Andalucia will be WTM Virtual’s Premier Partner, as the Spanish region’s tourism industry recovers from the pandemic.
The sponsorship deal is part of Andalucia’s nearly €9 million international marketing campaign – which also features Andalusian star Antonio Banderas as an ‘ambassador’ to help woo visitors back.
Alongside its high-profile Premier Partner status, the tourist board will be supporting 40 co-exhibitors from Andalucia who are taking part in WTM Virtual (9-11 November).
The regional government of Andalucia has allocated €300 million to help its valuable tourism sector to recover, including measures to make restaurants, accommodation and other establishments safe for visitors.
Juan Marín, Tourism Minister and Vice President of the regional government, said Andalucia’s tourism sector had been seeing record levels of growth before the pandemic, thanks to the quality of its cultural, rural, urban and beach offerings.
“This Premier Partner agreement will showcase Andalucia’s varied attractions and our new safety measures to the international travel trade and media,” he added.
“We have lived through a bad dream from which we are now waking up.
“We’re working with tourism businesses to introduce strict policies and our ‘Safety Stamp’ shows that hotels, restaurants and travel agencies comply with COVID-19 safety measures.”
The tourist board will use its Premier Partner status to promote its new international slogan – If you love to travel, you´ll love Andalucía -– and other publicity material, including video messages from actor Banderas, who hails from Málaga in Andalucia.
As well as Malaga, the region boasts 800 kilometres of coastline and cities such as Cádiz, Almeria and Huelva, and historical cities such as Seville, Córdoba, Granada and Jaen.
Tourism accounts for about 12% of Andalucia’s GDP and employs more than 400,000 people in the region, so the tourist board is keen to promote its diverse offering and first-class infrastructure to overseas markets and media.
“As Premier Partner, we will maximise our presence with our co-exhibitors and suppliers,” said Juan Marín.
“All our destinations have something special for tourists of all types and we are very excited about what is new for 2021.”
About half of the tourists visiting Andalucia come from Spain. Great Britain is the biggest overseas source market, sending 2.3 million tourists each year, followed by Germany (1.1 million) and France (1 million).
WTM London’s Senior Director, Simon Press, said:
“WTM Virtual is delighted to announce Andalucia as its Premier Partner for 2020.
“It means Andalucia can promote its many attractions to thousands of trade buyers and media, which will help visitor numbers to recover and boost the region’s economy.
“Our previous Premier Partners have seen uplifts in revenue and visitor numbers thanks to the greatly enhanced profile that we can offer.”
During WTM Virtual, Andalucia will be promoting the destination through a Destination Briefing, which provides the opportunity to position the brand in front of WTM’s audience increasing brand awareness amongst key players, qualified buyers and the global travel professionals.
Andalucia’s Destination Briefing will take place on Monday 9 Nov at 1pm.
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About World Travel Market
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises six leading travel events, an online portal and a virtual platform across four continents, generating more than $7.5 billion of industry deals. The events are:
WTM Virtual, is the new WTM Portfolio virtual platform, created to offer global delegates the chance to arrange one-to-one virtual meetings to do business, attend conference sessions and roundtables, take part in speed networking and more. WTM Virtual will embrace the global leading travel shows in one platform.
Taking place: Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 November 2020 – Virtual http://london.wtm.com/
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. Around 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media visit ExCeL London every November, generating over £3.71 billion in travel industry contracts. This year the show will be fully-virtual.
Next event: Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 November 2020 – Virtual http://london.wtm.com/
London Travel Week, brought to you by WTM London, is the one-stop-shop for event hosts and visitors
to be able to shape the next 12 months of travel together. The festival of events supports the global travel and tourism industry through capturing invaluable news and enhancing industry connections.
Next event: Friday 30 October to Thursday 5 November 2020 – Virtual https://londontravelweek.wtm.com/.
Travel Forward London is the leading travel technology event, co-located with WTM London. Travel Forward is renowned for showcasing the next-generation technologies for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Over 19,000 travel officials and 150+ innovative solution providers attend for 3 days of cutting-edge insights, open debate and unrivalled networking opportunities. The combination of a 2-day conference, interactive exhibition and Start-up showcase makes Travel Forward truly unique. This year the show will be fully-virtual.
Next event: Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 November 2020 – Virtual http://travelforward.wtm.com/
WTM Global Hub, is the new WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), now on its 27th year, continues to be the focal point for the Middle East’s resilient and ever-changing travel and tourism landscape and prides itself on being the hub of all travel and tourism ideas – providing a platform to discuss insights on the ever-changing industry, share innovations and unlock endless business opportunities.
Next event: Sunday 16 to Wednesday 19 May 2021 – Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC)- Sheikh Zayed Rd – Trade Centre 2 – Dubai – United Arab Emirates www.arabiantravelmarket.wtm.com.
WTM Latin America attracts around 19,000 participants – 11,586 unique. The trade show, which takes place in São Paulo, has a worldwide audience that meets to establish the direction of the travel industry. The event is recognised for attracting a high level of professionals from the segment, including buyers and travel agents. It also offers programmes with qualified content and plenty of opportunities for networking and generating business that is relevant to the travel industry
Next event: Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 April 2021 – Expo Center Norte, São Paulo http://latinamerica.wtm.com/.
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 6,000 travel industry professionals attend Africa’s leading inbound and outbound travel and tourism market. WTM Africa delivers a proven mix of hosted buyers, media, pre-scheduled appointments, on-site networking, evening functions and invited travel trade visitors.
Next event: Wednesday 7 to Friday 9 April 2021 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/.
Reed Exhibitions is a leading global events business. It combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 500 events in almost 30 countries across 43 industry sectors, attracting more than 7 million participants. Our events, organized by 35 global offices, leverage industry expertise, large data sets and technology to enable our customers to generate billions of dollars of revenues for the economic development of local markets and national economies around the world. Reed Exhibitions is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. www.reedexhibitions.com
Reed Travel Exhibitions is the world’s leading travel and tourism event’s organiser with a growing portfolio of more than 20 international travel and tourism trade events in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Our events are market leaders in their sectors, whether it is global and regional leisure travel trade events, or specialist events for meetings, incentives, conference, events (MICE) industry, business travel, LGBTQ+ travel, luxury travel, travel technology as well as golf and spa travel. We have over 35 years’ experience in organising world-leading travel exhibitions. https://www.reedtravelexhibitions.com/