SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 17 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The delegation of the island of Tenerife participates from this Wednesday in a new edition of the 'International Tourism Fair Fitur 2022' that will be held in Madrid from January 19 to 23 with the aim of consolidating the growth data of national visitors registered at the end of 2021 and the air seats for this year.
The island is presented at the event as a reference destination in sustainability and digitization.
The delegation will be headed by the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, who will be accompanied by the insular director of Tourism, Laura Castro; the CEO of Tenerife Tourism, David Pérez, as well as representatives of tourist municipalities and approximately a hundred companies in the island tourism sector.
In 2021, the national one became the first market of origin of tourists for Tenerife, ahead of the British and the Germans.
According to the data accumulated up to November, domestic travelers registered an increase of 53.3% compared to the same period in 2020.
In total, the number of lodgers of that nationality rose to 869,633 in those eleven months of the year, compared to the 567,208 of the previous year, which means 302,425 more travelers.
Pedro Martín highlights in a note that "this improvement in the Spanish market in a context as complicated and uncertain as this, is, of course, the result of intense work carried out from Tenerife to increase air connectivity with the main issuing markets" .
Martín details that in 2021 air capacity with the Peninsula had increased by 48% compared to the previous year.
In addition, the president indicated that this positive evolution is expected to continue this year in the markets as a whole, since as of today a regular capacity of around 7.5 million air seats has been confirmed, both national and international. international, "which is 53.2% more than last year".
According to the analysis of the first data from January, there is a growing interest of national travelers in Tenerife, as shown by the number of reservations made to date, which has multiplied by five compared to those made in the same week last year, he says.
BUDGETARY INCREASE OF 4.5%
For her part, the insular director of Tourism, Laura Castro, focuses on the reinforcement that the Cabildo has made in the area of Tourism for this financial year , with a budget increase of 4.5% to 27 million euros, "with the aim of propping up the good work that is being done to recover visitors to the island, which will allow us to overcome the situation derived from the pandemic and reposition to the island at the top of the preferred destinations for national and international tourists".
In this sense, Laura Castro points out that "one of the main strategic lines of the Tourism area in 2022 focuses precisely on improving promotion and connectivity, for which a budget of 16 million euros is planned, to which must be added planned items to improve the destination, with important actions on the coast, included in the Tenerife and the Sea programme, or the new tourist information offices and smart signage, among other projects".
For his part, David Pérez highlights that "one of the main objectives of participating in Fitur 2022 is to facilitate direct dialogue with the main operators in the sector to reach agreements and alliances for the summer high season of 2022 ".
At the same time, he comments, "we seek to continue advancing in the objectives of sustainable tourism development after the certification of Tenerife as a Biosphere destination."
In his opinion, "sustainability is one of the great assets on which the island's tourism strategy is based, which makes Tenerife a pioneer compared to other Biosphere destinations by also involving companies in the sector."
He also adds that "another great element of Tenerife's strength is digitization, not only because of its recognition as the first Spanish island as a Smart Tourist Destination, but also because of the Artificial Intelligence Tourism Master Plan, a pioneer throughout the country and which seeks to turn it into a pole of technological attraction applied to tourism to offer the travel industry new and better experiences".
MEETINGS WITH SECTOR OPERATORS
During the fair, and especially between the 19th and 20th, the Tenerife delegation will hold meetings with traditional travel operators, OTAs (online travel agencies), airlines, media and Spanish tourism offices present at the fair.
One day before the official inauguration, this Tuesday, the Tenerife delegation will hold a meeting with the main executives of the Spanish tourism industry to inform them of the destination's news, both from the promotional point of view and from the modernization and improvement of the infrastructures of the island.
This meeting will also serve to convey the strategy to be followed in 2022 in the different markets and especially the Spanish one, with elements such as nature, culture, gastronomy or leisure among its sales arguments, always with the focus of the unique experiences that the traveler can live in the destination.