Spain takes 11 sellers on 9-city show
Clearly segregating leisure and MICE markets in India, the Tourism Office of Spain managed to rekindle interest from the trade with its nine-city roadshow.
Starting this year with a series of presentations, the Tourism Office of Spain travelled to the cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune finally concluding its roadshow in its two most important markets – Mumbai and New Delhi. Spending two days in each city with a dedicated day for leisure and MICE, the tourist office brought with it a huge delegation from Spain – six DMCs and five destinations of – Andalusia, Costa Del Sol, Madrid, Barcelona and World Heritage Cities of Spain.
Ignacio Ducasse
Gutierrez, Director, Tourism Office of Spain in Mumbai, said, “There is clear segmentation between leisure and MICE agents within the market and the requirement for groups and individuals are quite different. So we prefer to do separate events for each segment to provide specific information. With this series of events that we did in Mumbai and New Delhi over four days, we want to send a strong message that Spain is really interested in the Indian market. We see a clear possibility of growth and potential of doing business together. We are extremely happy that 11 sellers travelled all the way from Spain because they share our vision for 2016.”
Revealing updated figures from India, Gutierrez says, “In 2014, we had 80,000 tourists from India. For this year, from January to September we are close to 70,000. That means an increase of five per cent from the same period last year. August and September specially were extremely good so we hope that we may close the year at 100,000.”
Apart from promoting Spain for both MICE and leisure travel, Spain has been working on niche markets such as luxury, shopping, honeymooners, active holidays, nightlife, fly and drive, etc.
Gutierrez talks about the challenges that Spain experiences, singling out two specific complaints. “There are two obstacles we need to work on: visas and connectivity as we don’t have any direct flights. Our Consulate General and VFS Global are confident that the new biomet- ric data requirement that has been introduced from November 2 this year won’t be an obstacle in getting the visas in time. So at this time we are hopeful that it won’t be a big problem,” he says.
His office is currently planning 2016 and its strategy for the new year. “It will be my second year in India. The first year went in learning. A Fam trip to Barcelona and the Catalonia region for key MICE tour operators is also planned. But we are doing a bit of everything. More than segmentation by age or demographic, we are promoting different products for honeymooners, families and corporates such as fly and drive, nightlife, luxury stays, shopping, and festivals,” Gutierrez adds.
Lisha Krishnan, Trade Manager, Tourism Office of Spain, said, “Barcelona, Madrid and Ibiza are already very popular destinations in the Indian market but we are looking at new destinations like Malaga, Seville, Andalusia, Cordoba, Granada, Ibiza to be showcased in Spain. We are putting special efforts to market the 15 world heritage cities in Spain which are very close to Barcelona and Madrid so that they can become day excursions like Tarragona. It is surprising that travellers going to Ibiza as a party destination are not aware that the city is a heritage site as well. We are also introducing new regions in Spain like the North Spain where a traveller may not be aware of the beauty awaiting them.”
Talking about a special contribution to numbers from India to Spain, Gutierrez added, “With the movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Na Dobara, we saw the number of tourists double in 2011-12. We hope that in the future we are able to get some projects to increase interest in Spain.” Krishnan adds, “Keeping the impact of the film industry in mind, we are in talks with Bollywood project coordinators to get some big projects to Spain next year.”
We see a clear possibility of growth and potential of doing business together We are putting special efforts to market the 15 world heritage cities in Spain