THAT IS the message that will be conveyed to millions of Brits after it was announced that a joint promotional campaign by the Provincial Patronage of Tourism and the Tourism Department of the Diputacion of Alicante will be launched in the UK to encourage British holiday makers to come to the Costa Blanca.
Posters promoting the Costa Blanca will be all over the country thanks to a financial grant of €400,000. The Chief Executive of the Patronage of Tourism of the Costa Blanca, Gema Amor, and the President of the Benidorm Hotel Association HOSBEC, Antoni Mayor, said that they hoped that the promotional campaign will have a great impact on potential holiday makers to the area.
IMPORTANT ROLE
The Delegation of Alicante has been instrumental in organising the campaign which will promote the Costa Blanca in ten cities across the United Kingdom; meaning that an approximate population of 20,750,000 people will be targeted.
The campaign was launched this week at a press conference which was also attended by provincial tourist associations such as APHA, Aptur, Benidorm Promotion, the Provincial Association of Travel Agencies, the Chamber of Commerce, Benidorm Palace and Aqualandia and it was announced that they will all play an important role in the development of this promotional initiative.
The Provincial Patronage of Tourism indicated that the campaign will begin later this month and will initially last for four months, although some aspects will continue throughout 2011.
FIVE PHASES
The main aim is to attract Brits back to the region following a slight decline in traveller numbers over the last few years. Although still the main foreign tourist market for the Costa Blanca with 59% of the international visitors coming from the United Kingdom, numbers have declined as a result of the Sterling/Euro rate drop; with tourists finding countries like Turkey more favourable for their holiday destination.
In 2009, Alicante Airport registered 4,272,213 passengers coming from the British Isles which equates to a whopping 46% of the total volume. As a result, the promotional campaign will consist of five phases, using different supports and marketing strategies and will be centred on the cities of Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, Cardiff, Newcastle and Doncaster.
The ‘Costa Blanca’ campaign will be present in more than 172 travel agencies in the UK by means of office posters that will be in place for a year, as well as information on the agencies’ website pages, with the aim of being placed directly at the point of sale of any tourist package. Also, there will be 106 taxis in two British cities carrying the ‘Costa Blanca’ posters and in eight of the cities, 210 six metre by three metre illuminated advertising panels will be strategically placed on the main thoroughfares into and out of the cities, also displaying posters.
MAXIMUM VISIBILTY
In addition, the main railway stations in five of the cities will also have illuminated signs and in eight of the cities, the main British supermarkets of Waitrose, Tesco, Morrisons and ASDA will have illuminated poster panels installed in their stores.
Ms Amor added: “We wanted to launch a campaign with the maximum visibility possible, which will inspire people who are thinking about booking their holidays next summer, to come to the Costa Blanca. For this reason, our image will be visible on public transport, in supermarkets, on major City Centre access roads and in commercial centres.” She added: “We are happy to have secured this campaign, which was asked for be many areas of the provincial tourist sector and our objective is to generate the greatest impact and potentially attract more than 20 million people to the area.”
