SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain, chaired by La Laguna, participates starting this Tuesday in the ITB Berlin tourism fair, one of the main international events in the tourism sector that is held until March 9. After the pandemic break, the fair has become an exclusively professional event.
The mayor of La Laguna and president of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, explained that the German market is strategic for the 15 Spanish cities included in the World Heritage list, with significant growth expectations in this 2023.
He added that Spain, and of course the Canary Islands, is one of the favorite vacation spots for German tourists, due to its nature, gastronomy, historical heritage and great cultural offer. “We know that the traveler is especially interested in the offer of sun and nature, but in our cities they will also find the most complete and powerful offer in the Central European market, as universal references of culture and heritage”, he added.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez has detailed that the Group’s international promotion campaign in 2023 includes, in addition to Berlin, international tourism fairs in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Singapore and we are also working with Chinese tour operators to promote a campaign focused on attracting this type of tourist through an offer of services adapted to their reality.
The Group is also going to make presentations in international markets with Turespaña and Paradores in Belgium and Porto and, in addition, it will carry out other promotional events with Madrid Destino, in northern Europe, specifically in Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Regarding the German market, according to provisional results of the Reiseanalyse 2023 study, prepared by the FUR research association, in 2022 the number of holiday trips (lasting more than 5 days) made by the German population increased by 13% compared to to 2021, reaching 63 million. The volume of short trips (from 2 to 4 days) grew to reach 80 million.
The FUR forecasts for 2023 estimate that the volume of holiday trips will grow to 65 million (+3%). According to the latest data available, of the holiday trips abroad (63% of the total; 34.9 million) made in 2021, 11.5% were destined for Spain, so our country maintains its leadership as an international destination.
In 2022, the German market showed powerful growth in relation to 2021, both in the flow of tourists (+87.4%) and in spending (+90.8%) and in hotel overnight stays (+101.7 %). In relation to 2019, the flow of tourists and hotel overnight stays are still below with values of 87% and 88% over 2019, but spending practically already reaches pre-pandemic levels (99% over 2019).
Last year, 9.76 million German tourists visited Spain, 13.6% of all tourists. This figure places Germany in third place, behind the United Kingdom (21.1%) and France (14.1%). Regarding spending, the German market was in second place, with 11,513.2 million euros, contributing 13.2% of the total, clearly surpassed by the United Kingdom (19.3%), although ahead of France (9, 4%). The average expenses per person and day amounted to 1,179 and 145 euros, respectively, while the average stay was 8.2 nights (Turespaña estimate based on INE microdata).
The Group participates in the ITB by virtue of the collaboration agreement signed with Turespaña and has a space within the stand for Spain, attended by the Group’s Tourism technician, Patricia Hernández, who, in addition to providing information on the destinations to the public, will maintain working meetings with tour operators and agencies interested in Heritage Cities.
It will also participate in La Noche de España and Spain Tourism Awards 2023, an event organized by the Spanish Tourist Office as a meeting point for institutions and representatives of Spanish destinations and entities with the German professional sector, where agents, tour operators and media are awarded specialists who have best worked with the destination Spain during the previous year.
The Turespaña Roundtable ITB 2023 event is also held within the framework of the ITB, under the slogan ‘German Traveler Trends: How to attract high-impact travelers to mature destinations’, which will include the participation of Miguel Sanz, General Director of Turespaña and Germán Jiménez, CEO of Turium, who will analyze the German luxury and high-impact traveler based on data from the German Travel Trends research panel, developed by KPRN and the market intelligence firm Braintrust CS. The panel discussion will be moderated by Klaus Hildebrandt, editor-in-chief of the leading German travel publication, fvw|TravelTalk.
