The adventure sports campaign in the Lleida district has started this year with 277 companies (218 in the Pyrenees and 59 in Ponent), one more than last year, offering around fifty land, air and water activities.
The objective of the Tourist Board of the Provincial Council of Lleida, which presented the season this Thursday in Llavorsí, is to revalidate last year’s data, which closed with 801,383 contracted activities, the highest number since records have been kept.
Pallars Sobirà maintains the leadership in activities and concentrates 60 companies, followed by Val d’Aran with 44 and Alt Urgell with 31. Last year the sector generated an economic impact of 111.47 million euros, an increase of 2 .6% compared to 2019.
Of the 277 adventure sports companies that are concentrated in the Pyrenees and the Lleida Lands, 229 offer land activities, 31 are dedicated to water proposals, while the remaining 17 offer air initiatives.
Last year, land activities accounted for 48.6% of hiring, while water activities accounted for 47.9% and air activities accounted for 3.5%. Rafting is the king of whitewater sports, followed by other disciplines such as canoeing, hydrospeed or canyoning.
The president of the Lleida Provincial Council, Joan Talarn, has spoken about the use of water by adventure sports companies and has said that it is water that is used further downstream for other uses, such as irrigation.
The president of the Pallars Sobirà Adventure Sports Associations, Florido Dolcet, has expressed himself along the same lines and has said that the sector is very aware and ensures not to waste any liter of water.
Dolcet explained that the season of water activities in the Noguera Pallaresa river will last until October 15, when Endesa’s agreement with the Pallars Sobirà Adventure Sports Association and the Pallars Sobirà council ends. This allows the regulation of the flow of the river for the practice of sports such as rafting.
The vice president of the Tourist Board, Juan Antoni Serrano, has highlighted the leadership of the Pyrenees regions in terms of the practice of rafting and has said that hardly anywhere else in the world is this service offered with the same quality.
Regarding the origin of visitors who practice active tourism, 68% are Catalan, 19% are from the rest of Spain, 12% are tourists from Europe and the last 1% are from the rest of the world.
The study by the Chair of Inland and Mountain Tourism also highlights that the average expenditure of the client who traveled to the area last year attracted by the adventure sports proposals stood at 149.4 euros per day. Of these, 52.1 euros correspond to the activity and the other 97.3 euros to accommodation, meals and other expenses.
The study shows that adventure sports generated an economic impact of 111.47 million euros last year. Of these, 33.7 come from the activity itself and the rest from hospitality, restaurants and commerce. This represents an increase of 2.6% compared to the 2019 campaign, when it was 108.6 million.
The president of the Pallars Sobirà Regional Council, Carlos Isus, explained that the adventure sports sector is a successful model, but that many years have passed since its implementation in the Pyrenees and that the time has come to rethink the model. tourism and take into account climate change. Isus has opted for public institutions and the private sector to do it jointly.