The public company Turismo Costa del Sol will carry out a feasibility study on the reopening of the hotel and student residence of the Andalusian Center for Comprehensive Training of the Leisure Industries of Mijas (IOC Mijas), which during this year will train more than 250 students in hospitality and tourismaccording to the mayor, Josele González.
This was highlighted by the councilor during a visit to the training center together with the first deputy mayor and mayor of Tourism, José Carlos Martín, and other members of the municipal corporation, where they received the Vice President of the Junta de Andalucía and Minister of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration, Juan Marín, and the Minister of Employment, Training and Self-Employment, Rocío Blanco.
Political representatives have visited one of the courses that are currently being taught on reception of accommodation, in which 15 students participate and which is part of the 17 training actions that will take place throughout the year 2022in which 462,611 euros have been invested to train 255 students.
González has underlined the importance of “institutional loyalty” to “take advantage of all the resources and value this complex, which is a benchmark in the leisure industry in our region and throughout Andalusia, and which was recently appointed by the Spanish government as a National Reference Center in Hospitality”.
Thus, he pointed out that “after a few difficult years, we have managed to bring this complex forward again precisely thanks to this collaboration between administrations, which allowed 2020 sign an agreement between the Mijas Town Hall and the Ministry of Employment to provide resources to this infrastructure”.
During the visit to the complex, the Vice President of the Board, Juan Marín, congratulated the team of the Ministry of Employment for the work carried out for the reactivation of this school that now “forms the best professionals in the hospitality industry on the Costa del Sol, where they are so necessary”.
For his part, the first deputy mayor and mayor of Tourism, José Carlos Martín, stressed that “putting into operation this flagship not only in Mijas, but practically in all of Andalusia, is very important because one of the our main engines is tourism. The activity that we are once again having in these facilities represents a I endorse that collaboration and that joint work that we have been doing in recent years with the regional administration”.
In 2021, the center was provided with 1.19 million in 2021of which 925,000 were to adapt the building where training is given, to which will be added this year another 2.6 in air conditioning expenses, in homologating new classrooms, and in repairs for the damage caused by the storm Filomena in the kitchens.
This firm commitment, according to the Minister of Employment, for “the most important active employment policy for the present and the future”. Blanco also recalled that not only has the training activity been resumed, since having become the National Reference Center (CRN) in Hospitality and Tourism last year, the CIO Mijas is today a innovation and experimentation space “unique in Spain” in the areas of Accommodation, Restaurants and Games of Chance.
During the act, Blanco announced that the Board is already taking the first steps towards the possible reopening of the hotel and the student residence and has recently published the award of the contract for the drafting of the preliminary rehabilitation project, and it is expected to have said project for the month of August. The next steps, as reported, is the issuance by the public company Turismo Costa del Sol of a feasibility study and “if the management is viable”, the operation of the facilities will be put out to tender at the end of this year.