Andalucía draws up a plan of action to attract more German tourists

Andalucía is putting into effect an unprecedented plan of action to recover the German market, said the Junta de Andalucía’s general secretary for tourism, Manuel Muñoz, during the forum organised by SUR with the collaboration of the Junta, the Costa del Sol Tourist Board and Malaga and Torremolinos councils this week.

At the event, experts gave their views on how to attract German tourists back to the region after the pandemic. Muñoz explained that 30 per cent of the budget is being assigned to this and the plan will have three parts: contact with tour operators, because German clients still mainly book through them; improved connections by air; and a new way of showing the diversity of Andalucía as a holiday destination to travel agents and final consumers. For the first time, instead of holding promotional events in Germany, travel agents and others will be brought here so they can see the attractions of the region for themselves.

Germany is Andalucía’s second-biggest source market after the UK, and is therefore very important, not only in terms of visitor numbers but because of the amount they spend. “The challenges of the future include sustainability, quality and excellence, because that is what we compete on, not price,” said Muñoz.

As part of the scheme to bring German tour operators and travel agents to Andalucía, he explained that they will be invited to a forum in Cadiz and Seville, which will also benefit companies in those cities.

Andalucía will continue to have a presence at the biggest tourism fairs, but will also concentrate on certain segments to attract a specific market. The action plan includes better connections: this year there will be more than 800,000 airline seats to Andalucía , compared with 500,000 last year, but this is still far below the 1.3 million before the pandemic. The tourism authorities are planning to co-marketing agreements with airlines that want to introduce new routes.

The aim is also to reach final consumers with innovative campaigns which are not tourism-based, such as a book fair, and to use artificial intelligence tools to obtain data about the preferences of potential tourists which will be very useful in providing them with tailor-made information.

Muñoz pointed out that the Big Data system is available to all tourist boards and businesses and that work is ongoing on a database to include all the hotels. “None of this would make any sense without the businesses behind it. We know the impact the current uncertainty has. The businesses are the soul of this great industry and we will always be at your side. The doors of the Ministry are open to continue advancing towards recovery,” he said.