"Walking through life", motto of the Nature Trails of Spain campaign (Pool Moncloa)
Luis Planas, at the Ministry's headquarters, has presented the 2024 institutional campaign for the promotion of the network of Nature Trails in Spain, an initiative that involves "a great communication effort to make all citizens aware of the value of these routes". On this occasion, the campaign invites you to discover these routes by means of activities such as hiking, cycling, rural tourism, sports, gastronomy and family leisure in nature.
In his speech, the minister recalled that the "pioneering initiative" to create a network of nature trails began 30 years ago, with the rehabilitation of disused railways, which has subsequently been joined by the development of other infrastructures such as historic trails, livestock trails, towpaths and paths. Altogether this constitutes "a great heritage that affords us healthy mobility and brings together the best things in life: health, rural tourism, care for the environment and sustainable rural development".
According to the minister, the network is made up of 130 itineraries totalling some 10,800 kilometres of nature trails that offer multiple possibilities for healthy leisure activities, in an environment that also has a wide and diverse quality gastronomic offer linked to the Mediterranean diet.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is currently working on new sections to extend the network, with long-distance routes that cross several autonomous communities, such as the Vía de la Plata, the Santander-Mediterranean route, the southern slopes of the Pyrenees and the paths that run along the major rivers. Some of these routes connect to the EuroVelo network, allowing Spain to link up with the rest of Europe by bicycle. "All of this is a source of knowledge and the outcome of collaboration between the different administrations, institutions, people and companies involved," he added.
Proof of the importance the government attaches to nature trails is the public investment of €280 million, a "fundamental investment in health, tourism, the environment and rural development which, together with excellent food, results in a better quality of life".
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is also striving to ensure that the nature trails are increasingly more accessible, "because all citizens have the right to enjoy our natural environment". To this end, in addition to the Technical Accessibility Guide for the network of Nature Trails, drawn up in collaboration with the ONCE Foundation in 2020, another series of accessibility measures will be included in the protocol signed by the ministry with the same organisation last November.
The minister highlighted the growing interest of citizens in this type of leisure, as demonstrated by the increase of more than 15% in overnight stays in rural tourism accommodation in 2023. These data encourage us to continue working to expand the network of nature trails, "for the enjoyment of Spaniards and visitors, a magnificent opportunity to revitalise Spain's rural areas".
Walking through life
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's campaigns to promote the Nature Trails of Spain aim to inform the general public about these infrastructures and invite them to enjoy them, such that their benefits are multiplied and reach as many people as possible.
This campaign, now in its third edition, has gone beyond the initial objective of addressing the general lack of knowledge about nature trails, seeking to reach out to more specific audiences. This year it will particularly target the 15-55 age group with an interest in outdoor activities and people living in rural areas who use nature trails in their daily lives.
The campaign slogan 'Caminos Naturales de España. Elige tu camino' (Nature Trails of Spain. Choose your path), will remain the same, while the song 'Caminando por la vida' (Walking through life), by the singer-songwriter Melendi, has been re-synchronised. This is the music that gives the advertisement its cheerful and positive character and the sense of exaltation of life that the campaign wants to project on the Caminos Naturales de España.
The campaign has a budget of €4 million and will run in the media and on outdoor advertising between 21 June and 15 September. There will also be transmedia actions, such as the olfactory proposal 'Todos los caminos llevan aroma'; the pedagogical one that will take 'Colores que conciencian' to schools; the artistic one with the 'land art' of Jorge Rodríguez Gerada; the creative one with a video-creation to attract the digital population; and the one that pays homage to the real protagonists of the paths, the walkers, who on some routes will have a card that can be stamped along the way in the style of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
Non official translation