The Cervantes Institute and Paradores agree to promote Spanish, language tourism and cultural heritage

The director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and the president of Paradores de Turismo de España, Óscar López Águeda, have signed an agreement to collaborate in the promotion of the teaching and study of Spanish, to disseminate the cultural and language tourism offer in Spain and to promote our cultural heritage abroad.

Both parties will be able to organise cycles of cultural activities with the aim of promoting culture in Spanish and the network of Paradores as cultural spaces. The agreement also contemplates that they will be able to agree on exchanges and the cession of spaces, as well as approving advantageous conditions for certain services aimed at students of the Cervantes Institute and the staff of both institutions.

Luis García Montero said, after the signing at the headquarters of the Institute, that Paradores "is a point of reference for the public effort to make our country known and to work to be a hospitable country". Hence the coincidence with one of the main objectives of Cervantes: "To turn diplomacy into an exercise in hospitality so that people become part of our coexistence".

The agreement, he added, will be "very productive" and will take the form of various initiatives. Among them, that the Institute's publications will be available in the Paradores network, and that students of Spanish at the Cervantes centres will be introduced to "a map of Paradores" so that when they come to Spain they can take advantage of their valuable tourist and cultural offerings.

For his part, López Águeda highlighted the work carried out by Paradores in the conservation of Spain's historical and artistic heritage, the undisputed leadership of Spain as the best tourist destination in the world for numerous reasons (climate, safety, gastronomy...) and the "pride" that it represents for the only public company dedicated to tourism to establish collaboration agreements with the Cervantes Institute.

Sent by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.