One more year, the lands of Lleida are a basic reference in water, land and air activities; sports that take over from the ski season, which ended at Easter.
The 2014 season of active tourism and adventure sports in the Lleida region begins with 223 companies, distributed throughout the 13 Lleida regions, offering their services in land, air and water activities. This figure represents an increase of 8% compared to the offer at the start of the campaign last year, when there were 206 companies, and 23% compared to 2012, when there were 171. One more year, the demarcation of Lleida maintains leadership in Spain in this area and is a basic benchmark in water, land and air activities.
The adventure sports campaign practically takes over from the ski season, which ended at Easter. The 2014 season has begun with a total of 223 companies distributed throughout the 13 Lleida counties that, in a unique landscape context, offer a wide variety of proposals of varying difficulty and designed for audiences of all kinds and ages.
The Tourist Board of the Provincial Council of Lleida, together with the Association of Adventure Sports Companies of Pallars Sobirà, the Llavorsí City Council and the Pallars Sobirà County Council, kicked off the new 2014 adventure sports season and active tourism in the regions of Lleida in a presentation ceremony that took place in Llavorsí, Pallars Sobirà.
The event was attended by the president of the Diputación de Lleida, Joan Reñé; the president of the Pallars Sobirà County Council, Llàtzer Sibis; the president of the Association of Adventure Sports Companies of Pallars Sobirà, Florido Dolcet; the vice-president of the Tourist Board of the Diputación and mayor of Rialp, Gerard Sabarich, and the director, Jordi Blanch. Several presidents of the county councils of the Lleida demarcation, mayors of the Pallars Sobirà region and the heads of the companies that participated in the sample and the exhibition of activities in this presentation also attended.
The president of the Diputación de Lleida, Joan Reñé, highlighted the good prospects for the new active tourism and adventure sports campaign in the Lleida regions. One of the factors that predict a good campaign is the large water reserve, which will guarantee the season for river activities. Reñé explained that the heavy winter snowfalls offer unbeatable conditions for activities related to water, which practically guarantees the campaign for river activities and at the same time will allow larger and longer quotas of water, mainly in activities regulated in the Noguera Pallaresa river. This year 37% more cubic hectometers of water are recorded as snow than last year.
In addition, the latest occupancy data indicate a change in trend, since in the last six months the number of visitors and overnight stays in the Lleida demarcation as a whole have increased. Specifically, from the month of September to the month of February the number of overnight stays has increased by 4% and the number of visitors by 5% compared to the same six months of the previous year.
Active tourism activities in the 13 counties of Lleida
The 223 companies that start the season this year 2014 represent a growth of 8% compared to the number of companies last year, when there were 206, and 23% compared to 2012, when there were 171.
According to the study carried out by the Tourist Board of the Lleida Provincial Council, of the 223 active tourism and adventure sports companies that today offer their services in the Lleida demarcation as a whole, 174 belong to the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees and 49, to the Lleida plain. In this last year, there has been a significant growth of the companies of the Lleida flat, going from 37 to 49, which has meant a 31% increase.
Regarding the balance of the previous season, it should be noted that companies offered some 610,000 active tourism services, with a notable increase in land activities to the detriment of water activities. The companies provided some 300,000 land activity services, 300,000 water activity services and some 10,000 aerial activities. It must be said that the decrease in water activities was an effect of the floods in the summer of last year, but it is expected that this season the water activities will surely pick up again.
Rafting , canyoning, hydrospeed and kayaking in the water activities; horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking, in terms of land, and paragliding, in air proposals, continue to constitute the backbone of contracting services in this sector, which, however, offers a wide range with more than 50 different activities.
The economic impact of the sector amounts to 66.1 million euros
The economic impact of this sector is 66.1 million euros (considering the income from the activity itself, accommodation and restaurants). If we consider only the services offered by companies in the sector, the turnover is 24.8 million euros. Adventure sports employ 1,700 people, of which around 620 work full time, around 380 part time and around 700 are basically self-employed.
The client of the active tourism companies that visit the Lleida demarcation continues to be mainly from Catalonia (75%), especially from Barcelona and its metropolitan area, followed by those from Tarragona and Lleida. Another 15% travel from other autonomous communities –basically from Madrid, the Basque Country and Valencia–, while 10% corresponds to the foreign market and is mainly of French, Dutch and English origin, without forgetting the Japanese, North American and Israeli.
Source::
Ara Lleida Newsletter for Chus Castillo
Property Images:
infopyrenees
