HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
The objective of this work is, says Professor Ángeles Rubio, “to value and disseminate the tangible and intangible heritage of the Community of La Rioja, designing new routes as a factor for socioeconomic development; within the research line of the NONNOBIS-URJC group and the NONNOBIS Routes for Sustainable Development association”.
The study that has given rise to the book has made it possible to identify important tourist assets on the routes, thus, in addition to the legendary routes (Roman roads or Camino de Santiago), we find others that value the linguistic heritage; monasteries, through Smart Tourism (sustainable tourism with a strong presence of technology); new routes based on legends, such as those of the Black and Brown Virgins; routes that focus on industrial heritage, especially in relation to the textile sector, sustainable golf in the middle of nature and gastronomic and wine routes, "in La Rioja More unknown", says the teacher.
Tourism and innovation in this field can be very useful tools against depopulation, especially in a region that has seen 70% of its municipalities lose population in the 2008-2018 period. In this sense, Ángeles Rubio points out that "it is in the case of rural areas with a high ecological value (such as the Rioja Biosphere Reserve), where tourism development can be carried out with greater respect for the environment, enhancing the economic value of the heritage and the products of the land, and promoting quality employment", this employment, he adds, "would also be complementary, with traditional activities (such as beekeeping, espadrilles) with a type less extensive and polluting agricultural and industrial exploitation”.
The region has “a polar-type population rate with less than 7 inhabitants per square km and registers a significant aging index of 89% of its territory (INE); an inter-region known as South Lapland, due to structural and orographic problems”, explains Professor Rubio.
To improve this situation, he proposes, “the NONNOBIS-URJC group, made up of professors from three departments of Economics and CC. Social (Carmen Peligros and Guillermo Vázquez), we believe in the convenience of a new approach to economic activities for repopulation and reforestation, and that in the case of tourism, consists of the application of the route as a cluster of activities and tourist attractions , which are complemented by traditional activities and from one population to another, making viable the services and the repopulation of towns that are now abandoned”.
A second part, already underway
"The Department of Publications and the Editorial Dykinson and the Publications Service of the URJC have made it possible to produce a second part", indicates the FCJS professor. In this second volume, specialists will analyze a route based on the presence and role of the Knights Templar in the area. In addition, they will deal with the route of the Rioja Hermits, which adds new discoveries of deposits and the proposal focused on the Dolmens of the Rioja Alta and Alavesa.
This work will also include the continuation of the routes of the Spanish Rioja and the Riojas of the New World, treated in an introductory way in the first, highlighting the great parallelism not only of their tourist routes, but also in the mutual ignorance of the Spanish and American Riojas.
In this sense, the presentation of the second part will mean, says Professor Rubio, "the institutional twinning with the Ruta de la Rioja Argentina, through the Universities and the Argentine administrations with which we collaborate, to arrive at the design of joint routes intercontinental for sustainable development.
The book 'Routes of La Rioja. New Itineraries, travel industry and development' has also been coordinated by Sergio Andrés Cabello, from the University of La Rioja. Professors Ana Valtierra Lacalle (CUM and UCJC), Nuria Esther Pascual Bellido (University of La Rioja), Joaquín Giró Miranda (University of La Rioja), José Gabriel Fernández Fernández and Mónica Segovia-Pérez (URJC), María Victoria Sanagustín Fons (University of Zaragoza) and Violante Martínez Quintana (UNED) and Iria Paz Gil and Sara González Gómez (Rey Juan Carlos University).