Strategic Tourism Development Plan for Maresme

Maresme’s Tourism Promotion Consortium (Consorci de Promoció Turística del Maresme) identified the need to formulate and incorporate a new tourism strategy for the destination with the aim of detecting opportunities for its growth, taking advantage of the existing resources, sectors and activities in the region, in order to generate a unique, differentiated and competitive positioning for the territory, thus facilitating its promotion abroad.

This development model should be closely linked to the strategic lines proposed by the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Catalan Tourism Agency, called the 4D:

• De-seasonalization to generate employment and wealth.
• Decentralization to avoid tourist overcrowding.
• Offer’s diversification to attract new market segments.
• Generate a greater spending (“Despesa” in Catalan) in the territory.

On the other hand, it should also establish cooperation mechanisms and formulas to strengthen ties and strategic alliances for better governance among all the tourism agents of the territory, design innovative actions to improve the competitiveness of the sector, as well as generate collaboration for the creation of new tourism products based on experience, and design promotional and communication campaigns to attract visitors, among others.

In addition, the project also aimed to align the development of tourism in the region with sustainability and its three aspects, referring to the social, economic and environmental scopes.

For the design of the strategy, Pax# proposed four phases of work in which the project would consist: a first analytical phase, which consisted of a complete diagnosis of the situation of the territory. A second strategic phase, which would define the tourism vision of the territory, the objectives and main lines of work, as well as the principles and attributes that make up the destination’s tourism brand. The third phase was operational, where specific actions would be established to meet the defined objectives. Finally, the management, monitoring and presentation phase, in which the results would be analyzed and presented periodically and iteratively, for the continuous improvement of the actions.

Throughout the process and in parallel to the different phases proposed, an exhaustive participatory process was carried out in which different channels of consensus and collaboration open to all stakeholders of the territory were implemented. In the first analytical phase, this participation took the form of consultations and in-depth interviews, focused on public stakeholders in the territory, the private sector and the local population.

On the other hand, during the whole process, two participative actions called “Trobades” (encounters) and “Converses” (conversations) were carried out in which, on one hand, dynamic work sessions were generated with the tourism technicians of each municipality of the territory and, on the other hand, discussion days or round tables open to everyone were conceived where, on a fortnightly basis, topics related to the region were discussed. Both concepts were very well received and served to create spaces for awareness, reflection and joint debate, as well as to reactivate the connection between agents of the destination.

Likewise, the progress and results of each stage were materialized and defined in four workshops with public and private sector agents, which helped to visualize and clearly define the basic lines of the Plan, and which provided a space for debate, reflection and definition of the strategy itself by the same agents of Maresme.

This was an intense work that lasted several months, where a high level of participation was achieved and where it could be considered that this Plan was developed with the help of the people of the Maresme. We worked side by side with the Consorci de Promoció Turística del Maresme, we listened to all those who wanted to contribute to this project, and we managed to define a series of objectives and concrete actions on which the region should focus, taking into account the shared vision of the territory and the main strategic axes defined.

The project was financed 80% by the Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC) and 20% by Maresme’s Tourism Promotion Consortium itself.

This plan was drawn up in the midst of the post-pandemic period and, despite the difficulties that the tourism sector is still experiencing, it is hoped that it will help to reactivate and rehabilitate the sector on the basis of sustainability and what Maresme wants to be as a destination, with the help and cooperation of all the actors who participated in this shared process.