Attractions Tenerife

The Council of Tenerife through the Tenerife Tourism Corporation and the tourist initiative centres (CIT) gave tourists brochures and local products samples during the World Tourism Day celebrated the 27th of September.

To celebrate this day, the authorities organized a series of events and activities intended to make it special. The vice-president of the Council of Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez said that “tourism is the main economic activity in the island and its main source of incomes. The events we have organized are aimed at giving thanks to our tourists and to promote the local products of the island”.

The CITs from the south and the northwest regions of the island as well as the ones located at El Tanque, Güímar, Garachico, Candelaria-Caletilla and Puerto de al Cruz also collaborated in the activities scheduled for this day.

The activities included the handing out of promotional brochures, and also wines, bananas and sweets tasting at the south airport. The different marketplaces located in the mentioned municipalities presented craftworks and pictures exhibitions, and tourists were welcomed with flowers.

The activities scheduled for the World Tourism Day are part of the tourist product boosting plan Tenerife Acoje carried out by the Council of Tenerife, the Tourism Department within the Government of the Canary Islands and the Spanish Tourism Board.

The regional head of tourism in the Canary Islands, Rita Martín, said that the ministry is supporting yacht races in the Canary Islands because the authorities consider that “water sports give us a chance to promote the Islands to be among one of the best tourist destinations”.

In a few weeks the 17^th edition of “Su Alteza Real Infanta Cristina” will be celebrated, the Tenerife Royal Yacht Club has been working on the championship board, which is included in the calendar of yacht races for the Spanish Royal Sailing Federation.

This sports event has the support of the regional ministry of tourism in the Canary Islands and other institutions. The representative of Tourism stated “we are sure that these sponsorship initiatives are providing us with a unique opportunity to promote the Canary Islands”.

The initiative taken by the ministry of tourism of the Canary Islands is part of the project developed in 2009 to promote the Canary Islands as a water sports destination. In the outlay of this program the government has been sponsoring, yacht races like the one organized by the Tenerife Royal Yacht Club, and also a lot of other water based events, turning the islands into a point of reference for the practice of these kinds of events.

The strategy of the Canary Islands Government is to promote water sports in the archipelago.  It includes the Water Sports Experience Seal which certifies the quality, professionalism and safety of the products and services provided by businesses related to water sport activities, and the project Islas Canarias Water Sports Scuderia that gathers all the sports centers and athletes of the Canary Islands.

http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=523465

PREDIF is a non-profit public entity responsible for the development of programs to improve the quality of life for people that have severe physical disabilities in Spain. This charity, in association with the city council of San Cristobal de la Laguna (Tenerife) will hold a conference this week to promote social awareness about global access for the disabled in inner cities.

The opening ceremony of this conference was held last Tuesday and it was attended by the secretary of education and employment from PREDIF and the president of the Canary association for people with physical disabilities, Salvador Morales, as well as the representative of the tourism accessibility department from PREDIF, Edurne Francisco.

This conference is aimed to improve the accessibility in the municipalities taking into account the accessibility of open urban areas and buildings as well as the contribution of the Information and Communication Technologies to accessibility, and the proper treatment towards citizens with physical disabilities.

The conference was addressed to the representatives of the different areas of the public administration, and the different businesses of the city including commerce, leisure, culture, sports, etc. The speakers are professionals in global accessibility who will be giving a series of conferences in several Spanish municipalities.

http://www.europapress.es/islas-canarias/noticia-seminario-promueve-accesibilidad-global-tenerife-20100920190318.html

The German cruise AidaBlu arrived yesterday at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and it will be bringing 4,400 tourists to the island each Saturday from September to April 2011.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s port was full of tourists yesterday that arrived onboard the AidaBlu. The vessel brought about 2,200 German tourists and received others that embarked at the capital of Tenerife to enjoy the cruise. Each Saturday the port will have the same passengers’ traffic because the shipping company has chosen Tenerife as operations port for the next four years.

The president of the public entity in charge of the port’s administration and management, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, attended the ceremony where plaques commemorating the great event where interchanged with the captain of the cruise ship, who said to the press that the AidaBlu has the same design as the other cruise ships from this company in terms of amenities, including a theatre, a cinema, a casino and a spa apart from 8 restaurants, 13 bars, gym, a basketball court and a small brewery.

The ship was inaugurated at the capital of Tenerife yesterday night, having the same name of a previous cruise ship owned by this company that visited the island between 2004 and 2007.

The new AidaBlu was launched in Hamburg last February. It weights 71,304 tons and it is 253.3 meters long, 32.2 wide and 9.6 meters draught. The cruise ship also has a crew of 600 people.

The itinerary of the AidaBlu includes stops in different ports along the Atlantic Ocean and it specifically focuses on German tourists, although for some months of the year the passengers are mostly British.  Both countries already provide the most tourism to the Canary Islands.

This German ship is the second cruise ship to arrive to Tenerife in the season 2010 – 2011. The first one was the Independence of the Seas, which arrived in Tenerife last week. The capital of this island will receive about 28,000 tourists from cruise ships this month, especially from the AidaBlue, said Rodriguez Zaragoza.

