The Regional Minister of Tourism, Trade and Sport, Luciano Alonso, announced that as part of World Travel Market (WTM), held in London last week, that a new promotional strategy will be launched by Andalusia directed specifically at the United Kingdom with the aim of “reconquering” the British market and “showing more aggression” in the campaign to bring back British tourists to Andalucia.
“The Costa del Sol is arguably the jewel in the crown of Spain’s coastal holiday destinations and has been a Mecca for tourists for over 30 years, but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We must pick up the pace once again and make sure that we continue to compete with the emerging world markets.”
He said that among the measures to be incorporated into the Plan of Action for the next year, will be a seminar directed solely at travel agents called ‘Let’s talk about Andalucia’ which will include cuisine workshops involving many top chefs from around the region.
The plan will also be aimed at attracting visitors to consumer-class sporting events such as major golf tournaments, rugby matches and La Liga football fixtures.
The Minister said that the strategy will involve further research into the tourist image of community-renowned brands such as Harrods. But he wanted a two pronged attack, the first of which should be aimed at the thousands of Brits already living in the region who he wanted to encourage to spend more time discovering the real Andalusia. “We cannot do this without the British, who have so far been our best travel companions” he said.
The British account for one third of the total foreign arrivals to the region, with an average stay of 10.5 days while spending a daily average of 60 euros. Leisure remains the main motivation for 90% of them, with the weather, the history and the beaches being the other main factors determining the choice of destination.
Alonso noted that a remarkable feature of the British traveller is that, although most use the Internet to learn about a destination, a quarter of them still buy their holiday packages through tour companies. For this reason, he pointed out that “Andalucia will strengthen the work it does with tour operators as they are exceptionally important channel for the marketing of a holiday destination.”
The Minister has insisted that British tourism “has been the great ally of Andalusia for many years and we will not give up”. He reiterated that “we will not leave any stone unturned in order to return to path of growth and restore our market share. We must also improve our relationships with the many British airlines which can help us augment the number of visitors by increasing the frequency of flights between our two countries, the distance between which is less than three hours.
