Teide tops visitor poll
IT was just five years ago that UNESCO declared the El Teide National Park as a World Heritage Site, which at 3,781 meters, is one of the richest and most diverse locations in the world.
Now, a study by consumer group Eroski, made public this week, has revealed that the park received over 2.7 million visitors last year. Eroski suggests that the UNESCO recognition has been an impetus in placing El Teide on the international travel map, thus having a positive effect in terms of tourism toTenerife.
During 2011 the 2,731,484 visits, make ‘Teide’ the most visited inSpain, followed by the Picos de Europa and the Timanfaya, according to the study by the Consumer Eroski reviews.
According to the data from this study, nine national parks, have received 64 percent of visitors compared to 2010, while five have lost approximately 36 percent of their visitors.
In the case of natural parks, 56 of them saw a combined 41 percent-increase in the number of visitors compared to 2010.
However, in this same period there has been a slight decline in visits to natural parks ofAndalusia,Aragon, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha,Castilla y León,Valencia,Galicia, La Rioja,MadridandMurcia.
Consumer Eroski’s report warns, however, the difficulty of controlling the number of visitors to these open spaces, noting that most of the data provided by managers of the parks relate to visitor centers, ” so that people actually visit the parks would be many more.”
He also notes that, in some cases, it provides an estimate of overall visitors to natural areas and notes that in 21 natural parks, 15 percent of the total, have encountered problems such as lack of data or lack of unanimity when the data was received.
This study analyses also the accessibility of these natural areas and concluded that 79.56 percent have been adapted, making the areas more accessible for families and the disabled.
“However, we still need more efforts to achieve 100 percent accessibility to the national parks that we have” he says.
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