European tour operators visit Valencian region to discover more “experiential tourism”
The visitors explored the potential of olive oil and wine production tourism, sailing off the coast of Dénia, and enjoying the sunset in the Albufera.
The Generalitat Valenciana, through Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, has organized a familiarization trip through the Comunidad Valenciana for a group of European tour operators specialized in personalized premium trips focused on wine tourism, taking advantage of their visit to Spain for the Turespaña tourism marketing campaign that begins next week.
For four days, Turisme CV promoted the best experiential tourism options in the Comunidad Valenciana to seven travel agents from Sweden, the United Kingdom, France and Poland, so that they can discover the diversity of the tourist potential and its possibilities and be able to offer it to their clients. The participants included Wine Tourism Global AB (Sweden), Casas Cantábricas (United Kingdom), Work & Fun (Poland), Selectour (France), Not Just Travel (United Kingdom) and Craft Events (Poland).
Over the last weekend, the group visited places such as the city of València and the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero, an initiative created to share the most exciting contemporary art which makes the Comunitat Valenciana a leading cultural and artistic destination. They visited vineyards and olive groves in the Viver area, learning about the production of wines and olive oils from native varieties and sailed along the Marina coast before visiting and tasting the gastronomy of Dénia.
The group also enjoyed an e-bike ride through the Albufera to enjoy the landscape and the evening light, and even participated in a Valencian paella workshop after visiting a local market.
A commitment to diversifying international demand
This fam trip is part of the strategy of the Generalitat Valenciana’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism to reinforce the promotion of the Comunidad Valenciana in its main international market, the European one, which is emerging in the numbers of arrivals and which presents such good forecasts for the upcoming tourist seasons.
“The objective is for them to learn about the diversity and multiple quality alternatives to sun and beach tourism that the Valencian Community offers throughout the year,” explained the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Nuria Montes, who is committed to for “diversifying tourist demand towards our destination, as well as increasing deseasonalization.”
In fact, she recalled the dynamism of the international market in the Comunidad Valenciana in 2024, which “is growing by more than 25% with more than 2 million foreign tourists, who spent 2,588 million euros in the first quarter of the year”. Furthermore, she pointed out that “this year we are recording the best international tourism data ever with a record number of international visitors during the first three months of the year.”
The main European tourist issuing markets for the Comunidad Valenciana are the United Kingdom, which is climbing close to 30% in 2024, followed by France, with a notable increase of more than 46% during the first quarter of this year, Germany, which increases more than 31% and the Nordic countries that accumulate an increase of 1.5% year-on-year.
