Motril (Granada) is now a 'cruise ship friendly' city after the launch of the 'tourism quality seal' to which more than a hundred shops, bars and restaurants on the Costa have adhered, including 23 taxis, and which can now be distinguished by a label or methacrylate placed on the facades or shop windows and which obliges them to comply with a series of requirements among which the opening of the businesses stands out when a cruise ship with more than 300 passengers arrives in the city.
The seal, which has the support of the Motril City Council through its Tourism Department, the Association of Municipalities of the Costa Tropical and the Port Authority, aims to distinguish the quality of the Costa Tropical's tourism offer as a 'hook' for the arrival of a greater number of cruise ships to the Motril dock.
Thus, for six months, a team of workers from the Emple@Joven Plan of the Tourism area of Motril have prepared the project of the 'seal' that requires those who have joined to open their doors, even on holidays or Sundays, when a ship arrives with more than 300 passengers, have a card reader for card payment and open Wi-Fi connection for customers.
Merchants must also have a minimum knowledge of English, so they were offered free language courses as well as a manual with basic vocabulary for customer service and, in the restaurant sector, menus must be in three languages: English, French and German, a task that has also been carried out by the Motril Tourism team completely free of charge.
As for taxis that have this distinctive mark, they must know and put into service for cruise passengers three routes from Motril including the Costa Tropical, the Costa del Sol and the Alpujarra and, all these services will be made known to tourists 'at the foot of the ship' where travelers will be offered a bag with a map where all the shops and restaurants that have the seal are indicated.
By expanding the offerings for visitors to the city and the rest of the coast, the entities involved seek to boost the local economy and shift the focus of tourism away from sun and beach tourism so that cruise passengers arriving at the Port of Motril stay in the city and do not go directly to Granada or Malaga.
According to the team in charge of this project, as reported to Europa Press, 114 establishments have joined and will now be monitored by a commission made up of tourism experts from the Costa. They specified that they have managed to multiply the number of members compared to other cities that have also had the seal for years, such as Cartagena, in Murcia.
