Playa Americas

The Canadian tour operator Total Vacations presented last 20th of September in Canada the Canary Islands as their exclusive tourist destination in Europe during an event that gathered together about half thousand travel agents.

The Canary Islands archipelago was introduced to the Canadian travel agents as the only European destination within the 2010 – 2011 catalogue of Total Vacations. This tour operator is introducing the islands’ tourist offer in fifteen cities in Canada: Kitchener, London, Windsor, Toronto, Barrie, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Buffalo, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

The event was attended by the vice-councillor of tourism for the Government of the Canary Islands, Yolanda Perdomo, and representatives of the councils of Tenerife and Fuerteventura, together with Canadian travel agents and other figures of the tourist industry.

The event included a series of 20-minute seminars where the Canary Islands were introduced to the travel agents by a professional from the public entity Promotur, who talked about the varied tourist offer the islands have from golf courses and wellness centres to water sports and night life.

In the evening, the assistants enjoyed a banquet organized by Total Vacations where the president of this Canadian tour operator, Dave Decco, and the councillor of tourism for the Canary Islands, gave a talk about the archipelago as tourist destination.

During the banquet, it was also presented a promotional spot specially developed for the Canadian market taking into account their preferences and highlighting the wide tourist offer of the Canary Islands including local cultural and nature tourism.

The Canary tourism department brought over 800 kilograms in promotional materials to be handed out among the tourist agents including brochures and other promotional materials about each island and their different tourist offer.

Tenerife’s city hall will host next Tuesday the sixth edition of the tourism congress organized by the Tenerife Tourism Corporation that will include the tourist excellence awards ceremony.

The president of the Tenerife Tourism Corporation, Juan Manuel Bermúdez said that the congress will contribute to encourage the business community of the island to embrace excellence as a way to overcome the economic crisis.

The event that will take place at the city hall’s conference room will be entitled “Success cases and best practices in tourism”. The congress will start at 9:00 a.m. with the “Turismo de Tenerife 2010” awards ceremony that will award the companies Grupo Globalia, represented by its president Juan José Hidalgo, Expo-Grupo represented by Antonio Mestre, and the CIT (tourist initiative centres) of the island.

Mr. Bermudez highlighted the work of Hidalgo in the management of Air Europa and Travelplan – first Spanish tour operator in Tenerife. “He is a strategic ally for the island, running several hospitality businesses in Tenerife such as the Orotava Palace”.

The tourist councillor remarked the contribution of Mr. Mestre as well, commenting that “he is one of the forerunners of tourist change in Tenerife South towards excellence”. A good example of this is the Mediterranean Palace, the first five stars hotel in the south of Tenerife and the “Pirámides de Arona” events centre as well.

With regards to the CITs, Mr. Bermúdez said that they are invaluable partners in tourist promotion, fostering the number of tourists in municipalities with few bed-spaces thanks to the Infoten offices, a network of tourist information offices that provide comprehensive information about Tenerife’s tourist offer.

The schedule for this “VI Congreso de Turismo de Tenerife” includes a conference by Juan Manuel Bermúdez and the manager of the Tenerife Tourism Corporation Mr. Alberto Bernabé, as well as the vice-president of the hotel chain AC, Raimon Martínez-Fraile, who will be giving a talk about “Excellence as a tool to overcome the crisis”.

Likewise, the CEO of Design Innovation for Milan and Las Palmas, Mr. Carmelo Di Bartolo, will give a talk about perceived quality in the hospitality industry.

Some success cases that will be presented during this congress include coaching as human resources management strategy, the Turisferia cluster, Loro Parque and Monje winery.

The councilman of Tourism, Miguel Ángel Santos, said few days ago that “with regards to the percentage of tourists in relation with the total number of visitors that the island receives, the statistics show that Adeje receives the 35.2% of them, having the highest number of hostelry occupation, about 16% and a lower extra hostelry occupation (11%) y comparison with Arona, which is the second tourist municipality in Tenerife”.

