Cervezas Alhambra, the tour operator Vista Travel, the restaurant Los Naranjos and Orce, Tourism Awards Granada 2023

The Governing Board of the Provincial Tourism Board of the Granada Provincial Council, meeting today in extraordinary session, has unanimously approved the Granada Tourism Awards in its 2023 edition to Cervezas Alhambra, for being a hallmark of the province and for spreading its name nationally and internationally; to the Granada tour operator Vista Travel, for being one of the most solvent and reputable companies in the sector in Spain; to the Restaurant Los Naranjos de Melegís, for its 35-year commitment to quality traditional gastronomy; and to the Orce Town Council, for promoting the development of the municipality through heritage and tourism.

In addition, the Board of Trustees has agreed by majority to award a special mention to the Casa de Bernarda Alba Museum in Valderrubio.

The awards ceremony will be held on 28 April at the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada. The merits of the winners are as follows:

CATEGORY A: (To the person, company or institution that has distinguished itself for the dissemination or promotion at national or international level of the image and good name of the province of Granada as a tourist destination).

ALHAMBRA BEERS


The Prize is awarded at the proposal of the provincial deputy for Tourism, Enrique Medina.

Cervezas Alhambra is one of the most prestigious and well-established companies in Granada. Its commitment to craft brewing products of the highest quality has made it one of the most renowned and reputable brewers in Spain. Since its creation in 1925, the brand - which bears the name of the monument that makes the province world famous and attracts more than two million visitors each year - has established a firm and inseparable link with Granada. A commitment that has economic, social and cultural facets and that has been sewn with an emotional connection with the people of Granada, who recognise Cervezas Alhambra as a symbol of their own and with a designation of origin.

After almost a century of life, its beers are one of the hallmarks of Granada, they have taken the name of the city all over the world and have become, in themselves, one more attraction to visit the province. They are the perfect complement to the rich and varied local cuisine and the indispensable accompaniment to the famous tapas, a gastronomic and social ritual that every tourist should enjoy.

As the company itself explains in its 'Manifesto', its prestigious products are the result of know-how, experience, seduction, essence and tradition. The result is beers brewed without haste, to be tasted without haste, with time to enjoy and share. "Stop more, feel more" is a 'leit motiv' of Cervezas Alhambra that can be applied to many areas of life, including tourism and holidays. A destination like Granada deserves to be enjoyed with time and the five senses, because "without rushing you stop looking and start seeing".

CATEGORY B: (To the person, company or institution that has promoted the creation and sale of a new, attractive and successful commercial tourism product in the province of Granada).

TOUR OPERATOR VISTA TRAVEL


The Prize is awarded at the proposal of the provincial deputy for Tourism, Enrique Medina.

The Granada-based tour operator Vista Travel has been serving travel agencies throughout Spain for more than 30 years. Its manager, owner and alma mater is Ángel García, who has spent a lifetime dedicated to tourism. He is a great connoisseur of the tourism sector, both nationally and internationally. His solid professional training, his vision of the future, his ability to take risks in a considered manner and his commitment to his own technology have contributed to making his tourism company one of the most innovative, reputable and solvent in the country. In addition to these great qualities as an entrepreneur, he is also a person of good nature, with a capacity for dialogue and negotiation, and the empathy and trust he awakens in his clients.

Vista Travel is currently a medium-sized, independent tour operator, highly specialised in offering air fares, but also in packages for groups in the five continents, although with special availability in Europe and the United States. It has its own powerful dynamic package booking system, which, in a single search and transaction, allows you to combine a flight, at the best rate at the time, with other types of services, whether hotel, tours, transfers, insurance or tourist activities.

Its customers are agencies throughout Spain, to whom it supplies travel packages and especially scheduled and charter airline tickets. In addition to selling its products to retail agencies, Vista Travel has also demonstrated a strong commitment to the province of Granada as a tourist destination. In collaboration with the Provincial Tourist Board of the Provincial Council, in 2007 it launched and marketed a Federico García Lorca Route, which ran successfully for several years and enabled thousands of visitors to get to know Lorca's places and the life and work of the poet from Fuente Vaqueros.

CATEGORY C: (To the person, company or institution with a long professional or prestigious business career, dedicated to expanding and improving the tourism offer in the province of Granada).

LOS NARANJOS RESTAURANT


The Prize is awarded on the proposal of the Valle de Lecrín Window to the World Association.

