Geoheritage and Geotourism in the cities: the case of Santiago del Teide (Tenerife, Spain)

The Canary Islands are one of the main “sun and beach” tourist destinations in the world. As an example, Tenerife received in 2018 more than five million tourists. Even so, on the island there are some destinations that are experiencing a decrease in the touristic afflux. With the aim of avoiding the decline of these destinations initiatives have been raised to promote new touristic products and experiences as result of diversify the leisure offer of the island. Within the variety of new products, urban geotourism is one of those new and alternative modalities that may increase the touristic offer of Tenerife. Urban geotourism aims at exploiting the geographical and natural elements (volcanoes, cliffs, beaches, ravines, etc.), that have not been wiped out by the urban growth and transformation processes. Urban geotourism involves also cultural heritage (churches, hermitages, cemeteries, houses, squares, etc.) and the urban layout itself.

 

The aim of this work is to propose an urban geotourism itinerary through the historical centre of Santiago del Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). For this purpose, we selected places and elements that are directly or indirectly associated with the monogenic basaltic eruptions of the Chinyero (1909 AD) and the Bilma Mountain volcano (3,000 years BC). Santiago del Teide is a municipality located at the west of Tenerife with an area of 52.21 km² and a population of 10,755 inhabitants. The municipality can be divided into two large areas: the coast dedicated to “sun and beach tourism” and mid-elevation areas dedicated mainly to agricultural activities and hiking tourism associated with flowering almond trees. The documented methodology consists of making an inventory of the land forms and processes related to the geomorphological features present in the historical centre and its surroundings. This inventory comprises also natural elements visible in the architecture of the town and allowed classifying and estimating the valuable element of the geoheritage. This identification and selection are based on the variety of inventoried resources, on the possibilities it offers and on its geographical distribution. Twelve places of natural heritage (Way of the Virgin of Lourdes and Mountain Bilma) and cultural relevance (Church of San Francisco Rey, Hermitage of Santiago Apostle, El Calvario, Casona del Patio, CEI Chinyero, Alley of the Virgin, Eras of Rodríguez Guanche Street, Crescent Square, San Francisco Cemetery and Cemetery Road, Queen's Street, Santiago del Teide City Hall, La Grama Quarry, Vicente Febles PR and the Arribas Valley) of the city were selected to design a geotouristic itinerary with a length of about 8 km and requiring about 5 hours walking.