The councilman explained that during the first half of this year, “Costa Adeje has experienced an increase near the 2.7% in comparison with the previous year, receiving a total of 815,312 tourists”.

Sántos also commented that “the tourist area most benefited with this grow is the hospitality businesses that have had an increase of 6.5 points, and among them, the five stars hotels where the ones that have had the higher numbers. What’s more, four and five stars hotels have had a 10% of increase in the occupancy this year in the island, and Adeje is the municipality that counts with the higher number of hotels’ rooms”.

Likewise, he added that “in the total, the hostelry occupation reached 68% this year, which means an increase of 4.8% in relation with the previous year”.

The municipality of El Sauzal in Tenerife is taking part this week of the program “Canarias: una ventana volcánica en el Atlántico” (Canary Islands: A volcanic window in the Atlantic Ocean) organized in every municipality of the Canary Islands by the ITER foundation, a public entity within the Council of Tenerife.

This is an awareness campaign within an information diffusion program on the volcanic phenomenon and the management of volcanic risks. The program counts with the support and sponsorship of the Instituto Español de Oceanografía – IEO (Spanish Oceanographic Institute) within the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Academia Canaria de Seguridad (Canary Security Academy) within the Canary Islands Government, the Federación Canaria de Municipios – FECAM (Canary Municipalities Federation) and the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation.

This program was created because of the need to inform and aware the population of the Canary Islands about the volcanic phenomenon and the management of the volcanic risk in the Canary territory. The program is one of the initiatives within the special plan for civil security and emergencies management due to volcanic risk in the Canary autonomous community (PEVOLCA).

This program was acknowledged during the 4th edition of the Spanish Volcanology Network congress by the secretary of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI).

The awareness and diffusion activities are taking place from the 14th to the 16th of September at the El Sauzal Cultural Centre from 7:00 p.m. The first day consisted on the showing of the films “Comprendiendo los Peligros Volcánicos” (understanding volcanic danger) and “Reduciendo el riesgo volcánico” (reducing volcanic risks). These movies were edited by the IAVCEI and the UNESCO.

The second day, the organizers will give a conference about the volcanic phenomenon and the management of volcanic risk in the Canary Islands showing pictures of the last eruption occurred in the archipelago.

This program will be carried out during this year in all the Canary archipelago including the Isla de la Graciosa, as a way to contribute to the reduction of volcanic risk in the islands creating awareness in the society to make it be more prepared and aware about the volcanic phenomenon and the volcanic risk.

This program is part of the activities developed to create awareness and diffuse information about the volcanic phenomenon and its risks, as well as the 6th edition of the Cities on Volcanoes International Conference that took place in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, from the 31st of May to 4th the of June 2010.

The hostelry chain belonging to the Escarrer family is analyzing the acquisition of the Jardín Tropical Hotel located in Adeje, Tenerife. The Jardín Tropical Hotel belongs to the Polanco family being the first hostelry business founded by the late news editor in Tenerife Island.
The Meliá group from Mallorca would share the property of the hotel 50 – 50 with the local businessman Enrique Hernandis, one of the entrepreneurs that together with Mr. Piñeiro and Mr. Reyero founded the Gran Bahía del Duque Hotel, which is nowadays ran by the Zamorano family that are relatives of Hernandis.

Representatives of Sol Meliá group said to Preferente.com that they have been negotiating during the last days the acquisition of the hotel located in Costa Adeje, Tenerife. However, their expectations about the business have decreased being nowadays below the 30%.

The Jardín Tropical Hotel used to be the main 4 stars hotel in Tenerife at the time it was opened. Two years ago, the Barceló Group showed their interest in this hotel but finally they went back due to legal problems with the coastline management authorities because the hotel was entering public maritime areas.

