SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Group of 15 World Heritage Cities of Spain (GCPHE) has carried out a campaign to promote its tourism offer at the JATA Tourism Expo Japan, the main international tourism fair in the Asia-Pacific region, held at the end October in the Japanese city of Osaka.
In a statement, the president of the Group and mayor of La Laguna (Tenerife), Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, highlighted that “we continue with a powerful international promotion campaign for Heritage Cities, in this case in the eastern market, where Spain continues to be “one of the most in-demand destinations and where the recovery of tourism is increasingly stronger.”
“We are talking – he continued – of travelers interested mainly in visits to cities and who are committed to cultural tourism, which constitutes a great opportunity for our Group.”
Furthermore, he recalled “the opportunity that being part of the Group of World Heritage Cities represents for La Laguna, not only when it comes to establishing joint policies for the conservation and protection of our heritage assets, but also when it comes to positioning ourselves as a tourist destination.” first level with a differentiated offer”.
For its part, participation in this fair has been coordinated with the Spanish Tourism Office in Tokyo, and is part of the joint action plan of the Group of World Heritage Cities and Turespaña.
For this reason, representatives of the Group have participated in the specific workshop for the destination Spain with representatives of Spanish destinations, companies and entities, together with professionals from the Japanese tourism sector.
According to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization and INE-Frontur, the provisional number of Japanese tourists who have traveled abroad between January and May 2023 amounted to 2,911,000 people (538.7% more than the previous year) and , to Spain, 108,258 people bought a plane ticket (220.09% more than in 2022).
Likewise, the recovery of Japanese tourism in Spain continues to be slightly better than that of global Japanese tourism. In terms of connectivity, the outlook is favorable due to the announcements made by several airlines regarding the increase in their flight frequencies starting in September. In 2022, 29,000 Japanese tourists traveled to Spain, spending 138.3 million euros.
The main motivation of Japanese tourists who visited Spain was leisure (63% of the total), followed, at a great distance, by business (26%), and the main activities they carried out were shopping (66%), cultural visits ( 53%) and visits to cities (50%), according to Turespaña estimates, based on INE microdata.
