The Spanish Tourism Institute (Turespaña) has organised a series of conferences to support the marketing of Spanish tourism in the markets of the United States and Canada. The event will take place from 18 to 20 April in Mallorca, under the title ‘Spain Tourism Summit 2023’, and the Canary Islands will be one of the destinations that agents and tour operators of these countries will get to know.
According to the organisers, the goal of the event is to position Spain among the top European destinations in these two markets, as a tourist destination of “quality, safe and sustainable”. The president of Turespaña, Miguel Sanz, stressed that these two countries are “very important” issuing markets due to their progressive and notable economic recovery, with “vigorous” growth in 2022 in both tourist volume and spending.
Sanz also pointed out that “they are markets of great potential for Spain due to their seasonal effect and high purchasing power”. This summer Spain will have direct connections from the United States to the airports of Madrid, Barcelona, Tenerife, Majorca and Malaga; and from Canada, to Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga.
73 SPANISH COMPANIES AND DESTINATIONS
A total of 75 North American travel agents and tour operators selected by Turespaña’s five tourism departments in North America (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami in the United States, and Toronto in Canada) will take part in the conference in Mallorca, where they will meet with 73 representatives of Spanish tourism companies and destinations.
These reverse conferences are the first to be held in Spain since the pandemic and have a dual objective: to continue the marketing support work carried out at the 2022 direct conferences in Miami and to promote knowledge of other Spanish destinations, in addition to Mallorca. To this end, Turespaña has also organised, together with ten Spanish destinations, different pre- and post-tours for buyers arriving on 13 April.
Thus, agents and tour operators from these two countries will have the opportunity to visit six more destinations on the Spanish mainland (Costa Brava-Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia, Castile and Leon, Madrid and Aragon) and four in the Balearic and Canary Islands (Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Ibiza and Menorca).
MARKETS WITH HIGH PURCHASING POWER
In 2022, the expenditure of tourists from both countries will exceed the average total expenditure and per tourist. Thus, tourists from the United States spent 5,266.8 million euros in Spain (6% of the total), which placed them in sixth place as an issuing market for tourists to Spain (2.8 million tourists) and in fourth place in terms of expenditure. The average spending per person per day was 1,889 and 266 euros, respectively, while the average stay was 7.1 nights.
The Canadian market ranks 18th as an issuer in terms of expenditure, with a progressive growth that is reflected in the more than 754 million euros spent by Canadians in Spain in 2022, with an average expenditure per tourist of 2,121 euros, much higher than the 1,800 euros in 2019 and with an average stay of more than 8 days.
