As British tourists continue to choose Spain for their summer holidays the year will close with more than 2 million travellers having visited the country from the United Kingdom, 80% of them to the Costa Blanca. Valencian President Ximo Puig said at London’s World Travel Fair on Monday that 2022 saw the recovery of 90% of international tourism from the figures enjoyed pre pandemic.
“During their visits to the Costa Blanca Britons have spent 1.8 billion euros,” said Puig, “despite Brexit and what has come after, including both the aftermath of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.”
“The British market is essential for the Costa Blanca and for the Valencian Community,” said the president. “it is the most important source of foreign tourists,” he continued.
Turisme Comunidad Valenciana has a strong presence in London as it continues to consolidate the British market. “It is a market in which we must work hard to both retain and to improve,” he added.
Tourists from the United Kingdom are now more than just a market to look at. Puig said that “there is a sentimental link with the United Kingdom. When Brexit came about, which we all agree was a bad idea, we said at the time that Great Britain could stop being in the European Union but it will continue to be part of Europe.”
In fact, this link goes beyond just those who spend their holidays on the Costa Blanca or other parts of Spain: “More than a third of all British people who live in Spain, almost 100,000, live in the Valencian Community.” And “this sentimental bond is important if we are attract new people, tourists, who are going to come to the Valencian Community in the future. With flights to more than 20 British airport we are currently in a good place, but there is still a great deal more that we can do.”
Also in London for the World Travel Market is the president of the Diputación de Alicante, Carlos Mazón , who met on Monday with the Spanish ambassador to the United Kingdom, José Pascual Martínez , to address the growth potential of the British market in the province , as well as “the need to guarantee that tourists and residents can travel to our municipalities as many times as they wish, while also extending their stay in Spain for as long as possible”.
Mazón reminded the ambassador that Alicante is the number one province in Spain in its number of British residents, with more than 74,000 registered citizens, while he also spoke of the increase in flights from the United Kingdom to the Alicante-Elche Airport Miguel Hernandez.
For the 2022-2023 winter season, more than one million seats have been scheduled on 6,000 aircraft that will fly 55 routes between different British airports and Alicante. These figures put the province as the peninsular destination with the most flights from the United Kingdom.
