Ecotourist Commitment
A small corner of the universe to discover
County of Somontano de Barbastro
Welcome to Guara Somontano. You are in Guara Somontano, a true paradise for nature and ecotourism lovers like you.
Here you can enjoy the Natural Park of the Sierra and Canyons of Guara, one of the largest protected areas of Aragon and known worldwide for the spectacular deep canyons carved by rivers, rain and air. But not only that, almost half of our surface is part of the Natura 2000 Network through several Special Areas of Conservation and a Special Protection Area for Birds.
But you will also discover our culture, specifically the Cultural Park of the Vero River and its impressive shelters with cave paintings declared World Heritage by UNESCO or the medieval village of Alquézar declared "Best Tourism Village" by the World Tourism Organization.
In Guara Somontano we are committed to the conservation of nature, sustainable development and the promotion of ecotourism activities and therefore we have joined Soy Ecoturista in 2023. Throughout the year we develop different actions to achieve these objectives:
- We are an Adhering Smart Tourism Destination 2023 with 84% compliance with criteria in the sustainability axis where aspects such as tourism sustainability management, conservation, improvement and recovery of cultural heritage, conservation, improvement and recovery of the environment or socioeconomic development and circular economy are evaluated.s management, conservation, improvement and recovery of cultural heritage, conservation, improvement and recovery of the environment or socioeconomic development and circular economy.
- Eight of our companies have joined Soy Ecoturista and another ten have participated in a circular economy diagnosis and subsequent preparation of a Manual of Good Practices for the transition of tourism destinations and companies towards circularity, promoted by Segittur.
- We are developing the National Plan of Enogastronomy "Saborea Guara Somontano", whose objective is to transform and modernize the rural destination with a tourist identity closely linked to enogastronomy towards a sustainable tourism model with territorial cohesion, increasing its competitiveness and resilience.
- The Guara Somontano Sustainable Tourism Board has been created, in which all the agents related to the tourism sector of this territory participate and in which, through periodic meetings, different topics related to the different lines of tourism development of Guara Somontano are dealt with. The table is structured in different working groups, one of them being "Natural Heritage. Ecotourism and star tourism".
- We want our natural spaces free of "#basuraleza", so every year, thanks to our collaborating companies and entities, we distribute among our visitors 5 000 portable ashtrays to enjoy "Guara Somontano without cigarette butts".
- In 2022 the Q mark was renewed, through an external audit of the Quality System of the ENPs of Huesca with a final score of 918 out of 1000, which also shows the constant work of these three Protected Natural Spacesto maintain the good functioning of the Quality System.
- We manage the ZTrails application, an app that provides real-time information on the status of our routes and allows us to reconcile the different uses of the natural environment and provide safety to visitors.
- As a good ecotourist, we don't need to remind you, but there are some tourists who do need a little help so we give them a series of tips on "How to be a good visitor".