Talking to Faina Robaina, the Marketing Manager of the Hotel Cordial Roca Negra, about their recent pandemic – proof live event, the Teatrotel. It is good to see what creativity can achieve despite limitations!
The hotel from this story, the Cordial Roca Negra is located in the Northwest of Gran Canaria and at the feet of the glorious Valley of Agaete (where coffee plantations produce the authentic local coffee) and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria.
“Bailar en tu balcon – dance on your balcony” is a series of concerts created by the management of the hotel – to attract bookings and to provide some entertainment and fun to the guests. With the third edition of the series just finished, we want to showcase the concept and the hotel, which also has a sound sustainability program in place (creativity and courage can turn everything!)
The shape of the hotel offered the idea: built like an auditorium, with most rooms facing the pool area and the wide ocean behind it. A backdrop like this seemed perfect to arrange concerts with popular artists and turn the balconies and the roof terrace into individual dance lounges.
The stage for the band and artists was built at the pool side – with 80 % of the rooms facing the pool, and large balconies for each of these rooms, separated from the neighbours by walls, it offered a unique chance to create protected spaces for the guests, to enjoy and dance without masks and thus have a relaxed evening.
For the guests in the rooms facing the mountain, the roof terrace was prepared to serve as lounge area. The only limitations were that guests on the roof terrace were not allowed to dance but had to keep the masks and distance rules.
A total of 300 guests attended the last event during the weekend, all 140 rooms were fully booked. Allocation of the rooms were made on first come, first serve basis for the pool rooms. The hotel arranged for the dinner to be served as mini buffets on the balconies, so every room had their own space for eating, drinking and enjoying the evening. Guests came in from all the Canary Islands and the last concert even saw some foreign guests. For them, the event came as a surprise – the hotel management informed them before to offer alternative options in case someone would be disturbed, but everybody loved the incredible idea with no objections or cancellations made.
A spectacular concert with a wonderful backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and the night sky of Gran Canaria – artists of the third edition of Bailar en tu Balcon: Efecto Pasillo and Los Coquillos
The Roca Negra Hotel is not only entertaining, it is also considerate in taking sustainable action to help conserve and protect the beautiful nature around the property.
Being already a well- established hotel for nature-loving guests who like to relax, hike and bicycle, a major renovation in 2018 adapted the building to sustainable policies to ensure their target groups will also in future be able to benefit from the nature assets. Here is a selection of the program:
Application of a circular energy supply with 3 different systems to create energy and reduce emissions to a minimum level:
- Solar Panels on the roof create hot water for all rooms, spa, outside pools, rest rooms and toilets in common areas of the hotel.
- Aerothermal energy system is applied to create air conditioning for the rooms and produce hot water all year round. It is viewed as a system that generates clean, renewable and efficient energy with significant savings.
- The photovoltaic area generate electricity for the entire hotel by feeding on solar energy.
Zero plastic and local products
The hotel has a zero plastics policy and the products used for dishes in the restaurants come from local producers. Coffee, fruits and other products are following a standard called Zero Kilometro – meaning it comes from the local community. The gardens are fertilised with compost from organic food waste, and waste water is upcycled and used for irrigation.( we are working in that)
Supporting activities
The hotel also offers activities to the guests tailored to increase their awareness for the unique environment of the hotel and the island, like tree-planting programs to help the reforestation programs applied in the island. Students from nearby schools are guided through the hotels premises and sustainable measures explained and demonstrated to them. They see the machines for wind energy and the ultramodern grid administraton of energy supplies – which can balance the energy production between the different sources as needed. By mobile telephone through the administrator. The grid also enables a direct analysis of monetary savings.
e-mobility
The hotel has charging stations for e-bikes and e-cars and is presently undergoing the certification for the travelife label – ready to be certified in September.
A choice of conference rooms are available in a second building, and so is a co-working area there (for global nomads). The hotel hosts many medical and pharmaceutical meetings and in June this year a conference for active tourism and sport will be organised (Cycle of conferences throughout the Canary Islands. Active tourism and territory. Ecotourism, a commitment to tourism diversification)
We recently published a case study of the Trollhättans athletes training – this took place around the homebase at Roca Negra hotel. Athletes were training rollerski for their cross-country competitions back home and stayed for 2 weeks. The road to Agaete has many curves and is perfect for the training.
Please check this video of the Third Edition of the Teatrotel, a safe and entertaining event designed in Gran Canaria.
text: Johanna Fischer, tmf knowledge destinations for Gran Canaris CB
The Convention Bureau of Gran Canaria supports conference planners to identify and include sustainable projects in their programs in the island of Gran Canaria – follow us on:
Your contact:
Sergio Macanti, Convention Bureau of Gran Canaria,
email: info@grancanariacb.com.
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