Given the growing hostility towards tourists in Spain, as well as other countries, Valencia and the Costa Blanca is trying a different approach to bridging the gap between residents and visitors, by pointing out that many of us are both residents and tourists as the same time, with the slogan, “I am you too, I am a tourist too”.
The HOSBEC Hotel Association, together with Turisme Comunitat Valenciana and Patronato Costa Blanca, have published a series of videos with the intention of showing both tourists and residents that “there is a powerful and positive link between the two”.
Through empathetic messages, the campaign highlights the attitudes that characterise the destination of the Valencian Community and all its residents, such as pride of belonging and hospitality, and shows that these values are also common to people who visit the provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia. They emphasise that they are “two sides of the same coin that cannot be understood without the other, since everyone is a tourist and a resident at the same time.”
To express this maxim, four audiovisual pieces have been produced that have gone viral on social media due to the warmth of their expressions. The videos have been recorded in emblematic enclaves such as Peñíscola, the Cabanyal neighbourhood in Valencia, Guadalest and Benidorm.
The online campaign will be complemented by an in-person action that will take place in one of the busiest areas for tourists and residents in the municipality of Benidorm: Levante beach, next to the Biblioplaya. To do this, a tent will be set up that will become a meeting point for everyone and where a bracelet with the campaign message will be distributed as a symbolic badge.
