Spanish tourist board hopes Britons “need Spain”

THE Spanish tourist board, Turespaña, will today unveil its new international marketing campaign.
Out goes the former “Smile, you are in Spain” slogan and in comes the new “I need Spain”.
Turespaña explained yesterday that the new promotional drive has been drawn up to combat growing competition from emerging non-Eurozone destinations and the organisation has increased its marketing budget for this year by over six percent meaning that over the past two years alone, Turespaña has increased its marketing funding by over 20 percent.

Over the course of this year, Turespaña is going to use its new marketing campaign to target 30 markets.
Some of those will be the key British and German markets while others will include new client countries such as Russia and its Eastern European neighbours.

The Spanish tourist board is also going to be participating in 170 international travel trade fairs in 45 different countries in a bid to recuperate many of the holiday makers the country has lost to cheaper and newer destinations over the past few years and reestablish its position as one of the world's leading holiday destinations.

CHANGING HABITS
The tourist board has also introduced a new online marketing tool at www.spain.info to meet the changing booking habits of visitors and their demands.

Spain is also going to be hosting the first two-day European Tourism and Gastronomy Convention in Madrid in May with the country's top chef Ferran Adria the country's new gastronomic ambassador.