in Catalonia in terms of its residential tourism property management policy with a Special Urbanism Plan for Tourism Accommodation and a regulation that requires the more than 3,500 establishments registered in the town to have a sign indicating the capacity, licence number and contact details for the person responsible for the property, among other information. This season, Lloret has incorporated 3 inspectors to manage all incidents that arise in relation to Residential Tourism Properties, among other duties.
SMART DESTINATION
One of the key new developments in the 2018 season was the implementation of a Tourism Intelligence Platform, developed by Mabrian Technologies, which analyses the behaviour and satisfaction of tourists in the destination, as well as their activity on social media. In 2019, two more projects have been added to the platform: a spending module to analyse data on credit card spending and a pilot trial to analyse tourist flows, in collaboration with the international telecommunications company Orange.
After a year of gathering data, it is now possible to draw a number of conclusions that enable the destination’s strategy to be adapted to the reality of the situation in terms of demand:
- One of the most notable trends is the considerable rise in interest in cultural, active, natural, family and culinary tourism products to the detriment of nightlife options.
- The destination’s visitor safety perception index remains at excellent levels and rose from 91.45 out of 100 in 2017 to 93.35 in 2018, which is above average within the context of the Costa Brava.
- The spending module that Lloret Turisme has incorporated in 2019 reveals that the main markets in terms of absolute expenditure are France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Moreover, the most valuable markets that spend most per user are Russia, the United States and Switzerland.
HEALTHY CUISINE
In Lloret de Mar, this year marks the start of the implementation of the Promotion Strategy for the Gastronomic Sector 2018-2022 developed with the Fundació Alícia and the support of the Guild of Hotels, Bars and Restaurants. After a year working with the Catalan Public Health Agency, which issues the AMED certification (Mediterranean Food accreditation), Lloret de Mar has 16 accredited establishments (and 4 more currently in the process of certification). This puts the town at the top of the ranking in all the counties of the Province of Girona in terms of the number of certified establishments.
Within the framework of this strategy, the Town Council also signed a partnership agreement with the Catalan Celiac Association in February. The town now has 5 establishments accredited as gluten-free, while the Water World park is certified as a venue with gluten-free options available.
TOURISM STATISTICS 2018
Lloret de Mar ranks among the top five Spanish coastal destinations, with around 1.1 million visitors annually and 5.3 million overnight stays per year. In addition, it is the second leading municipality in Catalonia in terms of generating tourism tax, reaching a total of 3.3 million euros, second only to the city of Barcelona.
Private sector investment in the destination for this season is over 100 million euros, which has enabled hotel managers to increase the price policy of their establishments, improve their online reputation and enhance customer satisfaction during their stay. The Tourism Intelligence Platform has confirmed these figures, revealing a very considerable rise in hotel satisfaction in Lloret de Mar, as well as an increase in the prices of 3-star and 4-star establishments in 2018, and of 4-star and 5-star hotels in the first half of 2019.
