I Staff Exchange “Devora, Es Burgos”, an Eventful Gastronomic Event!
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
I Staff Exchange “Devora, es Burgos”, an eventful gastronomic event! REPORT Photos by ©Romulus Opriscan and ©María Koke REPORT I Staff Exchange “Devora, es Burgos”, an eventful gastronomic event! The Staff Exchanges within the project Gastronomic Cities were designed as a tool for learning from Burgos gastronomic good practice. The first Gastronomic Cities Staff Exchange (out of 3) was based on gastro- tourist packages, and brought a technical delegation from each “receiving” city to the 2014 edition of Devora, is Burgos, the flagship gastronomic tourism weekend, that was held on 12 and 13th April, to see how the event is organized and agreed (from the professional point of view, being analytic!), but also to have the experience from the citizen/tourist perspective (Living Lab weekend!): The receiving cities had a full experience, and saw on the ground how is organized, how the event is developed and enjoyed by the audience, the impact for the city and the synergies with different local and provincial fields. The specific objectives for the receiving cities within the I Staff Exchange were: • Take ideas and some food for thought from Burgos event (the message is: Go and find your engine event!) • Learn on the organization and promotion event. • Check all the possibilities that stakeholders cooperation and sponsorship can bring. • Motivate their stakeholders (including decision makers) participating with peers in Devora activities, committing then for cooperation. • Give their feedback to Burgos city on how the event could be improved both from organizer and user point of view. The city delegations were composed by decision makers, event organizers, bloggers, HORECA representatives, and of course, local project coordinators. The Staff Exchange included a 2 days full programme combining active participation within the event and also project meeting debriefing sessions, training workshops and common sessions. …but… what is Devora, is Burgos? Devora = Devour Devour = Eating eagerly (like an animal) The Strategic Plan City of Burgos, the Burgos HO-RE-CA Federation and Burgos city Council organize (In 2014, it was held the 3rd Edition) a gastronomic tourism weekend called "Devora, es Burgos", an integrated promotional campaign to be developed in a weekend format, including special prices for menus, tapas, hotels, shuttles connecting the city with wineries from Ribera del Duero and Arlanza and agro food factories, show-cooking by Burgos chefs, children space on food culture,…everything connected to special prices to cultural resources: The objective is setting up a tourism product that linked together the cultural and gastronomic offer in Burgos. www.burgos25.com Accommodation is offered at 25 Euros per person including breakfast, and special menus at the best restaurants for 25 Euros per person. Burgos 25 is a great opportunity to experience the beauty of the city of Burgos through its gastronomy and it works as an engine event for the whole city strategy on gastronomy. The event background comes from the new brand of the city ‘Smile, is Burgos’, so, following the same philosophy, one of the projects was called ‘Devora is Burgos’ It is an event in which we want to differentiate from other territories through gastronomy. We make the difference by using something that comes together with the territory. Again, following the slogan Devora, is Burgos, different tags/labels were created for the different promotional weekend activities: The different editions of the event have fixed activities, and also new and rotative activities that are included in each edition. It is not the objective of this report giving a full description of the event, but briefly these are the activities included in 2014 Devora is Burgos that the city partners were able to experience on the ground: Devora, es Burgos 2014 Devora en Burgos: Devour in Burgos/Hotels Enjoy the best hotels in Burgos at a single price: 50 euro for a double room with breakfast. Reservations are made at each hotel, with 'Burgos 25' reference. Dónde devorar/Where to devour/Restaurants 25 Euro per person, the menu includes four courses and local wine from Ribera or Arlanza. Mini Devora/ Mini Devour/Tapas Specially designed tapas, with local wine (Ribera or Arlanza), beer or water for 2,5 Euro. Show Cooking Cooking Show developed by local Chefs and producers from Burgos Diálogos de gastronomía/ Gastronomy dialogues 5 very well known sport figures –from different sports disciplines- had a smart and cool talk on diet and sport. (Each Devora edition, the dialogues topic is changing, always maintaining the philosophy: Gastronomy combined with another popular topic) Devora bus/ Devour bus Bus transfers to Burgos province wineries in Ribera and Arlanza. You do not have to worry about anything; we take you and bring you. Devora catas/Devour Wine tastings The local wine expert Paco Berciano offers three unique tasting wines from Ribera and Arlanza local