Costa Almeria builds on foreign tourist markets at FITUR international travel fair

THE provincial government delegation’s packed agenda of meetings with travel industry representatives at the FITUR international fair in Madrid to build on tourist markets for the Costa Almeria destination is producing results.
The Diputacion de Almeria’s Tourism deputy Fernando Gimenez announced the province has “recovered” the Finnish market for the first time in 20 years.
“From April to November close to 4,000 Finnish tourists will spend their holidays in our province and enjoy both the coast and the interior”, the deputy explained, adding, “this is without doubt one of the big novelties which we have agreed at this fair.”
Gimenez also announced that the Polish market is set for future expansion.
Describing Poland as “one of the markets which has grown the most in recent years”, the deputy revealed a new direct connection with the northern European country will launch in 2021, “which will enable many more tourists to come to this destination.”
Meanwhile, the direct flight between Almeria and Milan will continue in 2020, plus there will be measures aimed at strengthening the appeal of the province among the Italian market.
“This year we are going to carry out a specific action with Italian professionals and media centred on the figure of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western as an attraction for the Italian tourist, which we are convinced will be a great success and will mean that the season with the flight to Milan will continue with average occupation levels above 85 per cent”, Gimenez reported.
The deputy underlined significant growth in the Irish market, with 21,000 Irish tourists due to visit Almeria this year, and plans for an initiative to bring over groups of professionals as part of the ‘Almeria has Science’ promotional campaign.
The provincial delegation has also taken advantage of the travel fair to hold talks with representatives from online travel platforms.
Gimenez summed up the round of meetings in Madrid as “very productive.
“Almeria is a special destination which offers very interesting and unique, high quality products”, he commented.
“The basis of our meetings was to consolidate national tourism and our most important markets, as well as to expand on our destinations”, he said, “a strategy which we will continue this year to continue breaking the record figures of the last three years.”