I am a prototypical Catalan, my mother was born in Berja, Almería and my paternal grandmother in Alcaine, a beautiful town in the province of Teruel. I am telling you, because as a native I have wanted to support the Teruel initiative. It exists admitted for processing in Congress so that bars, taverns, inns, eating houses, small businesses, restaurants and street vendors in towns with few inhabitants as social economy companies.
The argument behind the proposal is clear, all human communities -whether large or small- require, in addition to food and services, spaces for socialization. Those who know me know that I have been rattling about the social function of these establishments for many years now. I defend its importance for community health based not only on direct experience (what would I do without my Canigó Bar!) but also on scientific studies that allow it to be directly related to people's life expectancy, happiness and well-being.
In order to exist, in order not to become empty, to be viable, in addition to schools and health centers, towns and also neighborhoods need local commerce and restaurants to survive. Because we cannot and do not want to live in isolation and we need to interact with people of all ages in intergenerational spaces, where they accompany us and assist us in whatever is necessary in a normalized, human and non-stigmatizing relationship. And because this public-private collaboration is infinitely cheaper, more effective, friendly and tasty than it would be to set up a structure of official assistance services that would replace it to guarantee the basic rights of food, leisure and social relations of all citizens.
But the importance of our eating houses in the territorial balance goes even further. I ask my cousin Isabel, who was in Alcaine before the pandemic, if there is somewhere to eat in town. "Yes, of course, the Martín River Hostel, we ate delicious lamb there, by the way."
I look it up on the internet and, in addition to excellent comments about the reception and treatment, I verify that the hostel is the base of a proposal for sports activities in the natural environment and cultural tourism that attract visitors to the town and the region from whom the whole world wants, those who, due to their interests and dynamics, seek to know and enjoy local values from esteem and respect. My cousin insists on coming back soon, by the way.
The thousands of hostels, inns, hostels, hotels, taverns and restaurants scattered throughout the territory are interpretation centers of the local landscape, culture and gastronomy. They also act as essential connection nodes between visitors and the local food system that connects the network of agricultural producers and food artisans with the public, as was traumatically evidenced by the pandemic closure when, although distribution did not close, so many small producers saw truncated its marketing channel. And that's not only in small municipalities, mind you, but also in big cities.
As the vast majority of them are small companies, their capacity for dialogue with the administrations is low, as was also demonstrated during the pandemic, so that power tends to underestimate their enormous aggregate economic importance.
And there are still more. The hotel industry is the main source of information, consultation and prescription for visitors to the tourist destination. Since we are already beginning to understand that the algorithm that advises us online is not exactly a little sister of charity, nor is the indexing it shows us disinterested and random, asking the locals for advice on what to do, visit or buy is never in favor. further. A large part of the live interactions between visitors and natives take place with professionals in the sector, in these times when everything is mediated by an internet jungle where the law of the strongest rules.
Institutions and related agents have committed to the development of responsible tourism in our country. To ensure that it has the positive impact sought at an economic, ecological and social level in the territory, we also need to innovate to protect and energize a local hotel industry that, as you can see, is much more important than it seems.
