The play "The Little Prince" inspires a new tourist-cultural route in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant

"Viatge a l'Infant" is the name of the new tourist-cultural product created by the Department of Tourism of the Town Council of Vandellòs i L'Hospitalet de l'Infant. It is a walking route through L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, which runs along the Jonquet Coastal Path, which links the Arenal and Torn beaches and which has been awarded the Blue Flag.

What characterises this route is that it is inspired by the work The Little Prince, by the french author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who is linked to L'Hospitalet de l'Infant. It is documented that, on a trip when he was piloting a plane flying between Marseille and Algiers, the author of this literary classic was forced to make an emergency landing in the town due to the strong mistral wind that was blowing. For this reason, in 1932, Exupéry spent two days in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant.

The idea of creating a tourist product around the story of the landing that the author of The Little Prince made on the coast of L'Hospitalet de l'Infant emerged in 2022 and has now materialised in this "innovative route, which will offer an immersive, transformative and memorable experience all year round", as explained by the mayoress, Assumpció Castellví.

"Those who follow this route will be able to connect with themselves and with the people who accompany them and take a journey full of personal challenges, which will make them think, get excited and transform themselves", added the mayoress.

As he explained, "along the route along the Jonquet Coastal Path, people will be asked to take part in seven dynamics that work on personal wellbeing and highlight values such as love, friendship, innocence, gratitude, tolerance. These values revolve around the story of The Little Prince and we want them to be associated with L'Hospitalet de l'Infant".

One example of these dynamics is the one that proposes that we sit on the beach, close our eyes and pay attention to what we hear around us: the sound of the waves, the gentle breeze on our face, the birds singing; and look for an element around us that represents what makes us special. Another challenge invites us to thank one of the members of the group who accompany us on the route or other people who are not with us at the time, by means of a text message, an audio message, etc.

The Councillor for Tourism, Elidia López, explained that anyone wishing to take part in these activities and live this experience should go to the Tourist Office to pick up the Viatge a l'Infant passport. This passport contains information about each of the challenges: each dynamic is accompanied by instructions and a story so that participants understand what to do at each point along the route, and includes different illustrations that are intended to evoke the environment in which each challenge is carried out.

After overcoming each challenge, at each point along the route (marked with a wooden pillar), participants can stamp the passport with the sign they will find by placing the page against the stamp symbol and scratching it with a pencil.

Once they have completed all the proposed activities and have all the stamps in their passport certifying that they have completed them, they can go to the Tourist Office to receive a gift, consisting of merchandising products from Turismo L'Hospitalet de l'Infant i la Vall de Llors.

The passport will be available in different languages: catalan, spanish, french and english and contains a postcard, so that the participants, after having made this Viatge a l'Infant, which like Exupéry's book claims childhood as a territory to recover what is essential, send it to their loved ones and share this experience.

With this new experiential and regenerative tourism product, which has the support of the Tarragona Provincial Council and has been created with the help of the company Abismal and the advice of Jaume Marín, a doctor in Tourism, the City Council aims to diversify the tourist offer, deseasonalize the tourist season and internationalise its destination. "We have to bear in mind that The Little Prince is a work recognised all over the world and that this product can help us to reach different countries that share an appreciation for this literary classic," said the mayoress, Assumpció Castellví. 

Thinking about the future potential of this product and the added value it can bring to the municipality's tourism brand, the City Council plans to continue investing in it to make it grow in a sustainable way. "Each year we will be incorporating new actions and new resources that can be attractive, such as murals, sculptural elements, other events, etc. One of the actions already planned will be the installation of a sculpture representing Saint-Exupéry's plane that landed in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, at the start of the route, which will also act as a photocall", said Assumpció Castellví.

"This product is designed so that the neighbourhood and local associations can be part of it, develop it, make it their own and come up with new experiences. It is led by the Department of Tourism, but all the economic sectors of the municipality (restaurants, shops, hotels and restaurants...) and all entities have a place in it. We hope to count on your collaboration", said the mayoress.

In order to raise awareness of this new product and involve the people of Vandellòs i L'Hospitalet de l'Infant in this project, the Department of Tourism has organised a programme of free events based around the world of The Little Prince. During the so- called "The Little Prince Week", scheduled from 20 to 28 April, there will be a cinema session, a family show, children's workshops, a reading aloud competition and a quick- drawing competition.

The first event will be the presentation of the Viatge a l'Infant route, which will take place on Saturday 20 April at 11 am, in front of the sculpture of The Little Prince by the Cambrils artist David Callau, on Passeig de l'Arenal. Participants will receive a gift and will then be taken to the start of the route.

In addition, during that week, seven restaurants in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant will be offering a "suquet de crayfish", which is the dish that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tasted during his stay in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant. Specifically, in the following establishments: Restaurant LB21, Bar-Restaurant D'Antis, Bar-Cervecería Cal Rullo, Restaurant Vanes, Restaurant-Pizzeria Can Donatello, Restaurant La Strega and Restaurant Nàutic.

The full programme of events can be consulted on the municipal website: www.vandellos-hospitalet.cat.

The link between The Little Prince and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant

The link between The Little Prince and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant came to light in 2004, following the publication in Diari de Tarragona of an article by the lawyer and economist Francisco Merelo Barberà, entitled "El día que conocí a Saint-Exupéry en Vandellòs" ("The day I met Saint-Exupéry in Vandellòs"), in which he explained his testimony. In 2013, the journalist Javier Díaz took up this information in another article published in the same newspaper with the title "The Little Prince landed in Vandellòs" and in another article in 2018 ("The forced landing of Saint-Exupéry in Vandellòs i L'Hospitalet"); and later, Alfons Tejero, an expert in the history of the municipality of Vandellòs i L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, pulled the thread and went deeper into the investigation, reconstructing this historical episode in documentary form. Thus, he managed to find out the landing point, the month and year, which plane was piloting and the place where he ate (the inn at number 33 Via Augusta), among other details.