Spanish tourism organisations are to invest huge sums into promoting late deals for this summer in conjunction with operators.
The Spanish Tourism Organisation has pledged £4 million, the first half of which will be released soon and used to work with TUI Travel, Thomas Cook, Monarch Airlines and Expedia, to promote summer deals to the Valencia region, Costa Brava, Benidorm, the Balearics, and, in conjunction with Brittany Ferries, Cantabria.
The second tranche will be spent in the autumn to promote the individual destinations.
A second Andalucia-specific campaign has a budget of £865,000. Again, the first 50% will be used now to work with TUI Travel, Thomas Cook, Monarch and Expedia on joint advertising in newspapers, online, in high-street agencies and on TV. The second half of the budget will be released in the autumn to promote Andalucia to consumers.
The total flight capacity to Spain for this summer is 22.5 million seats, and all operators report a trend for later bookings. Low Cost Travel Group chief executive Paul Evans said 55% of sales on June 1 were for departures in June.
Spanish Tourist Office director Ignacio Vasallo said: “This has been a difficult year for everyone. Some say they have seen green shoots, others just dry roots. I can’t say which is realistic, but things are not as bad now as they were a few months ago. This investment will pull people to the late deals.”
In an attempt to remain competitive despite the strong euro, Spanish hoteliers are dropping prices. Monarch overseas purchasing and operations director Hugh Morgan said: “Some hoteliers dropped prices by 25% year on year. Those who didn’t have suffered.”