Brussels, 26 April 2022 -  This week in Brussels, the Cabildo Fuerteventura Tourism Council, Diplomatic World, PropTech and Finnova met in Brussels to establish joint lines of cooperation and take advantage of all the opportunities in terms of transforming the tourism sector, in which Fuerteventura represents 80%. Each of the organisations has shared the potential of the territory to become the living laboratory of projects in renewable energies, energy efficiency and sustainable and smart tourism through Nextalentgeneration other funds. 

The Councillor for Tourism of Fuerteventura, Jessica León, accompanied by her team José Ramón Rodríguez and Juan José Cabrera, has shared with Bárbara Dietrich and Jean Aznar, President and Secretary General respectively of Diplomatic World the needs of the territory. The Canary Islands are one of the most demanded tourist destinations in Europe and the challenges in sustainability are greater. For this reason, Diplomatic World has proposed to provide the hotels of Fuerteventura with a patented energy transformer equipment E-Power, manufactured in Europe, which will allow an effective saving of 7% of electricity per year.

Councillor León also expressed her interest and commitment to young people as a fundamental part of her work in the region, to which the general director of the Finnova Foundation, Juan Manuel Revuelta, expressed his organisation's commitment to training young people through the Nextalentgeneration cluster. Furthermore, in this European Year of Youth, within the professional tourism sector, Revuelta proposed the training of young designers of new materials that respond to the needs of the region in the field of digitisation and sustainability. To this end, the European Union is making available the ERASMUS+ funding programme, which celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2022. 

One of the funding programmes for Fuerteventura to achieve its environmental objectives in the tourism sector is LIFE nature. With 30 years this 2022, it is the first leading financial instrument of the European Commission. With a budget of 5,400 million euros, it can be used to finance projects that will respond to the challenges facing the Isla de Lobos and the Fuerteventura biosphere reserve, exploring possibilities for prevention in the fight against climate change with the aim of making it a neutral tourist destination. 

The cooperation of these projects will help to reduce the costs arising from the energy crisis and explore new opportunities for the circular economy in line with funds such as those proposed by Interreg MAC, in which the Cabildo participates. 

In the second half of 2023, during the Spanish presidency, the africagua international congress will take place in Fuerteventura. This meeting point will be key for the Canary Biosphere Island to achieve certification as a sustainable destination and make visible its interest in the implementation of good practices and innovative technologies for hotels proposed by the president of PropTech Dirk Paelinck. 

This entity has launched a European startup competition to capture the most disruptive ideas that address the challenges of climate change in the real estate sector, which could be implemented as pilot projects with European funds.