The roadshows, set to increase awareness and demand for leisure, luxury and MICE travel from GCC market to Spain, showed impressive attention from key travel stakeholders.
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Spain Tourism successfully hosted its first post-pandemic travel and trade roadshows in the GCC after international travel bans have been lifted. The first roadshow took place in Jeddah on the 25th of October 2021, followed by an event in Riyadh on the 26th, and one in Dubai on the 28th of October.
All three events saw huge turnouts as key travel agents and industry experts were excited to learn more about Spain’s new promotions and offerings after the ease of international travel restrictions.
The events saw the participation of partners from the regions of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Andalusia and Costa del Sol, along with renowned hotel and DMC partners from Spain.
Mr. Ameen Saduk, General Manager of Al Maha United Travel, commented after his participation in the Jeddah roadshow: “This is my first physical roadshow post pandemic and I thank Spain Tourism for the tremendous effort. The roadshow allowed us to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones with our partners in Spain, which will help us in creating new holiday packages for the Saudi traveller in the coming months.
“Now that the agents in Jeddah are more familiar with Spain, there will be a great demand for the destination in the KSA market, and we expect an upcoming growth in the number of Saudi visitors to Spain”.
Mr. Mohamad Korjieh, Sales Manager of Time Travel, said regarding the Riyadh roadshow: “We were very happy to receive an invitation for a physical roadshow after long time of attending the events virtually, we were very impressed of the level of organization that Spain Tourism had displayed. Spain has always been an attractive destination for Saudi families and sports enthusiasts; however, we now know that Spain has a lot more to offer as a destination; accordingly, we will work alongside our new Spanish partners towards developing and promoting exciting new holiday packages that target other traveller segments”.
From his side, Daniel Rosado, Director of Spain Tourism – GCC said following the events in Saudi Arabia and Dubai: “We are very pleased to see the impressive turnout of travel agents and industry leaders at all 3 events, and it is always great to hear that many agencies are eager to resume promoting Spain now that travel restrictions have been lifted. With our continuous efforts to strengthen the connections between the region’s outbound travel professionals and Spain Tourism’s travel industry partners, we are hopeful that the numbers of Saudi and GCC visitors to Spain will grow in the coming period, especially with winter holiday seasons coming up.”
About Spain Tourism (Turespaña):
TURESPAÑA is the public body, attached to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism through the Secretary of State for Tourism, responsible for marketing Spain as a travel destination in the world. With the goal of contributing to the use of the great potential generator of social well-being that tourism presents and, therefore, always taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our tourist destinations, Turespaña’s mission is to create value for the tourism sector through the use of marketing techniques and the generation of tourism knowledge.
