Spain plans to attract more tourists from India

Spain is planning to take up with India proposals to boost tourism and to improve the connectivity between the two countries. The Spanish government is expected to raise issues such as improving air connectivity with India in near future.

Spanish Ambassador Rafael Conde de Faro told media that though no dates for any meeting has been set by the two governments, but the issues relating to tourism and aviation would be raised with New Delhi at an appropriate time. According to news agency PTI, he said Spanish airport surveys had shown a massive jump of Indian tourist traffic from about 9,000 three years ago to over 26,000 last year.

“Maintaining that there were many complementarities between India and Spain in the tourism sector, he said the holiday period in India (May-July) was lean season in Spain and the holiday season (August) in that country was lean period in India. The only but major drawback was that there were no direct air links between the two countries, he said adding that the Spanish government would raise these issues with India in the near future in order to increase awareness:” the report added.
Last month, Spain’s ambassador in New Delhi promoted his country. According to a report by the financial daily Business Standard, the ambassador is keen on introducing Bollywood to Spain, and if the recent visit by Joan Gaspart, president of the executive committee of Turis
me de Barcelona, is any indication, that might be some time soon.
The report added: “If India has been late in waking up to the charms of Spain, it might be added that Spain has not exactly been efficient in wooing India either. Clearly, it is the current celebration of the Indian economy and the growing clout of the traveling Indian that has caught the eye of the authorities in this southern region of Europe. After all, for a country that boasts the highest number of tourist arrivals in the world (50 million annually), India’s showing was an abysmal 26,000 last year.”

By Satish G.

NEW DELHI, India (eTurboNews)

November 28, 2005   Posted in: Spain