British enthusiasm for Spain still strong - Gaspar Lino
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Article featured in Money Market about how the British are still enthusiastic about visiting Spain.
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British enthusiasm for Spain still strong - Gaspar Lino
- 1. PENINSULA | WHAT THE MEDIA SAYS MONEY MARKET SPAIN: SPECIAL COMMERCIAL SUPPLEMENT 16/10/2006 British enthusiasm for Spain still strong says tour board After more than 30 years of mass tourism from the UK to Spain, the British love affair with the beaches, cities and astonishing landscape of the country still rages. More than 16 million Britons visit Spain each year, making them the number one holidaymaking nation by some distance. “There has been a constant slow rise in the number of British people visiting Spain”, said a representative of Turespana, the national agency with offices in the Uk and around the world. Yet there have been some important differences in the destinations chosen in recent years. The advent of budget air travel to many new locationes has encouraged visitors to look beyond the Costas and branch out into previously unfamiliar towns and cities, according to Turespana. “Budget air travel has opened up the city break market in Spain”, says the representative. “While numbers going to the Balearics are slightly down, for example, Bilbao has seen many more visitors. Overall numbers are around the same as previous years, but they are more eenly spreads”. Spain´s 17 regions each offer something distinct and exciting, from the Spain has 17 distinct regions, each offering visitors something different and unique. local dining specialities to the historical buildings, festivals and museums. “Each region is like a separate country”, as Turespana puts it. Two future events in Spain are already causing a stir among British holidaymarkets: the Americas Cup–the world´s premier yatching event- is to be held off the coast of Valencia next year, with more than a million visitors expected to turn up as the fastest and most expensive racing yatchs on earth pit themselves against one another in the breezy waters. The city has been preparing for the event in the way that others look forward to the Olympics, with new facilities and developments springing up along the coastline. Then in 2008 Zaragoza will host an international Expo, once again providing the impetus for fresh development and new buildings in this little known city in the Aragon region. Many hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit the city for this event. Spain may be ever more familiar to the British, but the love affair just grows stronger.