across-spain-blog

tourism professionals we strive hard to find the way to reach end-customers, B2C, or professionals, B2B, to convey our message and services as effectively as possible, within a reasonable relationship cost-benefit.

this time we will look at two shows one innorway, Travelmatch-Reiseliv and Tur, insweden. the first one took a crucial decision of shifting into a clear split, one for B2B professionals, Travelmatch, and another for end-customers, Reiseliv, but moving forward its traditional dates from january into march. the result has been somehow unsatisfactory, as Travelmatch, on one hand, demanded a greater preparation effort and fine-tuning booking tools and as a result vendors largely outnumbered buyers; on another hand, Reiseliv saw a lower number of exhibitors and also of visitors, partly as a large retention on dates obtained by tourism fair in Fornebu in january, month when tour operators and buyers typically decided on programming and deciding holidays destination for the summer.

Tur fair also experienced a lower number of visitors and professionals. B2B side is as disastrous as usual on pre-set professional appointments, lacking of contents and rigor. end-customers are really not in the best of their moments, due to recession times, in spite of being not so stricken by crisis this part ofeurope.

both leisure fairs besides remain secluded into their regions instead of pushing for an opening to the rest of the world, making a global bet, as ITB that makes it more and more attractive year after year for its capacity of integrating global buyers into it.

the trend is in the market for over five years, medical tourism. patient-customers from all over the world seeking specific medical treatments on existing diseases or preventive ones… a vast market sourcing from developing countries moving into like US, germany, france, spain, …

in spain, a sharp and deep recession striking across the country and exhausting financial resources both to public and private that are vital to maintain firstly a steady rhythm of top technology and secondly research …

barcelona centre medic, www.bcm.es, leads the initiative in spain and articulate consistently professional efficiency, operational capabilities and marketing (yes, indeed, also a must-do)… a younger initiative, madrid centro médico, http://www.madridnetwork.org/red/salud/noticias/detalle/Madrid-Centro-Medico-convertira-Madrid-en-una-referencia-sanitaria-de-prestigio-internacional, lagging far behind yet, but trying to catch up and not to loose the pace of leadership in medical initiatives.

if initiatives of this kind worked efficiently with private-company patterns, we would be definitely closer to see the light in the long run

in this recessive scenario and keep one of the most precious fields spain starred in the last decade…

tourism field could help leveraging these medical assets. Turespaña sponsors next professional conference on this, http://www.emtc2012.com/. not to be missed! berlin, 25-27 april 2012, with numerous asean countries attending…

take some minutes to have a look at interesting barometer and prospects of UNWTO: http://mkt.unwto.org/es/barometer
2010 Asia Pacific region had a vigorous 12% growth in 2010, versus 6,6% global.

2011 world tourism is on 4% growth pace, but -10% to Middle East region…

3Q 2011 registers a slowdown in prosects in accordance to the season and also global economy forecasts.

2012 again increase is expected but within a moderate 3%.

times to play cautiously in the industry in the hope of better times for 2013!

good to see some professional initiatives from tourist institutions in an attempt to tackle the   problem  of categorization and rating, more specifically in Catalonia.

first, there is a recognition of a long dating problem for apartments, nowadays under the law of housing, in a not distant future it should be integrated within tourism competences. apartments are considered one of the fields that escape from fiscal control and that compete directly with hotels especially in coastal areas and, in the last 10 years, in Barcelona city. it is easy to visit apartments with low guarantees of security or quality that blur the image of a modern country.

 second, in the domain of hotels, the introduction of two additional ratings, superior 4 star and grand luxury, plus it isbeing created a new category: family hotel with multibedded rooms adapted to the needs of this specific stripe of customers. the latter, a real need; the former it is likely to add confusion to the system that should seek simplification and fill international categories of: economy/budget-tourist-first-de luxe, i.e, maximum 4, and look for standardization of quality system certifications like Q or ISO, through international quality verification & rating companies.

other important changes are to be done also in rural establishments and campsites categories.

anyhow, we think that initiatives that tend to regulate minimally the market are to be supported, especially in tourism, an economic field that is often mentioned as a sample for free market believers that leave to users, actors and end-customers with little protection before bad professional practices.

see more in
http://www10.gencat.cat/gencat/AppJava/en/actualitat2/2011/10726imatgeicategoriadelshotelsdecatalunya.jsp

Kristina princess arrived to Spain in 1257. she was married to king Alfonso X’s brother and lived in Sevilla for four years before she died, being 28 years old. her husband, Felipe, decided to bury her in Covarrubias where he had been living for a long time.before she died, she was promised that a church to Saint Olav would be built.

for years, Covarrubias had been a place of interest to norwegian citizens, art and history lovers mainly, as the town is not very close to any main route of attraction for tourists. eastern province of  Burgos, irrigated by Arlanza river, offers a handful of interesting places like Lerma, Salas de los Infantes, Santo Domingo de Silos and now one more reason to visit medieval town  of Covarrubias.

Atapuerca is not far either. in a pretty natural landscape, a group of architects from Valladolid School of Architecture has created a building in metal and wood, with a shape that gathers influences from local roman churches and other religious buildings. see more at: www.fundacionprincesakristina.com

the reason to bring this topic to this blog is to think first about nearness of both countries. we all know little Norway, l’Alfàs del Pi, being the second largest settlement of norwegians out of their home country, after London, some 11,000 people; also an intense trade relationship, from fishing farms in the mediterranean coast, to pharma, food, engineering, raw materials, furniture, war vessels, norwegian support to spanish financial debt, etc.

it is not difficult to walk in many norwegian cities and find tapas restaurants or talk to locals and discover that they have been so many times all over Spain, beyond coastal areas. we would like to simply thank and recognize this initiative for its reinforcement of mutual cultural knowledge.