Before the opening of the Gran Bahía del Duque Hotel, the Jardín Tropical Hotel was the preferred hospitality centre of the Spanish celebrities that used to spend their holidays in Tenerife south. For example, José María Aznar spent his holidays there before he became president of Spain.
The Jardín Botánico Hotel, located in Tenerife south has 390 rooms and suits recently remodelled apart from two presidential suits. Besides, this hotel counts with 5 different restaurants, a wellness centre and four conference centres in a total area of 640 square meters that can be used for small meetings or huge events for 400 participants.

The board members of the Council of Adeje approved this week unanimously the motion to declare cultural heritage the pilgrimage to the Virgin of the Incarnation, after reading the report presented by the authorities of the heritage department within the city council, which stated that the pilgrimage to the Virgin is a religious and cultural event part of Adeje’s cultural identity. Now, the motion will be submitted to the Council of Tenerife to begin the necessary procedures.

The story of the pilgrimage started in the 17th century when the image of the Virgin of the Incarnation was transported from La Enramada to the Santa Úrsula’s chapel to protect it from the pirates. Since then, parishioners committed to go on a pilgrimage every five years to take the image of the Virgin from Santa Úrsula to La Enramada (which is called San Sebastian nowadays). This commitment is stated in a document dated in the year 1782 that can be seen at the Museo Canario (Canary Museum) in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The Council of Adeje received the support of the Incarnation Brotherhood, the Saint Michael Archangel Royal Canary Academy of Arts and La Laguna University. Besides, the action counted with the support of the Canary Studies Institute, the Bishopric of Tenerife and the Public Library from Santa Cruz.

The Canary Islands Asphalt Rally Championship brings to Tenerife this weekend the motor-race teams Motor Arisa, Grupo Ari and Orteauto Sport, with Raúl Quesada and Pedro Domínguez at the wheel to compete in the Villa Adeje Rally.

After the victory of the group in the rally Ciudad del Telde owing to the good result of the modifications made to the Renault Twingo R2, the teams will test themselves in the asphalt Rally Villa Adeje to know who deserves to be the leader of this competition.

To retake this championship after the summer season is difficult being a true challenge for competitors. The route has been divided in two stages having also some difficult timed stretches that doesn’t leave a margin of error, and it has the usual pressure of being competing against the other participants.
Having a vehicle in perfect conditions, Quesada and Domínguez will be training to achieve the second 10 points result of the season – they need three – competing in a rally that they only experienced once before. The event will start this Friday in Tenerife south just after the sunset and it will continue on Saturday all day long. On Saturday, it will take place the special stretches races Karting Club Tenerife, Guía-Playa San Juan, la Concepción-Taucho, San Miguel-Arona and Cueva del Polvo-Playa San Juan.

Raúl Quesada said that “this is a brand new rally competition for us. I just know some stretches of the route and for that reason it will be important for us to have good notes. After the rally celebrated in Ciudad del Telde and the Rally Sprint in Vallesco, I am confident about the good performance the Renault Twingo R2 can have, and I expect to continue moving forward in the ranking thanks to some modifications we have introduced to the vehicle for the rally in Adeje”.

The chief director of Orteauto Sport, Antonio Ortega, highlighted that “the new improvements, although they are a few ones, will allow us to keep moving forward and climbing positions in the general ranking. The Rally Villa Adeje is an important event because of the points it gives to the winner, and it is also important to us because it will be a new experience for the Motor Arisa and Grupo Ari motor-racing teams. Our goal is to have a good performance to demonstrate the power of the Renault Twingo R2”.

About 20 ceramicists will be exhibiting their work in the exhibitions hall of the ‘Colegio Oficial de Aparejadores y Arquitectos Técnicos – COAAT’ from the 2nd to the 10th of September.

This is a collective exhibition that will be showing the best pieces of pottery these artists from Tenerife made during this year. The exhibition that will include about thirty pieces is organized by the pottery association and counts with the sponsorship of the Vice-Council of Culture within the Canary Islands Government.

