Spain to spend more to get tourists

Spanish National Tourism Board (SNTB) has set aside a budget of €450,000 to promote Spain as a sought-after tourist destination to Indians, 83,214 of whom travelled to Spain in 2005.

There has been an increase of 150 per cent in the promotional budget over the three years SNTB that had been operating in India.

The percentage increase of Indians travelling to Spain has been 10 per cent for the last five years and the figure is expected to double over the next five years, said Enrique Ruiz De Lera at a meeting with the media in the city.

Kolkata is also an emerging market for Spain.

The SNTB has rolled out a red carpet to increase Indian tourists to Spain by another 10 per cent this year.

The board has organised road shows in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and in Kolkata for the first time at a cost of €160,000. The organisation would also be conducting a €100,000 research on the image and position of Spain as a tourist destination by interviewing 1000 people at the international airport in New Delhi, said De Lera. SNTB would be spending another €90,000 for promotional activities and €100,000 on advertising campaigns both online and offline, De Lera said.

At this time, there are no direct flights connecting any Indian city to their Spanish counterparts. SNTB will initiate talks with Jet Airways and Air India to introduce direct flights to Madrid.

The airlines have already had talks with the Spanish carrier, Iberia. However, such services could be implemented only when the governments of both countries review and re-negotiate the existing air-service agreement, said De Lera.

SNTB also aims at making the visa approval process shorter, which currently needs 10 days and requires travellers to go to Delhi for this purpose, depending on their profile. The organisation was planning to open an office in Mumbai in 2007, which would double the capacity of visa approvals as Indians are late bookers, said De Lera. They were also looking at other options like e-visa to facilitate travel to Spain.

Most Indians travelling to Spain do so for the purpose of business. The ones travelling for leisure fall in the upmarket category. SNTB is targeting corporates next, as they would be big spenders like the formers. The target customers for SNTB are repeat travellers to Europe and south-east Asia who would be financially sound.

SNTB is targeting their campaign at urban Indians from the metros. Indians mostly stayed in four and five star hotels in Spain. SNTB wants to maintain this class of travellers to Spain.

The country does not have very cheap accommodation for backpackers are per day expenditure would be €86 per person per day.