destacados

The delegation organized by the Galician Tourism Cluster of the Consellería de Cultura e Turismo and Turespaña participated in one of the most important international tourism fairs for the sector.

For the fifth consecutive year tour operators, accommodation and entities linked to Galician tourism met at the International Tourism Fair of Berlin ITB Berlin, which hosts the German capital until next Sunday in what remains the great professional fair for the tourism sector. The 25 members of the trade mission promoted by the Galician Tourism Cluster in collaboration with the Consellería de Cultura e Turismo developed an agenda of contacts in the space that Galicia has in the fair, within the stand of Turespaña.

In addition to the meetings scheduled through the management service offered by the Cluster, each of the participants in the trade mission maintained their own agendas of contacts with the international tour operator that meets at this fair, which annually brings together more than 100 thousand professionals from 190 countries that this year has in sustainability one of its key items.

“The MICE sector and the business travel sector have a fundamental appointment in this fair”, explains the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, who also highlights the weight of B2B meetings in this international space and in a market of great interest for the Galician tourist sector such as the German one. The new technologies, the mobility, the sustainability or the perspectives for 2020 of the development of the Spanish tourist sector in the German market in which it continues being leader after 25 years in the position number 1.

The German market, the second most important after the Portuguese one
Germany continues to be the second most important international issuing market for Galicia in terms of the number of tourists that our community receives, after Portugal. In 2018 were registered more than 130,000 German travelers in Galicia and more than 220,000 overnight stays from this country, a figure that represents 2.2% of all overnight stays of foreign tourists during the past year.

Meetings with professionals and authorities
Galicia’s participation in the ITB within the Turespaña stand has also allowed it to maintain interesting contacts with the Galician delegation as part of Green Spain. In addition to the visit of the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Román Rodríguez, and the General Director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro, the work space co-managed by the Galician Tourism Cluster was visited by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, the Spanish consul in Germany, Ricardo Martínez, the president of Turespaña, Héctor Gómez, or the president of the ICTE, Manuel Mirones, among others. In many of these meetings was present the proximity of the celebration of the next Xacobeo 2021 and the need to establish coordinated meetings between all the autonomous communities through which passes the Camino de Santiago, which remains one of the largest ambassadors of Galician territory abroad.

Specialised and quality tourism

The businessmen who travelled on this trade mission participated in a total of 33 meetings with a total of 20 German tour operators who work the destination Galicia as with others who want to start doing so. All of them were presented with the quality offer of Galicia as a quiet and sustainable tourist destination, presenting tourist products adapted to this market, which is increasingly oriented towards a profile of traveller with a medium, medium-high level of expenditure who are looking for unique experiences, with special interest in gastronomy, nature and the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago de Compostela, especially with a view to the Xacobeo 2021. The balance between operators who work in cultural, gastronomic and active tourism is growing, surpassing even in this edition the interest of German operators who demand culture and gastronomy on active tourism around the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago.

Representatives of the different provincial associations and federations of hotel and catering from the four provinces, travel and reception agencies, hotel complexes and intermediation companies specialised in active tourism or the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago, among others, take part in the mission.