Many were surprised this Monday that the budgets of the Generalitat Valenciana for 2024 meant a cut in investment for tourism promotion, mainly because the Valencian Administration integrated Tourism into a Department when it previously had the rank of autonomous secretariat - attached to the Presidency, yes - and, mainly, because its councilor Nuria Montes comes from the hotel sector and has extensive experience in the tourism sector.
However, yesterday Montes wanted to highlight that this budget reduction in tourism "is simply due to one reason and that is that all those things that were not tourism have been eliminated from the tourism budget." The accounts reduce the contribution of Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, which goes from 94,995,000 to 74,520,000 euros, a drop of 21.5%. And Montes explained that his "is a Department basically of industries and companies." That is why expenses on events such as the Davis Cup, which is transferred to Culture and Sports, have been removed from its items, or there have been cuts of up to three million euros in the Travel Bonus, since Ministry sources recall that this was a tool created in pandemic and now it will be transformed to deseasonalize tourism, the great challenge of the sector.
It is in the budgets where this path is observed, already proposed and outlined by Montes in his first parliamentary appearance. The budgets allocate 51.5 million euros in aid to the Strategy for the Reindustrialization of the Valencian Community with the aim of improving the competitiveness and sustainability of industrial sectors, clusters and industrial areas. It represents an increase of almost five million for Valencian industrial policy, since the previous budgets included 46.5 million euros for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Valencian Industry.
It also shows an interest in promoting driving companies. "It has been business criteria that have presided over the definition of the budget for the year 2024," said yesterday the councilor, whose department increases the allocation of strategic projects in competitive competition, going from four million to ten million, 150% more for the traction of new strategic investment projects in the Valencian Community.
In fact, Ford, Stadler or PowerCO are in the new Valencian accounts. The first will receive 7 million for R D i projects and initiatives for the electrification of vehicles; the second, another 4 million euros in direct aid to support the acceleration of environmental improvement and energy efficiency in the train and transport machinery manufacturing sector and the third, another three million to contribute to the financing of the boost to specialized training for battery manufacturing.
Also the Juan Carlos I Industrial Park, located in Almussafes, will receive 1.5 million for infrastructure modernization, although nothing compared to the Espacios Economicos Empresariales, S.L., the entity that manages Parc Sagunt and Parc Sagunt II. In the latest Botànic budgets, investments in the Almussafes industrial park were quantified at 400,010 euros and EEE SL obtained a budget of 13.40 million euros.
Likewise, the Innovation Department will contribute 175 million euros to promote the culture of innovation in the university students of the five Valencian public universities; 15.1 million for the internationalization of Valencian exporting SMEs and another four million for the promotion of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Valencian Community. Likewise, a line of 80,000 euros is included to the Energy Technology Institute (ITE) to "provide support for the coordination of the Valencian Battery Alliance and the Community's renewable hydrogen strategy."
