Javier Bustamente Moreno, Chairman of SEGITTUR from 2008 to 2012, died this weekend. May he rest in peace.
Bustamente was born in San Sebastián in 1947, and held a degree in Economic and Business Sciences from the University of Barcelona and a diploma in Public Administration Managerial Activities from Esade.
During his time leading SEGITTUR, he worked for the Secretary of State for Tourism Joan Mesquida, promoting innovation and new technologies in tourism. However, the project for which he will be most remembered was Europe Senior Tourism, which aimed to promote Spain to European tourists over 55 outside the tourist season.
European Senior Tourism, which Javier Bustamente liked to call the “Senior Erasmus”, was a personal project, as he was certain it would encourage tourist deseasonalisation, reactivate the economy and destinations outside the high season, and maintain and create new jobs, thereby contributing to social inclusion and supporting the right to tourism for all members of society.
The programme was created in 2009, inspired by the Institute for the Elderly and Social Services (IMSERSO), and within a short space of time it had become a solid reference point in Europe in the low-season senior tourism segment, proving enormously successful During the six seasons in which it was in operation, over 150,000 senior European tourists participated, resulting in 1.2 million overnight stays outside the high season, with a positive impact on the Spanish economy of nearly €100 million. This is an example of how public institutions can contribute towards improving reality and generating more equal, seasonal and territorial growth in tourist activity.