Los Naranjos Rural Restaurant and Hostel, in Melegís, is a 35 year old business that has not stopped growing and diversifying its services to consolidate itself as a gastronomic reference in the province of Granada. Its traditional cuisine, of excellent quality and based on the products of the Lecrín Valley, attracts hundreds of people every weekend. The establishment is a place of pilgrimage for locals, tourists and for the large foreign population in the surrounding area.

The company was created in 1988 by the married couple José Antonio Vallejo and María del Mar Roldán, who left their jobs in hotels in Mallorca and decided to return to the land of their birth to open a modest village bar. Vallejo in the dining room and María del Mar in the kitchen were visionaries who knew how to see the potential of the then unknown Valle de Lecrín, so natural, so beautiful and so hidden from the eyes of tourism. Shortly afterwards they extended the restaurant and opened the hostel, establishments that have grown with successive renovations and today have a capacity for 200 diners, 40 places for accommodation and employ 20 people.

His two children María del Mar and José Manuel, who were only 5 years and a few months old respectively when he opened the establishment, are today the continuators of the family business, this time with the roles reversed, José Manuel in the kitchen and María del Mar in the dining room. Surrounded by orange and lemon trees, the restaurant's motto is 'Traditional cuisine in the best setting'. Its menu offers simple, tasty, ancestral, comforting recipes made with local, seasonal produce. From citrus fruits and vegetables from the surrounding orchards, meats from nearby suppliers and fish from the Costa Tropical, dishes such as orange and cod soak, migas, rabbit in Almohad sauce, kid with garlic, fried pumpkin with ajoarriero, thistle and fennel stew and mandarin mousse.

CATEGORY D: (To that local entity that has worked to enhance the value of a resource - cultural, natural or ethnographic - transforming it into an attractive tourist product that generates wealth for the territory and its population.).

ORCE TOWN COUNCIL


The Prize is awarded on the proposal of María Carmen Pérez Rodríguez.

In recent years, the Orce Town Council has made a firm commitment to the development of the municipality's heritage and tourism, which is also reflected in the development of the north of the province and the Granada Geopark. With its public work it is also encouraging private investment, favouring the creation of companies in rural areas that contribute to combating depopulation and give national and international projection to the territory.

The municipality has experienced a development based on a new economy rooted in the exploitation of its rich and varied heritage, scientific and cultural resources. These include the Alcazaba de las siete torres, a historical artistic monument that hosts cultural programmes and exhibition halls; the Palacio de los Segura, restored by the town council to house a Museum of Popular Arts and Customs in the near future; the Church of Santa María, in whose restoration the town council has also collaborated; the Fuencaliente spring, publicly maintained as a space for leisure and recreation; and the cave districts, where the town council has encouraged the proliferation of troglodyte hotels.

Orce's greatest strength lies not only in this heritage, but also in its palaeontological sites, which bear witness to the presence of humans in the area for more than a million years. Venta Micena, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva are some of the most important sites in Eurasia and have earned the municipality recognition as an Archaeological Zone with the category of Asset of Cultural Interest. In their shelter, the Town Hall has created the José Gibert Museum of Prehistory and Palaeontology, where you can take a 1.5 million year journey through the Altiplano of Granada, and the Archaeological Interpretation Centre of the Cerro de la Virgen de la Cabeza.

SPECIAL MENTION

BERNARDA ALBA'S HOUSE


The Prize is awarded on the proposal of Timoteo Arco Lorca.

The house where Francisca Alba Sierra, 'Fraquista Alba', lived with her family and where Federico García Lorca was inspired for his famous tragedy 'La casa de Bernarda Alba', premiered in 1945 in Buenos Aires by Margarita Xirgu's company, is located in Calle Real (formerly Calle Ancha) in Valderrubio. The building was restored as a museum in December 2018 by the Town Council of Valderrubio. Together with the Lorca Family House in the town, it has made Valderrubio an indispensable place to learn about the life and work of the brilliant poet, attracting thousands of visitors every year.

It is a traditional farmhouse with two floors, also conceived as a space to store the harvest, with a large courtyard that offers multiple possibilities for the programming of cultural activities. The aim of the work carried out by the council was to convert the house into a tourist-cultural space open to visitors, where the importance of Lorca in the theatre and of Valderrubio as a source of inspiration can be disseminated.

During the visit, visitors can enjoy a multimedia audiovisual montage that recreates the atmosphere, customs and experiences that inspired the work of the poet and playwright, allowing the visitor to be emotionally transported to the moment of the play, as the building maintains the scenes of the work intact.