Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism predicts reaching figure of 15 million British tourists in 2014

Within the framework of the trade fair, Minister Soria underlined that the United Kingdom maintains its position as the leading emitting market to Spain and, if the trend to date is maintained, a total of 15 million British tourists will visit Spain by the end of the year.

At an earlier meeting held between Minister Soria and agents from the British tourism sector, the tour operators very positively assessed the reform process carried out by the Government of Spain which has led to positive figures of economic growth.

The British choose Spain as their tourism destination

In 2013, a total of 14.3 million British tourists chose Spain as their tourism destination, with a market share of 23%, spending a total of 12 billion euros. In the year to date, a significant increase has been seen on all fronts, with a 7% increase in spending and a 5.6% increase in inbound tourists.

The image of Spain as a safe tourism destination for British visitors, its development towards a beach plus destination (offer of sun and beach plus additional activities), the recovery in demand to pre-crisis levels and the undisputed leadership of Spain in the summer, with a market share of 36.2%, as well as in the winter, with 33.4%, all point towards a positive outlook, asserted the minister, who also mentioned the enormous loyalty of British tourists to Spain, with 85% repeating the experience and 42% on 10 or more occasions.

For the winter season, the majority of package holiday reservations are for the Canary Islands, specifically 25.3% of the total, reflected in the additional air capacity recorded in the islands, with 45,037 more passengers than in 2013.

José Manuel Soria highlighted, during his speech, that "the policy of tourism diversification being implemented by the Ministry of Industry is managing to achieve, specifically in this market, that tourists are attracted by the enormous diversity of our country".

Hence, the reason for the success of the Spanish offer is based on a mixed balance of quality and the guarantee of enjoyment of very varied tourism products, such as culture, gastronomy, sport, entertainment, etc. offered throughout the year.

This is a result of the offer promoted by Turespaña following a marketing strategy designed after seeing the results of a market survey undertaken by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, which goes beyond the traditional sun and beach offer, with additional reasons to travel to Spain outside of high season to discover new locations, sometimes not far from the traditional beaches.

The Spanish presence at the trade fair occupies 2,000 square metres with 334 exhibitors distributed in 18 stands. The Turespaña pavilion of the Spanish Tourism Institute at this year's edition has a surface area of 1,001 square metres, hosting regional governments, local councils, official bodies, hotel chains, travel agencies, airlines and others. There are 30 different companies and 14 tourist destinations with their own stand represented in the pavilion.

Spain is once again top destination for British tourists

The United Kingdom is once again the leading emitting markets of tourists to Spain, the main holiday destination for the British, as shown by the figures for arrivals in the first nine months of the year. Between January and September, 12,358,931 British tourists opted for Spain as their tourist destination, a 5.6% increase and a market share of total arrivals to Spain of 23.6%.

In terms of the method of organisation of their trip, between January and September 2014, 7,898,273 British tourists visited Spain without package holidays, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%, in other words, 63.9% of the total, while 4,460,658 tourists visited under a package holiday format, a 6.9% increase on the same period last year.

On another note, the total number of nights spent in Spain by British tourists in the first nine months of 2014 amounted to 109,350,583, a rise of 6.6%, which rose to 16.3% for trips of between 16 and 30 nights, and to 9.5% for 2-3 day trips. For trips of 8-15 nights, a 6.4% increase was posted, thus demonstrating that during the last year the trend of longer holidays was on the rise.

123 new routes between United Kingdom and Spain in 2014

123 new routes have been added to the network of connections between the United Kingdom and Spain in 2014, with flights operating from 29 British airports to 28 Spanish airports.

Furthermore, the figures for the first nine months of 2014 show an increase in passenger loads, with a record average load figure this year of 87.72%, since generally flights to Spain have an average load of 85%.

Promoting Spain

As from November this year, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, through Turespaña, will launch a powerful advertising campaign in the main online British markets, with visual ads under the campaign slogan "I need Spain", with the aim of strengthening Spain's leading position in this market.

During 2014 and within Turespaña's Strategic Marketing Plan 2012-2016, the Spanish Tourism Office in London has selected 10 priority products on which marketing efforts will be focused: sun and beach plus, cultural tourism, city tourism, gastronomy, tours, country and nature, golf, MICE, study trips and special interest trips.

A total of 241 promotional activities will be organised, including 81 press trips, 48 travel agent trips, 22 workshops, 30 channel training actions and 56 marketing and communication actions aimed at the final consumer and the media. These actions have generated, to date, an advertising value in excess of 9.3 million euros (7.4 million pounds sterling). A travel guide has also been prepared with the prestigious magazine Monocle, and a gastronomy tourism guide with the magazine Food&Travel.

For the last three years, the strategic focus of the Turespaña Office in London has been online and content marketing, to which end a digital ecosystem has been designed that encompasses the UK market portal, a Social News Hub for digital media and bloggers and a growing presence on the social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), through which it has achieved significant organic growth and a high level of engagement.

Along these lines, a digital magazine has been launched - 'SPN, inspired by Spain' - a pioneer project in the tourism sector which, through its travel, art, music, gastronomy, fashion and travel sections, shows a modern and less conventional image of Spain (www.spnmagazine.com).

Financial Times Forum "Investing in Gran Canaria"

The Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, will take part on Tuesday 4 November, at 9:00 am in a forum organised by the Financial Times entitled "Investing in Gran Canaria - The Business Hub between Europe and Africa".