Visitors will enjoy the work of Adalberto Rodríguez, Ana María García, Cristina R. Mijares, Ernesto Acosta, Ernesto Domínguez, Felicidad Pérez, Gloria Quirce, “Gosha” Malgorzata Hyrlyk and Isabel Mallorquín, as well as the pieces made by Juan Vicente Rodríguez Figueroa, Isabel Rodríguez, Mercedes Hernández, Moisés Carrillo, Paz G., Ricardo Bonnet, Roberto Negrín, Silvia Barrera, Silvia Palau, Utopía and V. Saavedra Lavanchy.

The ceramicists association from Tenerife has made major changes in their internal organization. Their first activity in this new stage has been the organizing of this exhibition that counts with renowned artists and new ceramicists that will be showing their firsts pieces of art.

The pieces exhibited are made using different materials, styles and formats. Those who are interested in this exhibition will be able to visit it from Monday to Friday from 5.00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. most of the pieces showed in this exhibition are made using “gres” clay and refractory clay, as well as glazes, and mixed techniques.

The ceramicists association is also organizing a calendar of activities for this year which will provide opportunities for the ceramicists to share their knowledge and learn about new materials and techniques. Another objective the association has is to provide ceramicists with the necessary means to work.

The Canary composer and singer Pedro Guerra inaugurated yesterday the new building of the Municipal Music School of Adeje, located in La Torres where about 700 people will have the chance to study.

Guerra said that it was a pleasure and an honour for him to sponsor this project because he believes that it would be impossible to have a world without music. He added that it is necessary to have people capable of creating music and to achieve that it is necessary for the authorities to facilitate the access of the younger sectors of the society to music education, which allows the development of musical abilities. This music school was created to be a cultural and educational centre for the youths.
Pedro Guerra explained that from now, all the musicians from Adeje will be able to practice and create music in a facility that has been remodelled specially for that purpose.

The Municipal Music School of Adeje has 2,697 square metres and it has an auditorium for a 200 people audience. It also has a recording studio and 4 rooms soundproof.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by the Major of Adeje, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga and an audience of about 500 people.

The major of Adeje said that this project was carried out thanks to the founds the “Plan E” provided “to remodel a building that will make possible to develop cultural activities which have a huge educational relevance and will serve as a mean to connect the community”.

The Canarian band will share the stage with a singer and composer from Andalucia in an acoustic show that will be presented in Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

This weekend, the Canarian band The Mistake will celebrate their 15 years of work giving two acoustic shows that will include performances by guest artist Zahara from Andalucia.  The last album by Zahara “La historia Fabulosa” was a best seller in the first week of its launch.

These artists will give a concert next Friday 3rd of September at the Honky Tank Express concert hall in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the 4th of September they will perform at the “Centro de Iniciativas de la Caja de Canarias – CICCA” in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The Mistake band is celebrating this way 15 years of career becoming one of the most renowned Canary rock bands of the last years, having four albums released and many concerts given in the Canary Islands as well as in the Spanish peninsula and abroad.

They have been working in 2009 in their last album having a major change: after being a trio for 12 years they have incorporated a new member, the bass guitarist Bruno Díaz.

Their fourth album made in an unplugged format is the most polished one, having amazing guitar sounds that outstand due to their gentleness and elegance without leaving aside their post-hardcore roots and the melancholy of their lyrics.

The invited artist, Zahara, is a 27 years old singer and composer who has been in the music business since she was 14 years old. She will add the sweetness of her guitar and voice to the concert. Her last album occupied the 23rd place in the sales ranking in Spain in the first week of its launching, in part thanks to the support she received through the social networks where she promotes her music and communicates with her fans.
Her album “La Fabulosa Historia” has eleven songs produced by Carlos Jean y Ricky Falkner. She has also participated in other artists’ albums such as Sidonie, Love of Lesbian, Quique González o Coque Malla, but her boom came in 2009 with the official song of the Spanish Cycling Tour, “Merezco”.