Agents and operators are best-placed to help destinations drive tourism in alternative seasons and to lesser-known regions, according to speakers at Travel Weekly’s Sustainability Summit.
Alex Herrmann, UK and Ireland director at Switzerland Tourism, told the summit that moves to distribute tourism across wider date ranges and locations were crucial to many destinations’ sustainability strategies.
“It is a great opportunity for the UK travel trade to show how much they can contribute,” he added.
“This is now the time to shine and show what we can jointly achieve by getting new seasons and destinations and getting new products out there in the market.”
Herrmann added: “We are very interested in talking to the British travel industry and tour operators about destinations that have not yet been discovered and getting (travellers) on to public transportation as much as possible.”
When asked about the impact of climate change on Alpine destinations in the winter, Herrmann emphasised that “winter sports will continue” but added “maybe we have to say goodbye” to skiing down into the village in April and “manage expectations a bit”.
He highlighted how Switzerland was seeing “a shift towards summer in the Alps”, with a growing “coolcation” trend.
Greek National Tourism Organisation UK and Ireland director Eleni Skarveli said there were ongoing efforts “to push and collaborate” with tour operators to extend summer seasons into the spring and autumn.
But she added: “It’s not only the tour operators, it’s the tourists and consumers that need to have more options in their mind, and that’s the challenging part to change their mindset that Greece is only for summer.”
Skarveli acknowledged challenges around extreme weather events such as wildfires but said visitor numbers were not significantly impacted as a result.
She added that while more airlift was desirable, it was important to see growth in routes and packages between different destinations in the UK and Greece rather than “just having more flights”.
Gibraltar’s tourism minister, Christian Santos, said trade engagement was a key part of the destination’s strategy, adding that sustainability was central not only to its tourism outreach, but the work of all government departments.
The Spanish Tourist Office’s UK deputy director, Pedro Asensio, also hailed trade body Aito for holding its conference in the “very off-the-beaten track” destination of Valladolid, saying further exposure to the trade would help redistribute tourists within the country.