The Formentera Patrimony Department reports that starting today, visitors of the Consell de Formentera website will find a new feature: virtual visits of Ca na Costa, a burial site which scientists say dates back to megalithic times. The Formentera and Eivissa island governments are both participants in the project, which was conceived by the Archaeological Museum of Eivissa and Formentera (MAEF) before being picked up by the Balearic Ministry of Culture.

Following this link from the Consell de Formentera website, visitors get a full 3D tour with detailed Spanish- and Catalan-language explanations about various features of the monument. A general overview of the historical site is offered too, as well as an interactive map and information about MAEF’s wider effort to digitise other archaeological sites.

‘Bringing islanders face-to-face with heritage’
According to Formentera Heritage Department chief Raquel Guasch, “the FHD embraced MAEF’s initiative because bringing islanders into contact with Formentera’s archaeological heritage is one of our top priorities this legislative term. This digital tool will make it easier to bridge the gap.” Guasch said the goal was to develop the digital catalogue still further, giving prominence to heritage sites and working together with MAEF, whose work so far she described as “fantastic”.

Marking a convergence of the island governments of Formentera and Eivissa and the regional administration in Palma, the initiative aims to take the Pine Islands’ archaeological endowment online, where it can be enjoyed not just by locals but by people around the world. Plans to incorporate other visitable landmarks into the catalogue are seen as a way to promote in-person visits as soon as the public health situation improves.

MAEF unveiled the initiative in March 2020, highlighting virtual visits of the Monographic Museum of Puig des Molins and the nearby underground graves known as “Hipogeus de la Mula” (a site managed by the Balearic Ministry of the First Minister’s Office, Culture and Equality in coordination with MAEF). The collaborative effort has also meant the digitising and preparation for virtual visits of two other Eivissa landmarks: Ses Païsses archaeological ruins in Cala d’Hort and the sanctum of Cova des Culleram.

10 February 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

At a gathering earlier today of the COPT, a local body whose purview includes regulating and promoting tourism, Consell de Formentera premiere Alejandra Ferrer and head of tourism marketing Carlos Bernús sat down with representatives of the Formentera Association of Hotels, the Chamber of Commerce, the local league of small- and medium-sized businesses (Pimef), the Confederation of Business Associations in the Balearics (CAEB), travel agencies and other local tourism industry figures as well as political party leaders.

President Ferrer unpacked the current situation surrounding the Covid-19 crisis, starting with the response by local government in the pandemic’s early days and before emergency orders were first invoked, going on to chart steps to loosen stay-at-home rules and reopen the island to regional, national and finally international tourism. She spoke about a potential path toward a new de-escalation of lockdown orders in place today and about the start of the tourist season, and concluded her remarks about 2020 by highlighting the local tourism sector’s “enormous efforts to adapt to the new public health orders that came last summer”.

Ferrer proceeded by unveiling local government’s draft plans for economic recovery in 2021. The tourism sector will have a fortnight to review the plan, present it to their associates and share their own proposals in a forthcoming meeting.

Though from these collective efforts will emerge a definitive document, President Ferrer insisted that “as with everything else since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the plan won’t be set in stone. It will be tailored on an ongoing basis to the state of affairs in public health and the restrictions in place at any given point in time”.

Working document
As President Ferrer indicated, the three-part document starts with a stock-taking of public health measures, controls and information in 2020 as well as proposals to make Formentera a safe-as-possible destination in summer 2021. Finance and tax office councillor Bartomeu Escandell, also at the meeting, gave a run down of the document’s second section, which concerns economic measures to palliate effects of the pandemic-linked crisis engulfing tourism today. Carlos Bernús concluded remarks by exploring the document's third section, ‘Destination, marketing and model of tourism’, which analyses the island’s weaknesses and opportunities and discusses steps to readapt the island’s 2021 tourism marketing strategy.

9 February 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera