SPAIN’s new tourism minister has held urgent talks
with major tour operators to reconcile differences over the future
direction of package holidays.
Secretary of state for tourism and commerce Pedro Mejia
acknowledged operators were planning a new direction for holidays
after cutting capacity in traditional Spanish packages for
2005.
“We must explore with the operators how we can work together on
other areas within Spain,” he said. “We accept the industry is
evolving and people are more demanding and sophisticated.”
Mejia said he wanted to work closely with operators, low-cost
airlines and agents to meet demand for more short-break holidays
and other niche products away from the traditional centres of the
islands and coasts.
He said the Spanish policy of upgrading resorts would continue
to offer a much-improved product. “We are moving from the low-level
holiday to the high-medium sector,” said Mejia. “This will lead to
higher revenues.”
However, Spain still hopes UK visits will continue to rise,
despite operators cutting back their programmes. First Choice and
Cosmos have already dropped Costa Brava, while operators such as
Thomson Holidays and Libra Holidays have both reduced the size of
their Spain programmes.
Up to September this year, 13.1 million Brits went to Spain
– an increase of 213,000 on the same period in 2003. This is
30% of all visitors and the same percentage for tourist
revenues.
“We will work intensively in the UK to continue to promote
ourselves and we want numbers to continue to increase,” added
Mejia.
He also said the dramatic rise in low-cost routes from the UK to
Spain, especially to regional airports, and the trend for Brits to
buy Spanish homes would continue to make the country very popular.
Further trends envisaged by the Spanish government include a shift
from the Canaries and Balearics to more mainland holidays as access
improves.
The government and its tourism offices will unveil a new website
to the trade next year to help with bookings and information.