Roses and Canet de Rosselló lay the foundations for cross-border collaboration in tourism and economic development
Roses hosted this Thursday the institutional visit of a delegation from the City Council of Canet de Rosselló and businessmen from the northern Catalan municipality, in a meeting promoted by the Roses-Cap de Creus Businessmen Association with the aim of exchanging experiences and knowledge in the field of municipal management, economic development and tourism.
The delegation was headed by the mayor of Canet de Rosselló, Stéphane Loda , and included Bernard Vial , a lawyer specializing in real estate law and urban planning and president of the ESH; Roger Pla, manager of the Le Brasilia campsite, one of the most important in France; Nicolas Fabre , general manager of Canet Services, and businessman Michel Fruitet . On behalf of Roses, the mayor, Josep Maria Martínez , the first deputy mayor and councilor for Economic Promotion and Tourism, Fèlix Llorens , the councilor for Culture and Festivities, Sílvia Ripoll, and the president of the Roses-Cap de Creus Businessmen Association, Miquel Gotanegra.
During the meeting, Miquel Gotanegra highlighted that "this meeting has served to sow the seeds of a cross-border collaboration between Roses and Canet", noting that these are two municipalities with very similar characteristics and a tourism model, which multiply their population by five during the summer season" . Gotanegra highlighted the public-private collaboration model of Roses and stressed the importance of creating joint working groups to share challenges and solutions in areas such as water management, risks, social sustainability and nature tourism.
The president of the association also pointed out that this collaboration can strengthen the competitiveness of the two destinations, favoring the mobility of tourists between Canet and Roses and promoting local tourism. In this sense, he highlighted the key role of the marina and sports activities in the Bay of Roses as driving elements of off-season tourism, as well as the desire to work together with Canet on sustainable and nature tourism projects, with the complicity of the Ministry of Climate Action. Some of these projects, already underway in the camping sector in Girona, could extend to Catalonia and Occitania.
The mayor of Roses, Josep Maria Martínez, thanked the initiative of the Businessmen's Association and highlighted that "the City Council stands by the private sector, collaborates, provides resources and is a traveling companion". Martínez highlighted the numerous similarities between Roses and Canet, both for their maritime character and for their heritage, history, port and projects linked to water and natural spaces, and expressed his desire to materialize these similarities in common projects in future meetings.
For his part, the mayor of Canet de Rosselló, Stéphane Loda, highlighted "the importance of generating synergies to work together in areas such as the port, tourism, extending the season, water management and the protection of natural spaces" . Along the same lines, Roger Pla noted that business people share concerns for the future and that it is key to "go together and work together in the economic and political world" in the face of common challenges.
The day included a visit to the Roses marina, considered the best-rated port in Catalonia and one of the main entry points for French tourism into the country, with 90% of clientele coming from France during the summer season.
As part of the visit, the Roses City Council presented the Mayor of Canet de Rosselló with the Roses Drachma and a book on the history of the municipality, a collection of old documents prepared by the Municipal Archives.
