San Sebastián Turismo & Convention Bureau and Hoteles de Gipuzkoa sign a collaboration agreement to promote tourism in the city
- Friday, 17 November 2017
- This year, for the first ever time, the highest number of international visitors to San Sebastian were from the United States (87,984 overnight stays).
- This collaboration agreement has been signed with the aim of boosting tourist activity in Donostia/San Sebastian and in the region.
- The agreement will enable a higher number of press trips and visits by strategic agents, who help to strengthen San Sebastian’s international standing. It also includes cooperation in marketing activities, to optimise the booking tools for short breaks and attract prestigious agents and upmarket media outlets etc.
- In 2017 there were over a hundred press and fam trips.
Thanks to this collaboration agreement, 21 hotels will be providing around a hundred free rooms to promote the city’s tourism in key markets, through professional opinion leaders such as tour operators or specialist journalists. These hotels have agreed to provide beds for tour leaders so that they can be used for the destination’s promotional activities such as fam trips (familiarisation trips for agents or tour operators), press trips (press trips for journalists who are going to write reports in the international media), and/or inspection trips, for both leisure tourism and MICE or meetings tourism.
During 2017 they have catered for 110 media outlets, 80 leisure travel agents and 46 business travel agents. Many of these fam tours or press trips were made possible with the help of the rooms provided in this agreement. These types of trips help to improve San Sebastian’s international standing, in sectors and markets that have been set as priorities in the San Sebastian Tourism Master Plan (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, Benelux, Nordic countries, etc.).
Thanks to this work, these markets have been strengthened over the years and, this year, for the first time, the highest number of international visitors to San Sebastian were from the United States (87,984 overnight stays), closely followed by France (87,796), which has traditionally been the main outbound market. In the top 5, they are followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.
The familiarisation trips are organised in conjunction with the OETs (Spanish Tourist Offices Abroad), with Basquetour or directly with the agents. In terms of leisure tourism, this year agents from Japan, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, etc. have visited San Sebastian. In business tourism, they were mainly from Germany and the United States.
Press visits are organised by directly contacting specialist media outlets or with the support of Basquetour or the OETs. The most prominent media outlets attended to this year include: The Times, CNN, Forbes, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Le Telegramme, National Geographic, BBC Radio London, Air Canada, The Good Life Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller, Vogue, The Sun, Jamie Oliver Magazine, Femina, Peine de Vie, Architectural Digest, The Thrillist, Luxe Life, US News & World Report, France 5, Daily Star, Radio France, The New European…
San Sebastian in the most prominent media outlets:
As well as providing rooms for promotional activities, the agreement signed by the Hotels association and the tourism organisation also establishes cooperation in the marketing activities proposed by San Sebastián Turismo & Convention Bureau, the Short Breaks Plan and in optimising the tools (San Sebastian/Gipuzkoa Bookings) that are necessary to make them successful, or working with third parties to attract professional agents or find new contact channels to attract prestigious media outlets.
Finally, the agreement seeks to promote the cooperation and participation of both associations in activities to attract MICE events. This joint work and effort, both in design and the nomination submission process, will increase the likelihood of the city attracting conferences and meetings, as is reflected in its results in recent years, during which there has also been a collaboration agreement between Hoteles de Gipuzkoa and San Sebastián Turismo&Convention Bureau.
As in previous years, the collaboration agreement will remain in force for a year and both organisations have agreed to cooperate in these destination promotion activities and any others that the two associations may propose.
Hotels that are providing rooms for 2018 under the agreement:
- Maria Cristina*****
- Londres y de Inglaterra****
- Barcelo Costa Vasca****
- Hesperia Donostia****
- Mercure Monte Igueldo****
- NH Aranzazu****
- San Sebastián****
- Silken Amara Plaza****
- Tryp Orly****
- Hotel Astoria 7****
- Villasoro****
- ZENIT****
- Avenida***
- Codina***
- Husa***
- Niza***
- Alemana
- Ezeiza**
- Parma**
- La Galeria
- Monte Ulia