Tenerife’s port is the leader in cruise visits to the Canary Islands. In 2009 it received 421,000 tourists from cruises and the goal this year is to reach 450,000 tourists. The next cruise that will be arriving at the island will be the “Costa Luminosa” during next week before the next arrival of the AidaBlu next Saturday.

http://www.eldia.es/2010-09-12/economia/economia8.htm

The Tenerife Beach Volleyball Champions Cup will be celebrated for the third consecutive year in this island from the 8th to the 10th of October at the Siam Park. This event is the most important professional beach volley tour in Europe.

This is one of the few beach volley championships celebrated in autumn, which makes Tenerife Island the perfect venue for this kind of event that has chosen this location to host the championship until the year 2012.

The Spanish Royal Volleyball Federation is in charge of the technical organization of the event under the direction of its president Agustín Martín Santos, who is an official master of the European Volleyball Confederation.

Eight two-person teams will be competing in the Tenerife Champions Cup master tournament. These teams represent the European champions and the best teams in the whole world, turning this tournament in one of the most important one within the international beach volley calendar.

The Spanish couple is formed by Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira, who are at the present moment located in the third place of the Beach Volleyball World Ranking. They ended in the second place the last two championships being defeated by the Dutch couple (European champions) in 2009 and the German team (world champions) in 2008.

Although they were considered the favorites to win the championship the last two years, they couldn’t win the cup, but this year they have said that they are determined to get over the trophy.

The list of winners of the previous Tenerife Champions Cup editions is the following: 2007 – Russian Federation with the team formed by Prokopiev-Kosharev; 2008 – Germany with the team formed by Reckermann-Urbatzka; 2009 – Holland with the team formed by Nummerdor-Schuil.

The Council of Tenerife is taking into account to provide a permanent location to some of the stands of the travelling craftworks exhibition. The participation of the stands in the main fairs would be free of charge as now, but the artists shall contribute in some events.

The goal of this measure is to increase the sales of the craftsmen from Tenerife, and for that purpose the insular council is working on a series of actions to improve and broaden the shops’ network that sell craftwork in the island. This information was provided by the councillor to the Economic Development, Commerce and Employment Department within the insular Council, Efraín Medina.

In relation to this, “it is being considered that some of the 34 stands that take part of the travelling exhibition could have a permanent location in several municipalities of the island. This way, each municipality could have a sales point for their local craftsmen’ work”, said Medina. He added that “in fact, some municipalities have already shown their interest in taking part of this initiative”.

However, the councillor explained that “our goal is that independently of this initiative, the travelling exhibition keeps functioning”. To this respect, Medina said that “the experiences we have had to the present moment have been more than satisfactory, and although the schedule is not completely arranged yet, we have had contacts to bring the travelling exhibition to Adeje, Icod de los Vinos, San Miguel de Abona, Candelaria, Tegueste and new dates in La Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife”.
He also made clear that “we are not planning to extend this travelling exhibition all over the year and we don’t want to compete with local craftworks fairs”.

The councillor explained that the costs to provide craftsmen a permanent location are high and for that reason they need the economic support of the insular council and each town council as well as the craftsmen that would take part in this project, although their contribution would be minimal.
With this regard, he commented that this decision would not affect the functioning of the main local fairs such as the “tricontinental” that will take place at the end of October in Puerto de la Cruz, but the craftsmen that obtain a permanent shop shall pay to participate of these exhibitions”.
Likewise, the councillor said that “at the beginning, the craftsmen community of the travelling exhibition was reluctant to accept this project, but now they are optimistic about it. We have also taken into consideration that in the future, the management of the permanent stands could be managed directly by the craftsmen”.

On the other hand, the president of the Insular Craftworks Company within the Council of Tenerife has finished the remodelling works of the kiosk located at the fishing dock in Puerto de la Cruz, and they have made improvements in the facades of the ones located in Plaza de España and Playa de las Américas, which complete remodelling will be done soon.
The remodelling works of these kiosks are noticeable. As a result of these actions, the sales of the kiosk located in Puerto de la Cruz in July were higher than the total of 2009, which would mean an increase of 70% by the end of the year.

In addition to this, Medina said that “the sales of the first three months of 2010 in the shops’ network “Artenerife” have reached 182,000 Euros. Likewise, he said that “we are negotiating with the Council of Arona to open a new kiosk in one of the main tourist areas of this municipality”.
In addition to these initiatives, about a dozen hospitality businesses of the island have cooperated with the project placing stands in their halls to exhibit local craftworks, which have been successful with tourists, specially the ceramics and jewellery pieces. Right now the hotels that are participating in this exhibition are: Meliá Puerto de la Cruz, Turquesa, El Diamante, Beatriz and Orotava Palace in the north of the island. Likewise the Señorío del Valle hotel in Santiago del Teide, the Villalba Hotel in Vilaflor, and the hotels Esmeralda, La Pinta and Conquistador in the south of the island. On the other hand, the council has been negotiating with some wineries such as Monge and El Lomo to exhibit craftworks in their facilities too.

