Economic and social engine
The enhancement of the Añana Salt Valley is not only helping to preserve a Cultural Landscape of exceptional value, but is also a clear example that investment in heritage is profitable and a powerful engine of economic and social development for the local community and its environment.
The Salt Valley is located in the Añana Region, a rural area of Alava that has traditionally linked its economy to farming and forestry and, of course, to salt production. However, in recent years the industry has become an important factor of development and there has been a clear and decisive commitment to cultural tourism thanks, to a large extent, to the potential represented by the Salt Valley Cultural Landscape.
In addition to recovering the sustainability and enhancement of the Salt Valley, one of the priority objectives of the project is to generate economic resources that will contribute to its progressive self-financing and thus become less and less dependent on public contributions. Tourism, through guided tours, and the production and sale of salt are contributing to this objective.
But the Salt Valley also has the capacity to be an engine of dynamization of the local community and its environment, enabling, in collaboration with public administrations and public and private agents, the implementation of a series of activities and services that are contributing to the positioning of the Añana Region and Alava as a tourist and cultural destination of first international level.
Three main areas of economic activity can be identified in the Salt Valley: maintenance and conservation work, cultural tourism and associated services, and salt production. These areas are generating activity, employment, training and social development directly in the valley itself and indirectly in the town of Salinas de Añana and its surroundings.