The delegation from Tenerife that traveled to Fitur has closed the first day of professional meetings with good prospects for this year, especially from the summer and, specifically, in the British market. This has been verified after the meeting held with Jet2 Holidays, one of the main tour operators in this market.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, pointed out that the British market has begun to recover since last July and has once again become the first foreign market that sends tourists to the island, with a share of 17.3%.
Martín, who participated throughout the day in the work meetings, highlighted that “the perception is one of optimism, because despite the current situation derived from the pandemic, there is a desire to travel, there are new agreements, there is more connectivity and, with these meetings that we are holding, we have the feeling that, taking into account how high vaccination is in Spain and Tenerife, the summer months will probably be different and we will finally begin to notice a change.
The president affirmed that among the objectives of the participation in Fitur, he highlights that of “consolidating a job that we have been doing for more than a year and a half so as not to be left alone with our main client, which is the British, who must be taken care of, but we have to open expectations, open agreements with other markets in which there are interesting opportunities”.
In addition, he insisted that “Tenerife is the leader in connectivity in the Canary Islands and our goal is to continue working to get companies that had disappeared or new ones to come back, such as Air France, Aeroflot, Lufthansa and many others that have increased the capacity of Tenerife to attract markets that were beginning to grow and others that we had been losing in recent times”.
After the inauguration of this new edition of Fitur by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, and the Canary Islands stand, where the Tenerife stand is located, the delegation from Tenerife has held various meetings, which will continue tomorrow, Thursday, with important meetings with national operators .
The island director of Tourism, Laura Castro, referred to the importance that the Cabildo de Tenerife gives to the area it directs, “taking into account that the sector has been especially affected by the consequences of the pandemic, so the public involvement had to be greater, and so it has been, with a budget increase that we are going to focus on intensifying promotion and increasing connectivity on the island, especially seeking to increase the flag carriers that operate with Tenerife”.
“This is accompanied by a set of actions in the infrastructure and tourist facilities of the island, with projects that result in the improvement of the destination for the benefit of those who visit us but also of the people who reside on the island, in addition to the one already presented tourism strategy in which sustainability and digitization play a fundamental role”, explained Castro.
The CEO of Tenerife Tourism, David Pérez, stressed the relevance of the meetings held today, “in which we have been able to verify the interest in bringing tourists to Tenerife, both among new international operators such as United Airlines, and among national operators. ”. In this case, the prospects for summer are positive for this market, said David Pérez, “with two and a half million plane seats available right now.”
As for the meeting with the United Airlines company, which will link Tenerife and New York from June, he stressed that “the parent company in the United States is very strongly committed to this project.” In relation to Turespaña, “with which we have held an institutional meeting, the good relations and existing collaboration with Tenerife in different promotional projects throughout the world have become clear”.
