The trail reinvents itself in empty Spain

An innovative project in the middle of nature is the new bet of Royal Spanish Athletics Federationwhich aims to combine sports and tourism in rural and mountainous areas in State Network of Permanent Trail Running Facilities.

through Trail50 Plan, the RFEA is responding to growing demand from trail runners, who, according to a 2021 report from the International Association of Trail Running (ITRA)there are already twenty million practitioners, and post-pandemic growth has increased dramatically in countries such as Spain.

To respond to this request in an organized way, and not intentionally combine sports and tourism to promote natural regions and attractive towns, the State Network of Permanent Trail Running Facilities. This is an initiative of RFEA and Trail Running Center to help revive the so-called ‘Empty Spain’.

In sum, the Grid It has 29 centers (15 completed and 14 pending opening by 2023) and more than 100 permanent circuits for trail running. All have common signage throughout. Spain and they combine a great technical and landscape variety: high, medium and low mountains, forests and plains, and marshland, dunes and beaches.

“We want to promote the healthy practice of sports, tourism and gastronomy”, said Raúl Chapado, president of the RFEA, assuring that the challenge in the future is to “add more centers, until we reach one in each province, and build a platform network that connects everyone and is promoted throughout the country and internationally to also attract people from outside Spain”.

The main proponent of the project is Alex Solisdirector of the Trail Running Center, who, as he declared to EFE, is clear that “athletes have to leave the asphalt and the stadiums.”

“A few years ago we realized that more and more people were running in the mountains but the necessary infrastructure could not be found. Today, each center will find a facility ready to respond to their requests with parking, ticket office, changing rooms and services to prepare the route before the run.”

For this reception center is used tourist sites and facilities already exist as sports centers, multidisciplinary buildings, youth hostels or tourist accommodation.

“The promoters, usually public administrations such as town halls or councils, undertake to maintain the centers, and we advise on the type of circuit and we deal with technical issues and environmental permits,” declared he. Solis.

This innovative project is supported by Superior Sports Council. “We must promote the wonderful environmental conditions in Spain because these trail centers are a tribute to the towns and residents of these municipalities. They are a great legacy for future generations because they try they will also solve one of the great problems in Spain, the demographic challenge”, declared José Manuel Franco, Secretary of State for Sports.

SPORTS TOURISM, ON THE BOOM

According to him Sports Statistics Yearbook of the Higher Sports Council, Spain It received 4.8 million sports tourists in 2021, 27% more than in 2020, but still 61% less than 12.6 million in 2019.

The type of trip is 64% sports practice by 36% of the public at a sporting event and traveler spending reached 2.41 million euros, 37% higher than in 2020 but still lower than 67% in 2019. if where the sum of practitioners and spectators exceeded 7.35 million euros.

The importance of international tourists is very important in terms of quality, according to the report presented in FITUR Sports Summit. In 2021, while 79% of sports tourists are from Spain, in terms of spending, foreign tourists (21%) generated half, 50% of the total. In 2019, 33% of sports tourists were international, accounting for 68% of total sports tourism spending in Spain.

PROMOTION OF RURAL TOURISM

The state network of trail centers aims to create a coherent fabric of facilities that allows its promoters to share goals, initiatives and experiences, and encourages users to participate in sports forums, technical training, exchange and special sports trips.

For affiliate sponsors, the Grid This means being a reference destination for training non-competitive trail running in Spain, linking the territory to important national brands of nature tourist destinations and linking the territory to an innovative tourism-sports project in Spain.

Today, the network interconnection unites important tourist brands such as Ribeira Sacra, Sierra Nevada, Sierra de Guadarrama or Sierra Morena.

An example of new trail centers is that of Allepuzin the Sierra del Maestrazgo de Teruel, a municipality with just over a hundred registered inhabitants.

“The elders designed the old tracks and cleared the land with their own hands. Since the layout is done, these people meet at sunset to walk on those tracks and that is the spirit of what we want, beyond the practice of sports” , underlines Plated.

Ismael Gil, mayor of Abrucena, announced that as a result of the creation of the center, a restaurant, a recreational area with barbecue and a free area for camping and toilet services will open. “What is being sought is to promote sports tourism and help fight depopulation. In our case, sports, culture and the use of natural resources are combined.”

Jose Maria VijuescaMayor of Year of Moncayoa town with 212 inhabitants in the province of Zaragoza, defines that this project means giving “a level of quality” to the town, “filling it on weekends and being able to carry out unique organized tours such as one which rises. on the top of Moncayo”.

Another representative of this project, Isabel María Bausan, councilor of Linaresa municipality in Jaén with 56,000 inhabitants, admits that they chose this trail center to enhance the natural landscape of the mining that they have and “link sport with tourism to publicize the area but also the museums or the gastronomic tapas route”.

Central provinces

1. A Coruña (Honey)
2. Lugo (Folgoso do Courel)
3. Pontevedra (Pardanta County)
4. Ourense (Castro Caldelas)
5. Asturias (Cangas de Onis)
6. Leon (Villablino), Zamora (Porto de Sanabria)
7. Palencia (Fuentes Carrionas – Mount Palencia)
8. Cantabria (Branches of victory)
9. Burgos (Regumiel de la Sierra – Muñalba)
10. Soria (Quintana Redonda)
11. Navarre (Montejurra – Bizi)
12. Zaragoza (Moncayo Year)
13. Huesca (Borau-Aragonese Pyrenees)
14. Teruel (Allepuz)
15. Castellón (La Todolella)
16. Valencia (Gandia)
17. Alicante (La Nucia)
18. Madrid (Los Molinos)
19. Cáceres (Jerte Valley)
20. Ciudad Real (Campo de Calatrava)
21. Córdoba (Villaviciosa de Córdoba-Sierra Morena)
22. Jaen (Linares)
23. Huelva (Aracena)
24. Malaga (Montecorto – Serrania de Ronda)
25. Almeria (Abrucena – Sierra Nevada)
26. The island of La Palma (Reventón-El Paso)