On September 26, Sofia Hotel Radisson hosted the conference of the Spanish Tourism Institute (STI) and the Spanish Tourism Office (STO) in Vienna, which is in charge of the relationships of Spain with the countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Representatives of the tourism industry from the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Barcelona, Grand Canaria, Promatur, Catalonia, Costa del Sol, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela, Tenerife, Valencia and Kadis attended the conference.
The director of STO Vienna Felix de Paz, pictured, presented general figures about Spanish tourism in 2006. He said Spain was the second most popular tourist destination in the world, based on tourist numbers for 2006.
To attract more Bulgarian tourists, the Vienna STO ran tourism promotion days in Sofia on September 25 and 26. It also intends to present Spain as a tourist destination at the Sofia exhibition Vakantsia 2008 (Holiday 2008).
In 2006, Spain was visited by 152 912 Bulgarians, more than 50 per cent of which were tourists. This was a 30 per cent increase in comparison to the number of Bulgarian visitors in 2005. According to De Paz, these figures reflected the dynamic development of Bulgaria. He said the three destinations most visited by Bulgarians in 2006 were Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia province. De Paz said these figures showed strong positive results and this was without STO doing anything particular to attract Bulgarian tourists. According to him, the good flight connections between the two countries had contributed to the increased number of Bulgarian tourists.
In 2006, Spain was the seventh most popular tourist destination for Bulgarians after Greece, Serbia, Turkey, Germany, Romania and Italy. For the period January-April 2007, Spain welcomed 64 877 Bulgarian visitors, 25 605 of which were tourists. Of these tourists 7514 came by invitation, 24 532 were professionals and 7226, “others”.
Bulgarian tourists were mostly looking for beach holidays in Spain but in the past years there has been also an increased interest towards city breaks, round-country tours and language courses. In the summer season, the most popular destinations are the Costa Brava, the Costa Blanca, the Costa del Sol and Balearian and Canary Islands. Madrid and Barcelona were among the most-visited big cities.
Spain is also likely to be a destination for sports fans. It is soon to host one of the last rounds of the Formula 1 2007 World Championship and the Copa America sailing competition.
In 2008, the International Exhibition 2008 will take place in Saragossa. The theme of the exhibition is “Water and Sustainable Development”. About 7.5 million visitors are expected to visit the event.
Another destination worth visiting in Spain, said De Paz, is the holy town of Santiago de Compostela. It is one of the so-called Holy Cities, part of the World Culture Heritage association, established in 2005 between Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem.
The other new tourist attraction that was presented at the September 26 meeting was the Road of Don Quihote. It is about 2000 km long and can be explored partly or fully, by car, bicycle or walking.
Meanwhile Bulgarian language daily Dnevnik reported that local Black sea resort Albena will not be included in 2008 Neckermann holidays catalogue.
The German tour operator, which is part of the Thomas Cook group, decided not to renew its business relations with the Bulgarian sea resort. Local Thomas Cook representative Hristo Kolev and Albena executive director Krasimir Stanev both confirmed the resort had been removed.
Neckermann is the third major tour operator to withdraw a holiday destination in the Varna area from its catalogue. Tourist interest in visiting the northern Black Sea coast is declining and the prices in this area are higher than in the southern Black sea area.
Kolev said there are several reasons for this decision but the pricing issue was biggest. In 2007, Neckermann only made about 300-4000 bookings in Albena for its clients.
In addition, about a month ago, Thomson, a unit of Germany’s TUI, and First Choice said this was the last summer they would sell holiday packages for the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts accessible through Varna Airport. The two agencies also cancelled their charter routes to and from Varna.
