GIBRALTAR’S tourism minister Joseph Holliday plans to boost visitor numbers to the Rock by 2m over the next three years despite a recent worsening of the political feud with Spain.
Holliday admitted that current relations with his country’s neighbours were poor at present but denied this would affect tourism.
He said: “The situation is always difficult to control. The political situation in Spain is one that changes temperature from day to day and at the moment it is not good. But the queues at the border right now are no more than an hour.”
The border between Spain and Gibraltar is operated by the Spanish who are renowned for delaying people as they cross in and out of Gibraltar. Numerous stories circulate of border guards inventing bizarre reasons for delaying tourists – from fining them because they have no spare pair of spectacles to berating them for not having a blanket in case they break down in their cars.
But Holliday said these antics are a thing of the past. Holliday’s administration says it has increased promotion budgets for advertising since it came to power in May 1996.
“In 1995/6, there was a spend of ú300,000 for above the line advertising. It’s now ú750,000 and that figure is set to rise to ú850,000 in the next budget.” Of the budget, 75% is directed towards the UK.
Holliday said tourism, along with finance, was the engine behind the economy and his government planned to increase holidaymaker numbers from an annual count of 3m to 5m by 2002. To this end, ú5m in soft loans has been made available from the government to hoteliers and the UK conference and incentives market has been particularly targeted.
Suggestions of a three-centre holiday – in Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco – have been made by local operators but there are rumours that the Spanish are refusing to co-operate.
Holliday admitted the Spanish often won’t play ball. “We have a policy of dialogue but the Spanish feedback has been one of non-co-operation. However, at local government level, the relationship with Spain is quite smooth. At a commercial level, we have Spanish operators promoting Gibraltar a lot.”