wines. The expert tours the wine landscape through five Burgos wines. Devora Cultura/ Devour Culture Prices discounted at the Cathedral, Museum of Human Evolution and Book Museum. All customers from the hotels and restaurants (included in the Devora promotion) have a reduction in the price tickets to the Cathedral, the Human Evolution Museum and Book Museum during the Devora weekend, through an identification card. Devora infantil/Devour Children Peque Chef and Devora en familia (Devour in family): Children cooking contest and cooking workshops (for family audience). Devora Industria/Devour Industry Shuttle buses to visit the facilities and production process of local food companies: Cardeña cold meat and San Miguel Beer Company. Devora kilómetros/ Devour Kilometres World Heritage running Tour: 5 Kilometers running circuit led by local Olympic runner Diego Ruiz. The route goes through the protection zone surrounding Burgos Cathedral that Unesco is analyzing for approval. (City centre circuit). Amigos de Antonio vs Amigos de Miguel/ Antonio´s friends versus Miguel´s friends Two Chef teams contest, seven TV-Programme Top Chefs together with Burgos Chefs. A professional jury together with a popular jury deciding the winner. The Chefs elaborate four microplates, two of which with Burgos products. The main advantage of the programme is that most activities don’t require a big budget. What is offered, hotels and restaurants, are already there, there is nothing new to be created; Museums and exhibitions reduce the price of the tickets only for that weekend, and cultural activities can be arranged to be matched in that weekend. To be mentioned the sponsorship or the in kind contribution from the HORECA sector. Key and successful elements identified (together with the partnership reflections): BURGOS FOUND ITS GASTRONOMIC ENGINE EVENT 'Devora is Burgos' works because it responds to a strategy in the medium and long term to position the city as one of the leading gastronomic destinations in domestic tourism. Innovative event composed of a myriad of gastronomic and cultural-touristic events. Simple idea but complex in terms of activities and stakeholders’ involvement. Whole weekend which is perfect in length as it allows tourists to come for more than just one day. Creating synergies between culture and gastronomy is an efficient way of attracting tourists. It has all the ingredients needed for a successful model: creativity, diversity and good taste! 3 very well balanced days. It is a consolidated event, but opened to evolution and concept rethinking in the next future. CITIZENSHIP PARTICIPATION Devora, es Burgos aim is getting citizens and tourists participation and involvement. The philosophy is: If you are not invited to dinner, you are part of the menu This citizenship participation becomes real in different ways such as: enjoying special menus and tapas (enhancing consuming), and also hotels as tourists, participating in the wine tastings, attending the Chefs cooking contest (a popular jury was selected through the Social Networks), participating with the children in the family audience activities, attending the Gastronomy dialogues, fulfilling the cultural facilities of the city, visiting wineries and agro food local companies…The whole combination gives an extraordinary street livelihood to the city, beneficial for the city, its image and its economic development. ECONOMIC AND MEDIA IMPACT Impact 'Devora is Burgos 2012'. The economic impact reached 560,000 Euro, according to an external study. Over 250 rooms booked, more than 2,350 menus, 8,450 tapas and a audience of over 2,000 in the showcooking. 'Devora is Burgos' website also achieved a significant improvement concerning number of visits, with 91.169 visits in 27 days, reflecting the great interest generated from the initiative. Impact 'Devora is Burgos 2013' The 36 restaurants participating in the event served 5,600 menus during the weekend. This datum turns into 140,000 Euros. It must be added to these data 11,500 tapas sold and 100% of the hotel rooms offered with conditions ' Devora is Burgos ' , which means a final direct economic impact on HORECA sector of over 250,000 Euros. Impact 'Devora is Burgos 2014' 7,000 menus and 180,000 page views in the website (in 3 weeks) were reached . The most shocking moment was on Sunday April 13 in the auditorium Evolution Forum. The Cooking contest gathered more than 1,100 people. In total, about 10,000 people participated in any of the activities planned. Could you have this photo in your city? This photo was taken during 2014 Devora is Burgos weekend, in San Lorenzo Street, one of the most “gastronomic” streets in the city. Burgos, invited the participating cities to apply this image to their cities and look for the same impact. Apart from a coherent programme, dissemination, image and promotion is a key element for such an event: 2012 2013 2014 For an event like Devora is essential to use online communication tools, such as web, app, and social networks, following the image and coherence of the whole approach.