Throughout history, La Orotava valley has had a major fascination for travelers and visitors to disembark on the island of Tenerife. This interest has been based mainly on the spectacular landscape and natural conditions of the territory.
In his travels and voyages of discovery, multitude of figures relevant to European history and culture have passed through the north of Tenerife on the occasion of his stay on the island. Desde Humboldt, Book of y Darwin, from the scientific, a Richard Burton, between the explorers and adventurers, have had in their texts Canarian experience passing through this landscape, magnifying the peculiarities of the place.
Widespread travel habit that develops from the eighteenth century between layers with broader European population, first among the most educated of the aristocracy and then democratized and reach large segments of the bourgeoisie, Canary makes a target for commuting, although initially presenting an attractive secondary to other locations with most important cultural profiles and charm. The Grand Tour costumbre, the journey of initiation and knowledge of the places where we find the cultural foundations and develop scientific knowledge of the Enlightenment is the antecedent of mass tourism as known later in the second half of the twentieth century.
In this context, the valley of La Orotava and in particular the Puerto de la Cruz has had a prominent role as travel experience of many Central European and Anglo-Saxon characters.
With the destruction of the port of Garachico in the eighteenth century, a result of a volcanic eruption, Puerto de la Cruz became the main port of the island serving as the basis for a flourishing trade in fruit and wine. According to several authors the first hikers came to the island on board steamers fruit companies. It was the forerunner of the important tourist activity that would develop in later centuries.
Area Davit The Penitent
German hikers with local children (1906)
German Couple Martianez Beach (1906)
From this attractive identifying generic, Puerto de la Cruz experienced a very important development in the early decades of the last century which led to the emergence of some hotel facilities, as hotels and Taoro Marquesa, which served as a shelter for the first waves of travelers who came to learn about the natural wonders and take advantage of the excellent conditions of the area for therapeutic bathing in the sea. These healing benefits spread throughout Europe which made the frequent visit proliferate people coming from abroad. Thus the Puerto de la Cruz left behind their business, motivated by the crisis in the export of wine and cochineal as well as the development of the port of Santa Cruz, to qualify the tourism phenomenon definitely. It would become, according to many authors, the first Spanish resort town.
Hotel Taoro
View Martianez beach next to the banana plantation
The appearance in the years 60 intensive air transport and annual holidays among large sections of the European working population consolidated significant expectations regarding the possibility of attracting mass tourism Canary from the north of the continent. In Puerto de la Cruz, This fact resulted in the accelerated construction of city parts and new infrastructure to accommodate increasing visitor groups seeking relief based on the bathroom and sunlight.
The Beatles during their stay in the Valley of La Orotava (1963)
Camels as a tourist attraction in the Plaza del Charco
Bañistas on the beach of Martiánez
Entire areas of Puerto de la Cruz were built with fast following a model too developmentalist, own mass tourism. This is the case Martíanez peninsula and successive developments of La Paz in the urban upper. However, the characteristic of Puerto de la Cruz and the whole of the Orotava valley along its development as a tourist destination has been the mix of infrastructure alojativas with residential buildings, forming some urban areas in which predominates a high rate of local population, being, moreover, this feature one of its main attractions for regular and occasional users.
Promotional Postcard years 70 with the hotels in the hills of Martíanez
Today it is a tourist destination in a worrying decline mainly due to the threat posed some territorial deals positioned on better alternatives that have been popping up in recent years. The Orotava Valley is, nowadays, a mature destination that just grows and, also, facing competition within the archipelago from other areas with modern infrastructure as well as other tourist regions related to the European continent that offer the same resources to the tourism of sun and beach about lower prices and more aggressive in their .
Current state of infrastructure in the peninsula hotel Martianez
For all these reasons we believe that the Puerto de la Cruz in the framework of the Orotava Valley needs a redefinition of resources to offer the visitor, undertaken owing to a strategic reorientation towards a specific tourism that encourages general renovation of this tourist destination. This renewal must be undertaken by a hand through the requalification of public space and tourist resources to support the activity, and secondly the hotel infrastructure rehabilitation and existing private alojativas.
Logically, the basis of the above should focus on extensive research and cataloging of the natural, historical, ethnographic and cultural place that can document in a sexy way theming that can be offered in this case.
Martianez Lake designed by Cesar Manrique along Columbus Avenue GBGV renovated by architects
(Text from the prologue of the work done by CPPA to the Deputy Ministry of Tourism title: Tourist Establishments. Proposed Actions for the Rehabilitation edificatoria. Area of Puerto de la Cruz)
I hardly remember the work we did. Was almost 6 Pilar years even when he was Minister of Tourism.
It's been forever and the Port remains the same: in its collective slumber.
It may be logical what happens, although it remains an unpolished gem.
I totally agree on the urgent need for a comprehensive renovation of the Port, provilegiado is a place that needs to adapt to the new century and the new needs of both foreign visitors and local.
How many things did not know…Thanks
Almost 6 years of that work and the situation of the Port not to stay the same, but unfortunately has gotten worse. Coincidentally, the crisis in the tourism industry of Puerto de la Cruz with the economic crisis we are experiencing. This, mournfully, is reflected in the closure of hotels that we see today, or failing, in the decrepitude of many tourist establishments, significantly worsen the image of this destination.