SEVILLE
Shared Seville
Being the fourth largest city in Spain (688.592 inhabitants), Seville is the third most visited urban tourism destination. More than 2.9 million visitors stayed in hotels & tourist accommodations (6.7 million overnight stays) in 2019, representing the Spanish city with the highest growth (10% as average). Accommodation facilities grew by 69% between 2005-2019.
Seville has been a consolidated destination and welcomes international visitors since the 19th century.
Seville has an extraordinarily strong identity built over time, a recognized cultural heritage of excellent quality and an attractive lifestyle open to visitors. Its historic center is one of the largest in Europe carefully protected and acknowledged by three UNESCO World Heritage Declarations :
Seville’s Cathedral and Alcazar, exceptional testimonies to the civilization of the Almohad and Christian Andalusia with the Giralda minaret as the masterpiece of Almohad architecture, and Archivo de Indias, a heritage of the strong links of the city with America. Ethnographic resources such as Easter celebrations and Feria de Abril (6,3M citizens/visitors and 1260M € economic impact), both recognized as festivals of International Tourist Interest; and Flamenco are highly demanded worldwide. Neighborhoods like Santa Cruz (the old Jewish quarter) and Triana are an attractive demonstration of real resident’s life.
Seville concentrates the highest number of companies from the services sector in Andalusia. Tourism represents 18% of the GDP directly although the indirect dependency is much higher with 25% of Seville´s citizens living from tourism.
This importance is strongly reflected in the city’s urban strategy in which city challenges are deeply related to the urban sustainable tourism model. “Shared and common city” is the core claim of the Strategy Seville 2030, the city shares its identity, expressing itself through celebrations and life habits located at public spaces. This claim highlights sustainable tourism as one of Seville’s priorities with citizens wellbeing at the center.
The strategy makes social, economic and environmental sustainability as the engine of tourism development while facing urban challenges coherently. Seville scored the second highest (after Sydney) in terms of Environmental Readiness according to the last JLL & WTTC report, exhibiting Seville’s performance in sustainability policies for tourism growth. Seville is member of the Smart Tourist Destinations Network in Spain (Segittur), participates actively in international events related to urban sustainable tourism and is a member of the Spanish Intelligent Cities Network (RECI).
Seville presents this candidacy willing to share its readiness for a new age of tourism where citizens and tourists share the city values and attractions. Seville was the first city to prepare a plan (Plan 8: Tourism Impact Seville) to recover from COVID-19 and grow sustainably and benefiting local communities and travelers. The documents that are part of Seville’s candidacy compile measures addressing the 4 required categories with the sharing city claim:
Accessibility: sharing public space, heritage and lifestyle with visitors and making tourism respectful, frictionless, safe, and decongested in an inclusive way.
Sustainability: sharing awareness with visitors to generate a positive impact on economy and protect employment quality.
Digitalization: sharing information and tools with visitors to improve their digital experience as if they were residents,
Creativity & cultural heritage: sharing a broader narrative of the city by expanding and diversifying the visitor experience to new areas of the city.
SEVILLE IN FIGURES
National pilot project where sustainability indicex (environmental, social and economic) are measured. This project has been carried out in collaboration with Mabrian and Mastercard.
Through the cross-referencing of twenty-six different KPi, are obtained some Tourism Sustainability Index which are applicable and comparable with any destination in the world.
