Tenerife is highlighting its love for British holidaymakers in the wake of the Brexit vote with a social media campaign aimed at consumers and the travel trade.
The #bigwarmhug push is designed to demonstrate to UK travellers how important they are to the people of Tenerife.
Tenerife residents, including island locals, personalities, taxi drivers, hoteliers and associated companies, will upload images of themselves hugging British tourists holidaying on the island on to their own social media channels to demonstrate their love for their most important source market.
The promotion will see local people in the Canary island offering a “big warm hug” to British tourists already on the island, as well as encouraging British residents to engage in the good feeling campaign.
UK consumers will be encouraged to visit Tenerife’s webtenerife.co.uk to download and print the Tenerife #bigwarmhug logo and take a photo of themselves hugging a person with the print in their hands.
If they then upload the image onto their own social media channels, using #bigwarmhug and tagging Tenerife’s social media channels, those giving the best hugs will have their photos uploaded by the Tenerife Tourism Corporation.
Tourism minister for the Tenerife Island Government, Alberto Bernabe, said: “The key to this campaign is to engage with as many people as possible – both on Tenerife and in the UK.
“With so many turbulent times in the world and political uncertainty in the UK at the moment, we hope this campaign will show the British people that we are with them no matter what.”
Tenerife Tourism Corporation director general, Vicente Dorta, said: “The UK accounts for 34% of tourist arrivals to our island and we are very grateful to the British public.
“We wanted to run this campaign to tell the British people that we are thinking of them during this uncertain time and that no matter what happens, they are never out of our hearts.”
Tenerife attracted more than 1.7 million British visitors last year, with numbers up by 21% to 800,000 in the January to May period.