TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
As the borders of Spain opened earlier in the European region, many travellers from the UAE benefited, as the entry requirements were flexible making it one of the most popular outbound destinations. TRAVTALK explores the relationship further by getting information first hand from the team from Spain and the UAE.
Shehara Rizly
Reyes Maroto, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Government of Spain
The United Arab Emirates and Spain relationship got further strengthened after Emirates and Turespaña, a Spanish tourism institute, signed a memorandum of understanding to explore joint activities to drive tourism to Spain, including trade familiarisation trips, workshops and marketing campaigns.
Reyes Maroto, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Government of Spain, shared, “For Spain, the market of the Middle East, in particular, the United Arab Emirates, is a priority market. We are now talking about an increase in the travel flow to Spain from this region, especially as the connectivity between the two countries witnesses an improvement.”
Maroto added, “And there is big reason that makes Spain an attractive destination for Emirati tourists, which is the annual visit of the Royal Family to Spain. Moreover, there is an element of connection, which is built on culture, friendship and also the roots that an Emirati can find in Spain, which consists of a heritage that we take very seriously to protect, make Spain a very desirable destination.”
There are two elements that Spain and the UAE share with each other. “The first is the security; both countries have implemented very successful vaccination plans and that make us to be considered as safe destinations. This, in turn, should reflect in the increase in travel flow between both countries as tourist find confidence in the security measures offered. And we also offer experiences, that we are improving through focusing on sustainability, conserving heritage, and having a focus on other destinations, not only sand and sun destinations, so that the citizens of this country are sure to enjoy visiting Spain,” she said.
The minister further reiterated, “The presence of Spain at the Expo Dubai has given it the opportunity through its pavilion to showcase itself in the area of sustainability to a global audience and offer surprises and also through Chess.”
Miguel Angel Sanz, Director General, Tourspain, Madrid
Miguel Angel Sanz, Director General, Tourspain, Madrid, shared, “Spain is the leading destination in the world and before the pandemic in 2019, we received more than 83 million international visitors that made our country the second most visited country in the world and also second most important in terms of tourism income.” Sanz added, “It is important for us as tourism represents 12.5 per cent of GDP and almost 40 per cent of work force in tourism. It is also important to know that we have been steadily recovering from this pandemic. According to the last figures that we have in December, we have recovered more than 70 per cent of the visitors that we had in December 2019.
So, we are on our way to a full recovery and beyond.” So what is after recovery? “I think that everyone, every destination, every travel company needs to focus on one single thing which is sustainability. Sustainability is not just a fashion word, it’s not just something we have to talk about; it’s something that we have to do. Spain is investing almost USD 4 billion in the renewal and in the transformation of the tourism system in Spain. We are investing more than 2 billion Euros, almost USD 4.3 billion, in sustainable projects. In three years that will transform radically the tourism and travel industry in Spain making it more sustainable, making it more reliable and making it more fun for our visitors,” he said.
What is sustainability? “Of course it’s environmental sustainability, but it’s also social sustainability. So, we want our visitors to know that every time they come to visit Spain they are making a great impact, a positive impact in the local communities they visit,” Sanz said.
Daniel Rosado, Director, Spain Tourism, GCC Countries
Daniel Rosado, Director, Spain Tourism, GCC Countries, said, “We celebrated the national day at Expo and we are delighted to state that our President from the government of Spain graced the occasion with two other ministers; the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of tourism. We are very happy in the sense that the minister of tourism extended her stay in order to meet and greet the travel and tourism partners in the UAE to have a personal understanding of what is required from the ministry in Spain and how the travel trade in the UAE can help to improve the promotion of our destination in the country and the region.”
Spain is leading in the vaccination effort in Europe same as the UAE leading in this region, Spain has 90 per cent and UAE with almost 100 per cent. “MICE is something very big in Spain, we have many worldwide events in Spain with Madrid and Barcelona leading the way followed by other cities that are doing really great in MICE. In this pandemic obviously the MICE meetings have reduced, but we celebrated FITUR in January, which was a clear example of having measures implemented that provides certainty and safe way of doing events. We had more than 100 countries present at the FITUR fair and thousands of people visited. The numbers were really big under the circumstances,” he said.
“With the facilities we have, it is a place that we can really host safe events. For this year, we are going to retrieve some of the previous strategies we used in previous years, we are going to come back with fam (familiarisation) trips. We are also coming back for the ATM. We will be accessing according to the situation in all the countries in GCC,” he added.
