This Monday the London World Travel Market fair is inaugurated and a Valencian delegation headed by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, the regional secretary of Turisme, Francesc Colomer, as well as members of HOSBEC together with Visit Benidorm, the Costa Blanca and people in charge of Turisme Comunitat Valenciana. A trade mission to strengthen British tourism, so relevant to the Valencian tourist offer and which is now recovering its positions after the pandemic.
For two days there will be meetings with the Association of British Independent Tour Operators, responsible for British infrastructure, among others, as well as with the Secretary of State for Tourism, who will visit the stand of the Valencian Community at the fair.
From Turisme Comunitat Valenciana they point out that the tourist year 2022 continues with a strong impact of the health crisis, although there is an "outstanding" year-on-year increase in the number of tourists: between January and August, Spain has received 10,197,214 British tourists, a 560.8% more than in 2021 (-19.2% compared to 2019).
All the main destination communities show strong growth and the Canary Islands stand out with an increase of 1,243.9%, one of the main competitors in the Valencian market, as recently pointed out by Antonio Mayor, president of HOSBEC, who remarked that "at this moment our The main competitor is the Canary Islands, since the European tour operators are investing a large part of their operations in dollars in the Canary Islands".
Between 2015 and 2019 the British issuer grew by 28.6% in the Valencian Community. The increase in the number of tourists in the first (48.7%) and second quarters (30.6%) stands out, which implies a deseasonalizing effect; total spending increased by 35.3% in the same period.
In 2020, the impact of Covid-19 was estimated at a decrease of 79.5%. Throughout 2021, despite the restrictions, the recovery begins with a year-on-year growth of 14.5%. Until August 2022, a notable increase of 532.6% is shown, although, compared to 2019, there is a decrease of 25.7%.
On the part of HOSBEC, the latest data indicates that international tourism has exceeded 50% of the total number of visitors in the second half of October in Benidorm, Costa Blanca and the province of Valencia and this has helped boost hotel occupancy, whose numbers in Costa Blanca (71.5%) and Valencia (80.2%) already exceed the figures for 2019.
