By Juan Herrera
On Thursday, July 6th, Unica Group and Avenida Hotel, Almería, presented their project to create a model of Hotel Saludable. An initiative through which guests can enjoy healthy snacks (initially minipepinos and minitomates) to snack between hours in their rooms, as well as healthy menus. In a press conference, the president of the cooperative, José Martínez Portero, highlighted a project that was born with the objective of “somehow linking agriculture with tourism, betting on healthy eating.
Enrique de los Ríos, CEO of Unica Group, explained that Almeria is the world capital of healthy products “and sometimes we are not aware of it”. In this regard, he noted that the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the coming years will increase considerably, thanks in part to the healthy trend that is emerging in society. “Almería is in an ideal tourist and catering environment for this project that has all the sense when trying to combine the concepts of food”.
Through this initiative, customers of Avenida Hotel Almeria can enjoy healthy snacks to snack between hours, as well as healthy menus to raise awareness about a healthy diet and balanced
For its part, the director of Avenida Hotel, Antonio Aguilar, indicated that food is a basic pillar for them and that differentiation is the key to success and having found that cornerstone in gastronomy. “All the clients who arrive at our hotel receive a tub with healthy snacks, as a sample of the food that can be found in Almeria”.
The experience, so far, has been a success, surpassing all expectations since the healthy has gone from being a tendency to be incorporated as one of the habits of daily life. “Our visitors want Wi-Fi because they need to be connected, they want a gym to keep exercising and claim a healthy meal”.
Alfredo Valdivia, territorial delegate of Tourism, Culture and Sport, highlighted the opportunity to take advantage of synergies of two areas, tourism and agriculture, to put in value Almeria. “It is offering a typical product of our land and is betting to invest in health. It is to be thankful for this type of initiatives that contribute value to the experience of the people who visit Almeria”.
For his part, the provincial delegate of Agriculture of the Junta de Andalucía, José Manuel Ortiz, stressed that “in this Healthy Hotel project are being presented our new ambassadors of the province, which are vegetables. We know it is one of the demands of the consumer and in Almeria we have demonstrated that we cultivate quality products and very safe. ” He also stressed that “a hotel has in its thinking to offer our vegetables to national tourism as the international, as everyone will welcome with joy the quality and flavor of our products”.
Finally, the chef of the Hotel, Toni García, confessed that the idea is to make a healthy hotel with a long-term agreement, “since sometimes we are not aware of the product we have here, because it goes outside Spain and we want to claim these products that we cultivate in Almería”.
At the end of the presentation all the attendees could enjoy a delicious ‘Healthy Breakfast’ with products from Unica Group and made by Toni Garcia.
