Gijón is a city totally connected to the sea, with its origins as a fishing port going back hundreds of years.

Given the undeniable link between the city of Gijón and the sea, it is not surprising that coastal tourism is an important axis of the destination's tourism projects. For this reason, among the lines of action contemplated by the destination in its Tourism Sustainability Plan is the repair of the coastal façade and the most important degraded areas of the city, mainly located in the historic centre.

Specifically, the intention of focusing this plan on the remodelling of coastal tourism to make it more sustainable is to convert the whole area that embraces the sea into a tourist attraction, causing an increase in visitors in less demanded seasons, thus taking advantage of the so-called deseasonalisation effect that would be achieved with the creation of this new attraction.

This project has already been awarded the Excelencias Group's Tourism Excellence Award and of course is fully framed within the work that the destination has been developing in terms of sustainability since 2013 with the Responsible Tourism Institute, as part of its Biosphere Destination recognition process.

Gijón Project - blue tourism 

The city of Gijón has transformed, by creating an entire strategy for the city itself - not only for tourism, but also for everything that includes the blue economy. The idea of this project is to generate a tourist product linked to the naval and defence history of the destination, taking advantage not only of the participation of small companies and startups related to the sea, but also the conversion of very degraded spaces in the historic centre in which the history and culture of the sea is evident in the city. Thus, this new tourist attraction will be able to attract more visitors during other times of the year, as it is a totally non-seasonal product, and thus help citizens to get to know these spaces that have been in disuse for decades.

In the words of Daniel Martínez, Director of Tourism of Gijón, "we don't want an overcrowded city, where you can't walk through the streets, but we want people to come and enjoy our city in all its areas, as if they were just another citizen. We want Gijón not to lose its soul, its own identity, which is what makes it so unique".

Read more about sustainability of Gijón here.