DO YOU NEED SPAIN?

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Staff Reporter / 2010-03-18 14:34:15

Ferran Adria is the Spanish guru of modern cuisine

New campaign to drive the Costa upmarket..... Ferran Adria, the Spanish guru of modern cuisine, is to be the face of a new campaign to promote the Costa del Sol’s cultural and gastronomic strengths, and prove it has more to offer than cheap "holiday in the sun" packages.

Tourism chiefs have called in world-renowned chef Adria to help spice up its image as a tourist destination, in what analysts say is a shrewd move to revive a key, recession-hit industry. Daniela Freund, a professor of tourism studies at Barcelona's Sant Ignasi college told press, "It's a clever move in the sense that we need to innovate in the design of our tourism product, and Ferran Adria is seen as an innovator," Adria only recently announced that his restaurant in north-eastern Spain, elBulli, frequently named the world's best, would close for two years from 2012 and then become a non-profit foundation.

Suffering

Spain last year suffered an 8.7-percent-drop in foreign tourists due in part to the effect of the economic crisis in its main markets; its second straight year of falling visitor numbers and the tourism sector employed 2.25 million people last year, or 12 percent of all workers in the country, according to the industry ministry.

As we stated in last week’s issue, Spain’s tourism also accounts for 11 percent of gross domestic product and is the second largest sector after the construction industry, which collapsed as the country slipped into recession in late 2008. According to national press, Spain will end 2010 as the only major economy still in recession and with its two main engines -- construction and tourism in the doldrums but with the new initiative seen as a way for Spain to "exit the tunnel".

Freund said there had been a feeling in the industry that the country was not being marketed properly and there was not enough commitment to try to foster other types of tourism. He stated that he thought, "Probably the economic crisis was the spark that woke us up, (there was a feeling that) it was now or never."

Spain is feeling the pinch from the drop in the pound sterling to near parity with the euro, apart from the recession, which has made it more expensive for British holidaymakers to spend time at the resorts that dot its extensive coastline and the country has also suffered from increased competition in recent years from cheaper Mediterranean destinations such as Croatia, Turkey and Tunisia.

In 2008, Spain lost its ranking as the world's second most visited country to the United States, behind first-placed France however, analysts said tourism authorities are not concerned about attracting more tourists, just ones that spend more money. "We are not looking for millions and millions of tourists, we want millions and millions of tourists, but we want tourists who are looking for quality." said Josep Francesc Valls, professor of marketing at the ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

However, Freund added that Spain will never be able to compete on prices if they just focus on the sun and beach model, as the tourist doesn't care where he is, and there's not much you can do about that. A spokesman for the tourism ministry said the new "I Need Spain" campaign aims to "promote Spain as cultural tourist destination of the first order and diversify" its tourism product.

Among the attractions it wants to highlight are the historic Moorish cities of Cordoba, Grenada and Sevilla in the south, the wine-growing region of La Rioja in the northeast, and the northern Basque Country, home to some of Spain's best cuisine.

The ministry said the 7.5-million-euro (10.2-million-dollar) campaign was particularly aimed at markets that have traditionally been weak, such as China, India and the Middle East.