The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, visited the World Travel Market and the stand of Turespaña, where she had the opportunity to talk briefly with the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, as well as with the person in charge of internationalization of Tourism of Galicia, Carmen Pita. Maroto took advantage of his presence to emphasize that he is confident that the British market will continue to be the main issuing market for Spain, as it has been until now. Not in vain 18 of the 81 million tourists who chose Spain last year were British, who maintain a very high rate of loyalty, as 84% repeat their visit to our country.
However, also stressed the head of tourism in our country, which evidently there is uncertainty before the Brexit, but advanced that the Spanish tourism sector believes it is preparing for the brexit and predicted a future that allows “maintain strong bilateral relations with the United Kingdom. “We have to alert and help companies in this matter,” said the minister, who reported that she plans to travel soon to the Belgian capital to “analyze the situation.
Sun and beach is still what British tourists are looking for in our country, although the minister stressed the importance of diversifying the offer. “We want to maintain the ‘sun and beach’, and in the 2019 Budget we propose new investments, but we also want to encourage product diversification with other resources that Spain has,” she explained. In this sense, he highlighted “city, gastronomic or rural tourism”, as well as “boosting the offer of ‘all-inclusive'” which, he said, “continues to be the star producer among the British.
“We want to increase the value of the package with new activities such as hiking, golf or water sports that can add value to a product that is already very good,” he said. For Maroto is essential to work on “strengthen the quality of the brand Spain” above the price of the offer to differentiate itself from its main competitors, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey.
Working in the future
As main plans, stressed the change in the marketing plans of Turespaña, as well as the Sustainable Tourism Strategy 2025, which allow “maintain competitiveness” in the sector. In addition, proclaimed as one of the main objectives to attract distant markets such as China because of the 146 million tourists a year, only 600,000 visit Spain.