SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The delegation from Tenerife at the World Travel Market (WTM) has made a very positive assessment of the fair held this week in London, as the large British tour operators and travel agencies have transferred their “excellent” forecasts for the arrival of travelers to the island in 2023 , with growth expectations for the whole year.
This is also supported by the change in perception observed in the United Kingdom about the Tenerife destination, which has gone from being considered a vacation spot exclusively for ‘sun and beach’ to becoming a diverse and multi-experiential destination.
The island’s director of Tourism, Laura Castro, points out in a note that “the presence at the fair has been key to knowing first-hand the forecasts of agents and tour operators, to define strategies and be able to anticipate the needs and demands of potential customers , both in the British and European markets”.
The forecasts are positive, “although always from the point of prudence”, points out Castro, who valued the presence of the nearly 60 entities associated with Turismo de Tenerife, with whom meetings have also been held to find out their forecasts and define strategies and lines of collaboration to strengthen the destination.
For his part, the CEO of Tourism of Tenerife, David Pérez, assures that “it has been a fairly productive fair, the first face-to-face after the pandemic, but marked by the uncertainty of the current situation on the continent and in the United Kingdom” .
In his opinion, “we are already noticing the results of the strategy on which we have been working for some years, and we hope that this change in visitor profile will be consolidated in 2023, so that it will have an impact on the increase in British tourist spending that visits us”.
The thirty meetings held during the three days of the fair with tour operators and agencies reveal that the trend of last-minute reservations continues, and that vacation demand for the year is firm.
The celebration on the island of major events in 2023, such as the ‘Spartan Race’, the ‘Giro d’Italia Ride Like a Pro’, the ‘Tenerife Bluetrail’, the ‘Culture Pride’, the ‘Eurorainbow’ or the ‘World Corpotate Golf Challenge’ (WCGC) have favored contact not only with leading tour operators, but also with other alternatives, in order to offer a living destination with top international level leisure, cultural and sports alternatives.
Thus, among the meetings, meetings and interviews held with accredited tour operators, airlines and media at the fair, those of TUI, Thomas Cook, Love Holidays, Itaka Poland, Jet2, British Airways, Easyjet Holidays, Wanderlust, Budget Traveler stand out. , Destination2, Travel Weekly or Conde Nast Traveler.
The commitment to the sustainability of the destination, its authenticity, and the search for a traveler who wants to live the experiences that the island can offer him during his stay, have been the main elements of the destination transferred in these professional appointments.
In addition to the island’s Director of Tourism and the CEO of Tenerife Tourism, the Tenerife delegation at the WTM included representatives from Ashotel, the town councils of Arona, Adeje, Puerto de la Cruz and Santiago del Teide, as well as technicians and some 60 companies associated with Turismo de Tenerife, an entity dependent on the island corporation.
IN FIGURES
In the winter season, the island will have 29 percent more air capacity from the United Kingdom compared to 2019 and will almost reach one million seats, and forecasts for the first eight months of 2023 suggest that regular air capacity will be 2 .2 percent higher than the same period in 2019.
Between January and September 2022, 1,462,010 British tourists entered Tenerife, 46 percent of all travelers of that nationality arriving in the Canary Islands and in terms of passengers, the figure rises to 1,661,556.
Regarding the profile of the British tourist, the average age is 49.9 years, their average income is 61,573 euros, 8 percent above the average of tourists who visit Tenerife, and almost 8,000 euros more than the income of the British who spent their holidays on the island in 2019.
They are also among the most loyal tourists to the island (with a repetition rate of 75.2 percent) and their average tourist spending per person was 1,301 euros.
