As British tourists continue to choose Spain for their summer holidays, the year will close with more than 2 million travelers visiting the country from the UK, 80% of them to the Costa Blanca. The president of Valencia, Simo Puig, said at the London World Travel Fair on Monday that in 2022, 90% of international tourism will have recovered from the figures enjoyed before the pandemic.
“During their visits to the Costa Blanca, the British spent 1.8 billion euros,” Puig said, “despite Brexit and what followed, including both the results of the epidemic and the war in Ukraine.”
“The British market is vital to the Costa Blanca and the community of Valencia,” said the president. “This is the most important source for foreign tourists,” he continued.
Turisme Comunidad Valenciana has a strong presence in London as it continues to consolidate the UK market. “This is a market where we have to work hard both to preserve and to improve,” he added.
British tourists are now more than just a market to watch. Puig said that “there is a sentimental connection with the United Kingdom. When Brexit came, which we all agree was a bad idea, we said then that Britain could stop being in the European Union but it would continue to be part of Europe.”
In fact, this link only extends to those holidaying on the Costa Blanca or other parts of Spain: “More than a third of all Britons living in Spain, almost 100,000, live in the Valencian community.” “This sentimental connection is important if we are to attract new people, tourists, to the Valencia community in the future. With flights to more than 20 British airports we are currently in a good place, but there is still much more we can do.”
Also in London for the global travel market is the president of the Diputación de Alicante, Carlos Mazzon, who met on Monday with the Spanish ambassador to the UK, José Pascual Martínez, to address the growth potential of the British market in the province, as well as “the need to ensure that tourists and residents can travel to the municipalities ours as many times as they want, while extending their stay in Spain for as long as possible.”
Mazzon reminded the ambassador that Alicante is Spain’s number one province in the number of British residents, with more than 74,000 registered citizens, while he also talked about the increase in flights from the UK to Alicante-Alcha Miguel Hernández Airport.
For the 2022-2023 winter season, more than a million seats have been booked on 6,000 planes that will fly 55 routes between various British airports and Alicante. These figures place the county as the peninsula destination with the most flights from the UK.
