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  Madera Tourist Development Plan

Bruno Camacho PEREIRA - General Director, Secretary general of Tourism and Culture for region of Madera, Funchal, Portugal

 

 

Madera tourism is experiencing a crucial situation – I would even say a significant shift – with the completion of a Toursit Development Plan.

The dynamics created in the past two decades has fostered a social, economic and cultural growth without precedence.

Assessing the present allows us to see that the Region has completed a growth cycle, especially marked by significant investment efforts in human resources skills and infrastructure improvement, including inland and outside accessibility.

Allow me to highlight the excellent work performed in the area of Environment and Conservation of Nature.

The efforts dedicated to the conservation of our valuable natural heritage received the best recognition with the registration of the “Laurissilva” forest to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list. Keeping in mind the mutual dependence of Tourism and Environment, this recognition brings a significant value to our travel offering.

Ladies and Gentlemen: the assessment of the recent past is especially important when it comes to making decisions related to our future.

Detailing the WTO forecasts for the next twenty years would be beyond the scope of this presentation. However, it is important to emphasize that the expected growth of the sector is highly positive.

The tourism industry will rank first in the worldwide economy, whether in terms of generated revenue volume or number of created jobs.

As a result, we may assert that tourism generates, and will generate wealth and create jobs. However, it will also keep populations in rural areas, and retain popular habits, traditions and cultures that otherwise would be lost over time.

It is equally important to view Tourism and the Environment as two interconnected areas. Tourism should help justify – and if possible – fund the conservation and recovery of important natural areas likely to turn into landmarks as part of our tourism offering.

More and more, Natural and Cultural Heritage will form the elements that will set apart each travel destination.

Ladies and Gentlemen: tourism data in the Region are promising. In 2000, about 750,000 tourists entered the Region, up to 40% from 1995.

The satisfaction level of our customers is high, and the key features of our travel destination lie in the landscape, climate, flowers, friendly people and high-quality.services. The most important indicator of the satisfaction level of tourists is the number of visitors who return in the Region: according to a survey led at Madera Airport, 25 % of the customers already visited Madera.

According to a 1999 survey, tourism directly increased its contribution to the local economy, resulting in direct, global impacts on the GDP of about 25 to 30 %. 12 to 15 % of existing jobs are directly attributed to tourism.

Very briefly, we can say that Tourism represents at least one fourth of the local economy, and this trend, far from being steady, is very much likely to go up.

At the end of the year 2000, running tourist facilities had a total of 24,520 beds, up 43 % in hosting capacity from 1995.

This unmatched increase could result in a growth crisis.

The strongest growth of supply compared to the demand, implying lower occupancy rates, overbuilding other than for tourism purposes, the lack of country and city planning, possible weaknesses in the skilled workforce, and the necessary reliance on importation, the overloading of poorly arranged tourist landmarks, are all cases that require consideration and appropriate, instant decision making.

Given the weakness of other economic sectors, since there is no requirement to support private investments in the sector, and since it is not desirable to slow down the startup dynamics brought by tourism in the local economy, it became essential to clarify the assumptions of the tourism policy and the various tools that enable a sustainable growth of tourism and its territory management. It is with this in mind that the TDP of the Independent region of Madera has been drawn.

The objective was to design a regional and territorial planning tool to manage tourism growth by leveraging opportunities and tracking devaluation risks for the travel destination.

• The TDP will therefore be a tool used in the local policy, its main objective is the following :

The sustainable growth of tourism combined with the development of the Independent Region of Madera and the conservation and recognition of the traditional quality of Madera as a travel destination.

Faced with the various growth hypotheses put forward, a Tourism Growth Scenario has been selected. It is focused on a Tourism and Territory Model based on the following items :

(i) Monitoring of growth rates for the offering in terms of accommodation for the 2000-2010 time period, to limit it to 38,000 beds (35,000 for Madera and 3,000 for Porto Santo) ;

(ii) Territorial decentralization of the offering in terms of accommodation, including East & West coasts, by setting boundaries to its growth.

(iii) Setting criteria for the approval of projects focused on diversification of typologies and local tourist products (rural tourism, bed & breakfasts, lodges, small hotel units in urban areas and in the country, Madera “quintas”) ;

(iv) Securing and rehabilitating the hotel offering in Funchal and Caniço;.(v) Repositioning the inside of the island and the North coast within the tourist and recreational offering by developing endogenous resources and improving the regulation of landscape use processes, through the diversification and the reorganization of tours. Regarding this matter, the following should be noted :

• The Natural Park, one of the main drives for rejuvenating tourism, where the “Laurissivla” was recently registered on the World Heritage list, is seen as one of the main tourist attractions ;
• The coastal landscape, developed with road and pedestrian tours.

(vi) Development of sea activities as a tourist and recreational resource, with a huge load capacity ;

(vii) Positioning of Funchal as a major urban and tourist center of Madera as well as main connection to the sea ;

(viii) Scheduling of public investments in accordance with structuring projects and priorities set in the TDP (Tourist Development Plan) in order to meet created needs, and direct and complete private investments, especially through the coordination of investments planned in the TDP, with operations supported by the community, including POP RAM III.

The impact resulting from the Tourism and Territory Model can be summed up into the following :

(i) Natural Resources – Redirecting tourism to profit from resources in a more efficient way :

a. The sea, as a high capacity resource, currently underused ;
b. The creation/redesign of new landscape use such as the Natural Park / “Laurissilva”, through Trails and “Levadas” (irrigation canals).

(ii) Human Landscape / Farm Land – In the Region, tourism uses Natural and Human landscapes extensively. Giving up farming results in the deterioration of the landscape, a key feature in the travel destination and the Madera tourist product. Tourism may then become an energizing factor in the agriculture and the conservation of the human rural landscape. For this, we will need to combine tourist policies (landscape use) and farming policies.

(iii) Territory infrastructures – Water supply, sanitation, energy, and waste treatment. Recent investments related to these areas usually absorb the planned growth.

(iv) Road Network – The capacity of new accessibility in the Region is compatible with the planned growth. Through a new type of management, this accessibility will allow us to better manage loads at traditional interest points – view points, scenic routes, tourist supports.

(v) Human Resources – The need for improving the suitability of the Education and Training policy with new requirements is now recognized. The “Education for Tourism” campaigns conducted within schools to make young people aware of the issues, are included in this policy. In addition to efforts designed to achieve a stronger and more relevant training, a campaign will be led to develop tourism carriers.

(vi) Tourism and Real Estate – In the Region, in the past years, the real estate and building business have seen a strong growth, especially due to the improvement of inland accessibility that allows a significant repositioning in urban areas (configuration of new residential areas, diversification of markets and prices) and reflects today’s regional economic world where investment abilities and purchasing power are stronger.

(vii) In addition, a control of the growth rate for the tourist offering should definitely exist. For this, we will have to weigh, in each step, the positioning of the real estate business so that recreational real estate does not replace the hospitality business by making beds available in the informal market, a factor that could disturb the current steadiness of the travel Destination.

Finally, let me mention that the TDP is designed to make the present viable, while planning ahead and anticipating future challenges.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Tourism is a “private matter with public interest” that arises from its known ability to nurture growth, especially in regions with low economic resources, such as the Madera Region. The task at hand for the next years is therefore a challenge for all public and private players in the tourism industry.