The Council of Adeje in Tenerife Island, through the local development department in association with the renowned chef, Victor Rocha, has organized an appetizers (“tapas”) contest entitled “Adeje se des-tapa”. Pubs and restaurants from this municipality located in the neighbourhoods of La Postura and Los Olivos, will participate in this event.
This contest is developed as part of the activities that will be carried out in the framework of the upcoming pilgrimage to the Virgin of the Incarnation in this town. The goal of this contest is to “promote and reveal the richness of our gastronomy and the restaurants and pubs of these neighbourhoods”, said the councilman in charge of the event’s organization, Ermitas Moreira.

The “tapas” contest will start the 10th of September and will end the 25th of September with the arrival of the Virgin’s image to the town. That day it will take place the closure of the contest with the awards ceremony, and a food tasting festival at the Los Olivos square.

Apart from this appetizers contest, the Council of Adeje has organized a series of complementary activities related to gastronomy such as the shooting of a live TV show the 18th of September at the fresh market of this town that will be called “Cocinando por la Vida”, and a Cook Show the 20th of September presented by Victor Rocha called “Piérdele el miedo a la cocina” that will be shot at Los Olivos square. Several chefs will participate in these shows presenting easy and fast recipes that will entertain the audience using local products. “Innovation and creativity have a major role in these events that are intended to promote local high quality cuisine using fresh local products to boost our gastronomy”, said Moreira.

The roller hockey team from Tenerife ‘Patín Tenerife’ will be competing in the main Spanish roller hockey championship and they will also attend the CERS Cup championship thanks to the sponsorship of BuyVip.com, leader in ecommerce.

This way, sponsored by BuyVip.com, Patín Tenerife will be competing next 2nd of October in La Coruña, Spain, where they will be facing the local team.

The founder member of buyVip.com, Gustavo García Brusiovsky, said that “we are happy to celebrate the arrival of our company to the Canary Islands in such a special way. We know that the Club Patín is popular in the islands and with our sponsorship we expect to contribute with the team to keep playing and wining championships”.

The president of this roller hockey team from Tenerife, José Federico Almenar, said that “we are grateful to BuyVip.com for their contribution to the club. Thanks to their sponsorship we will be able to compete in the main roller hockey league in Spanish and in the CERS Cup”.
The BuyVip.com – Patín Tenerife team is training now under the supervision of the coach Mateo de Ramón, who has programmed double training sessions for the four first weeks at the stadium and the training centre.
The team will count with nine players (Ángel Rodríguez, Marc Coy, Gerardo Illa, Gonzalo Gómez, Pablo Saavedra – new member , David Molina, Marc Soler, Xavi Costa and David Ferro) and two goal keepers (Eddy Nicoletti and Toni Marín). The team is also waiting for two additional players who are coming from Argentina.

In the 2007-2008 seasons, Patín Tenerife Club was champion of the CERS Cup organized by CERH which final was played in France.

The fashion companies from Tenerife ‘Moda By Lu’ and ‘Morena Mía’ will participate from the 2nd to the 4th of September in the ‘Madrid International Fashion Fair 2010’ which is considered one of the two most important fashion fairs in Europe. Likewise, the brands ‘Roselinde’ and ‘Magdala’ from this island will be taking part in the international fashion jewellery and accessories fair ‘Bisutex Madrid 2010’.

Besides, the winner of the second edition of the new designer’s contest of Tenerife, Oswaldo Marchín will attend this edition of the Madrid International Fashion Fair together with other 12 new designers in the “Ego” space that will exhibit the creativity of the new Spanish fashion designers.
On the other hand, the brands ‘Roselinde’ y ‘Magdala’ from Tenerife will be participating in the international fashion jewellery and accessories fair – Bisutex Madrid 2010 that brings the opportunity for fashion jewels and accessories designers to exhibit their creations. This sector of the fashion industry has had a huge development in the last decade, having achieved an outstanding place in the fashions world.
The participation of Tenerife in these events is part of the strategy the Council of Tenerife is developing to provide new job opportunities for local fashion designers and to open Tenerife’ fashion brands to new markets.

The Canary Squash Federation takes up again its activities calendar in September with great deal of work at the headquarters and the clubs.
Next weekend it will take place the Canary Seniors Championship at the Tenisur Club in Playa de las Américas, Tenerife. This championship will be the first event after the holiday’s season.

From 9th to 12th of September, it will be celebrated in Vigo the Spanish Autonomous Communities Championship, where the Canary Islands will compete for the first place with Catalonia, Galicia and Valencia.
The last week of September, the facilities of the Tenerife Top Training club in Costa Adeje, Tenerife, will host the Canary Absolute Championship, a competition category 2 within the Spanish Squash Tour.

In addition to these activities, next Wednesday will be the official starting date for the elections campaign of the Canary Squash Federation board members for the period 2010 – 2014. The elections period will conclude at the end of October.

During October, November and December, the activities will include the Cabildo de Tenerife Championship, the Spanish Juniors Championship and the main dish will be the 8th edition of the Islas Canarias International Open.