Few photos are as evocative and unforgettable as this one that accompanies these lines. It brings together the components of that unforgettable promotion to the United Kingdom, Britannia 78, which seems to me to have been the first or perhaps the most important.
At that time, some lucky journalists accompanied members of the tourism sector on trips promoting the Canary Islands. I remember two, especially, one in Scandinavia, where I met the famous Danish pastor Krogager, founder of Tjaereborg and the Sterling airline, who began his foray into tourism by organizing parish trips and turned his company into an emporium. And the Britannia 78, which marked a milestone in the opening of the Canary Islands to the outside world, specifically to our main market, the United Kingdom. There were others, Prague, the Dominican Republic, etc.
I’m going to talk to you about that Britannia. We were three journalists, the sadly disappeared Alfonso García-Ramos and Manuel Iglesias and me. And a lot of people from the tourism sector. You can identify them in the photo. Several, such as Salvador González, Juan Jesús García Sanjuán, Leopoldo Cebrián (photographer), the aforementioned journalists, Guillermo Acosta, Sierra and some more are no longer among us.
If memory serves, we visited London, Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. Maybe some other city; It’s been 45 years since this. In Manchester it was so cold that, while walking, my face became paralyzed and I had to go into a hotel to stand next to the fireplace to reactivate my circulation. The fur was really terrible.
Few will forget arriving in Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland, where the IRA had bombed the area around the Europa Hotel, which was where we stayed. The doors were protected by sandbags and the establishment guarded by British soldiers with machine guns. Two days earlier, an IRA shell smashed the hotel’s windows. In Bradford we played a game of football against the travel agency employees. Alfonso García-Ramos played as goalkeeper, wearing a cap, scarf and dress shoes and socks, in the absence of adequate luggage. That futsal match was a mess.
When we left Ulster and took a BOAC Vikers Viscount to Edinburgh, a severe storm broke out, causing panic even among the flight attendants on the plane, who were crying. Packages placed in individual luggage compartments fell on passengers. I think we were about to go into the sea. In the end we arrived in Edinburgh, between laughter and the occasional nervous breakdown.
A few years ago, Pepe Sabaté, then Councilor of the Cabildo, had created the Tenerife Tourist Board (I think it was in 1973), in which Pepe Sabaté himself had an absolutely fundamental role, and today he can tell more about it. 90 years old. The Board of Trustees has turned 50 years old, now with a different name, but with the same spirit as that one. And I cannot forget Gloria Salgado, who has been the architect of the best promotions that the Canaries in the sector have made in history.
This photo, which you have along with my hasty story, attests to the attendees. By the way, there was only one woman on the expedition, I think it was Yutta Álvarez.
I want the evocation of this trip to do justice to Sabaté’s initiative and we journalists were able to verify and convey to our media the work of the professionals in the sector, who must be thanked for their efforts, their sacrifice and their dedication to foreign promotion from the island of Tenerife. The master of ceremonies of all the events was always Juanjo Iglesias, who presented Lorenzo Dorta, who represented the Cabildo, as “the lord mayor of Garachico”, a title that had more status than councilor of the Cabildo, which no one in the United Kingdom knew. what was it.
Anyway, a brushstroke for the history of our first promotions. That Britannia 78 marked a before and after in the knowledge of Tenerife abroad and the confirmation that we must go out and offer our product, with head and means. It was achieved. And look what the Canary Islands are today, with more than 14 million tourists a year. It was worth it? Of course.
