Mazón: “Easter will mark a turning point in the recovery of Costa Blanca tourism”

Thursday 20th January 2022 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith

The Alicante Provincial Council has marked ‘Costa Blanca Day‘ at the FITUR International Tourism Fair by unveiling the strategic plan of the Provincial Tourism Board for the forthcoming year that will work on four main axes: promotion campaigns, air connectivity plans, attendance at specialised tourism fairs, and the organisation of blogs and press trips in European markets.

The aim is to progressively reactivate the arrival of visitors to the province, as specified by the president of the provincial council, Carlos Mazón, who chaired the central event of Costa Blanca, and revealed that the period of Easter “will mark turning point in the final recovery of tourism and allow us to have the summer we deserve and for which we have worked so hard“.

“We are an integral destination that offers everything. The visitor does not have to choose“, said the president, who insisted that “we play in the big leagues of competitiveness and international competition“.

During his speech, Mazón outlined the various activities and promotional agenda that the Provincial Council will develop during these days at FITUR “to promote our destination and make it safer“, adding that “we come with the humility of a job well done, but with the ambition set for a promising future because we are more than prepared“.

Finally, he expressed his optimism in the final recovery of the sector “beyond the data” because, as he recalled, “in retrospect we see that, of the few windows that COVID offered us during 2021, we opened them all“. The president added that he was “speaking on behalf of a sector that makes it very easy for us to brag about the Costa Blanca,” which he has described not only as the industry of happiness, but also of security and confidence.

The event, led by journalist Noelia López Boluda, was held in the Plaza Central of the stand of the Comunidad Valenciana and started with the intervention of the director of the Costa Blanca Board of Trustees, José Mancebo, who made a detailed review of the actions taken carried out in 2021, a year of transition “in which the sector has once again demonstrated its resilience and in which we have reactivated the promotional and support machinery for municipalities and tourism companies“.

The tourist body has participated in more than 70 promotional activities, national and international fairs and familiarization trips and has attended in person prominent events such as FITUR, the World Travel Market, Word Route and ITBM as well as others nearby. During the past year, the Provincial Board has intensified its commitment to connectivity, both by sea, with the recruitment of new cruise ships, and by air, through strategic alliances with European airlines.

The director of the provincial body has also emphasized the commitment to film tourism, through the Costa Blanca Film Commission, sports tourism, inland destinations and language tourism, congresses and events. In addition, Costa Blanca has consolidated its commitment to sustainable development goals and new digital content.

Accompanied in his speech by the director of the Airport of Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, Laura Navarro, the director of the Provincial Board has recalled the plan of aid to associations and entities of tourist promotion of the Costa Blanca that was promoted by the provincial council during 2021 and of which 52 entities benefited from more than half a million euros in order to counteract the negative effects of COVID.

“All this is just renewing the hopes for a hopeful future that we face with great energy and tenacity. In 2022, we plan to return to face-to-face, a recovery in movement and close contact with our most loyal markets,” said Mancebo.

He also detailed the content of the campaign ‘Más que nunca, Costa Blanca‘ as well as the 2022 Promotion Operational Plan which will include actions amounting to 660,000 euros in digital and specialized media, nationally and internationally, in addition of connectivity projects at Sofia airport (Bulgaria) or blog trips of new air routes to Prague (Czech Republic), Zurich (Switzerland), Warsaw (Poland), Sofia (Bulgaria), Lisbon (Portugal) and Budapest (Hungary) .

The initiative also includes attendance at specialized trade fairs of a sporting, industrial, aerial, language and holiday nature and, finally, the launch of blogs and press trips in the Belgian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian markets, as well as other activities in France, Finland and the United Kingdom, among others.

The second block of the presentation focused on the importance of digitalization applied to tourism promotion and was given by the Deputy for International Residents, Innovation and the Digital Agenda, Juan de Dios, and the Provincial Deputy, María Teresa García. In this section, the projects for the tourist mobility of the province have been put on the table, as well as the recovery of the presence, resuming the line of aid to the local entities, through associations and city councils. During this year, the Provincial Board will promote the organization of promotional events, events and festivals of tourist interest with these contributions.

As Juan de Dios Navarro has explained, the ‘Smart Costa Blanca’ project will also take centre stage this year, especially with regard to the digitization of inland routes, museums and archaeological sites. The provincial council will also develop proposals for tourist intelligence in fields such as air capacity, data on the behaviour of travellers at the destination and the characterization of flows, as specified. For her part, María Teresa García has insisted on the need to regain presence to promote tourism, while highlighting the work being developed by the Costa Blanca Board of Trustees for a sustainable future and to take off the sector.

The ‘Costa Blanca Day‘ event was attended by the Regional Secretary of Tourism, Francesc Colomer, who spoke to praise the qualities of a destination, the Costa Blanca, which “has everything” and to express its defense “radical and thorough to the tourism sector” because “our lives are in it“. The first vice-president and deputy for Culture, Julia Parra, the second vice-president, Ana Serna, the deputy for European Projects, María Gómez, as well as mayors and councilors of the province, professionals in the sector and heads of associations and entities also attended the conference.

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