The President of the Valencian Regional Government, Francisco Camps, travelled to the United States at the end of January, where he met with the country’s leading tour operators in order to define a series of strategies aimed at encouraging American tourists to visit the Region of Valencia. The Valencian President also made the most of this official visit to promote the Region of Valencia’s image of excellence at the New York Yacht Club and its recognised organisational capacity to host major events such as the 33rd America’s Cup.
At the meeting with US tour operators, also attended by the Valencian Regional Minister for Tourism, Belén Juste, contact was made with the world´s leading tourist companies such as Delta Airlines and major tour operators such as Virtuoso, Exclusively Spain and Central Holidays, among others.
One of the most important agreements reached was to extend the calendar of direct flights between Valencia and New York for 2010, bringing the start of the season forward to the month of May for flights between Manises-Valencia and John F. Kennedy (JFK) international airport, which were first launched in June 2009. These routes will operate until 30th October.
Following the meeting with the tour operators, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) in Newport (Rhode Island), one of the most prestigious sailing clubs in the world and a global leader in the organisation of regattas, was the venue chosen to promote the image of modernity and excellence projected by the Region of Valencia as an organiser of major sporting of events, which have had an important impact in terms of raising the national and international profile of the Region of Valencia.
In this respect, the main talking point was the 33rd America´s Cup, which is being held this year in Valencian waters as two titans of world sailing battle it out, the Swiss Alinghi team and the US BMW Oracle. This latest edition will be characterised by the presentation of two unique prototypes, making the duel between the two teams even more spectacular if such a thing is possible.
During this visit to New York, Alicante´s City of Light also became a focus of attention, this time among audiovisual producers. Hence, the meeting aimed to develop relations between the American sector and Alicante´s City of Light and to consolidate the complex as a world reference point in the audiovisual industry, whilst at the same time shoring up the Region of Valencia´s image as an innovative and cutting-edge territory.
Growth of the US market
With an average expenditure per tourist of 1994.23 euro and an average daily spend of 131.38 euro in Spain in 2008, US tourism is an important market for Spain and the Region of Valencia. The hotel is the preferred accommodation option for 96% of US tourists who stayed in regulated tourist establishments (hotels, apartments and campsites) of the Region of Valencia. However, the average stay in apartments was longer: 7.3 days in contrast to 2.1 days in hotels.
According to the latest figures released by the Valencian Regional Department of Tourism, between January and November 2009, 39,761 tourists from the US visited the Region. Furthermore, 134,359 overnight stays were recorded, giving year on year growth of 6.4% in comparison with the same period of 2008, when the Region of Valencia became the fourth most popular Spanish destination among American visitors, after Catalonia (36.6%), Madrid (23.2%) and Andalusia (19.2%). Specifically, that year, the figure stood at 49,566, representing 4% of all US tourists who visited Spain in 2008.
via Travelturisme. Region of Valencia tourism news.
