Arona closes the last day of its presence at the World Travel Market with its sights set on a potential market of hundreds of thousands of tourists, which in 2019 alone, the last full year before the pandemic, added 757,961 visitors, 48% of a total of 1,579,057 that the municipality received at that time. Although Brexit and the health security barriers of the new normal are presented as added difficulties, the destination is leaving London with the optimistic forecasts of the tour operators.
“The data on British tourism and the need to shore up the positive outlook made Arona’s presence in this edition of the World Travel Market more necessary than ever. We are talking about an open destination, a destination prepared and ready and that requires concrete actions, such as being here present and contacting the main tour operators ”, explained the mayor, José Julián Mena.
In addition to the meetings with operators led by Turismo de Tenerife, an entity of which the Arona City Council is a part, both the mayor and the Councilor for Tourism, José Alberto Delgado, have met with others such as Jet2, one of the most relevant globally.
In addition, Mena has also held a meeting with four other mayors of the Alliance of Tourist Municipalities of Sun and Beach, at the stand of Spain. Arona is a founding partner of this entity that brings together the main destinations of these characteristics nationwide and of which municipalities such as Benidorm, Lloret de Mar, Salou or San Bartolomé de Tirajana, among others, are part.
European Health Destination and digital transformation project
With the aim of showing the health security of Arona as a destination, the municipality has emphasized, on the one hand, its nature as a healthy destination, with the European Health Destination certification, which is almost complete, which will make Arona a the first national and second international destination to achieve it.
On the other hand, the municipality has put in value the 5.6 million euros of investment that are in tender together with the national public entity Red.es in a digital transformation project.
Among other issues, this provides for the implementation in Arona of a digital platform with the inclusion of applications ranging from a trip planner to weather stations, through the use of artificial intelligence for parking management.
José Alberto Delgado: “Close, with quality of life and insurance”
Councilor José Alberto Delgado has underlined “the meeting agenda that we have deployed throughout the morning, which has allowed us to make contact with numerous tour operators from different markets, which is a good opportunity to diversify Arona as a destination for the gradual recovery. We are a nearby destination, with a good climate, a good quality of life and insurance from a health point of view ”, he added.
