• The twinning has been approved in the Plenary Session of the Calvià City Council
• Both municipalities will collaborate in matters of tourism, development, economy and culture
• A Honduran delegation has visited Calvià, the Hotel School of the Balearic Islands and has been received by Llorenç Galmés, president of the Consell de Mallorca

The municipalities of Roatán and Calvià have begun the twinning process that will become effective once the established institutional procedures have been completed. The twinning will be sealed –provided it is possible to square the different agendas– next January at the Madrid Tourism Fair (FITUR). The municipality of Roatán, located in the Bay Islands of Honduras, is one of the emerging destinations of Caribbean tourism. A local government delegation headed by Mayor Ron McNab has visited Calvià to hold a series of bilateral meetings with different areas of the Town Hall.

The Roatán delegation has spent six days learning about the work procedures applied by the Local Police, the regeneration of water and the management of water resources in Calvià 2000, the network of nursery schools managed by IMEB (the Institute of Education and Libraries of Calvià), urban planning, or the advances in digitalisation of municipal and tourist processes, amongst others.

Both mayors have been received by the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés. At the work meeting - in which the deputy mayor for Tourism of Calvià, Elisa Monserrat, also participated - issues related to the future twinning and collaboration between institutions were addressed.

One of the interests of the Roatán delegation is the training of professionals in the tourism sector. During a morning they visited and learned about the operation of the Balearic Islands Hotel School on the UIB campus in view of possible future agreements.

Roatán has experienced a significant evolution in its tourism industry in recent years. This Caribbean destination has established itself as one of the most visited in Central America, thanks to its rich offer, with the main issuing markets being the United States and Canada. During the last two decades, the number of tourists has increased significantly, making tourism one of the main economic drivers of the municipality.

The most recent data from the Honduran Institute of Tourism estimates that more than one million cruise tourists visit Roatán each year. It has three main entry and exit routes: the Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport, with direct connections from cities in the United States, Canada and other regional destinations; and several docks that receive cruise ships from the main international shipping companies. Amongst them, Port of Roatán and Mahogany Bay stand out.

Roatán faces important challenges in terms of sustainability. The accelerated growth of the industry has generated pressure on natural resources. The local government has implemented measures to preserve the reefs and promote sustainable tourism that protects the biodiversity of the region. Ron McNab has pointed out that one of the objectives of the delegation he heads is to "learn from everything that has been done in Calvià, they are 20 years ahead of us in infrastructure and public services. The Balearic Islands, Mallorca and especially Calvià are a benchmark. The development achieved is impressive. We have an impressive learning curve ahead of us and that is the reason for proposing the twinning with Calvià."

The mayor of Roatán has emphasized the need to combine tourism development with social benefit: "development in Calvià is impressive. We have a learning curve ahead of us, that is our challenge. We want to attract investments and grow in a sustainable and orderly way so that the tourists who visit us can live in harmony with our 100,000 inhabitants."

The mayor of Calvià, Juan Antonio Amengual, explained that “they have asked us for advice on urban planning, development, educational, and security issues… We have opened the doors to them and provided them with all the information. They will be able to move forward and not make the same mistakes as us.”

Amengual has insisted on the “social and sustainable responsibility” of the twinning: “responsibility implies rethinking what we want to be in 25 years, always having the citizen as the top priority.”

After the twinning of Calvià and Roatán, the two municipalities will walk together on the path of sustainable, responsible tourism that will result in the economic and social benefit of residents.