These are the foreign tourist destinations competing with Spain for a bigger slice of the UK travel market

Expectations of winning over British tourists go beyond the Andalusian and Spanish destinations. On the last day of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London last week, optimism for a return to double-digit growth also spread among exhibitors from Spain’s main competitor countries.

At the major event, where the whole travel world is condensed into the ExCel exhibition centre, the Costa del Sol, along with other Andalusian and Spanish destinations, became neighbours with some of their Mediterranean competitors such as Greece and Turkey.

What is more, at these countries’ stands there was more activity on the closing day of the event, which is one of the three most important tourism industry events in the world, than at the meeting tables for Andalucía or the Costa del Sol.

This upswing for Spain’s competitors confirms the forecasts made by industry body Turespaña that capacity to these countries, especially Turkey, would experience significant increases for this winter of 15.2% and 9.7% respectively. Exhibitors from these competing nations point out that they have achieved a greater commitment from the large tour operators, including TUI and Jet2, which are also key to the province of Malaga.

However, those same exhibitors point out that, in the case of the aforementioned Turkey, alongside Egypt and even, currently, Tunisia, these double-digit variation rates are simply showing a partial recovery of the capacity that had been diverted to Spain in recent years as a result of conflicts and political unrest in these areas. Another factor is the reality that Turkish destinations have also benefited from the depreciation of Turkish lira against pound sterling (GBP) in recent years. In fact, Turespaña warns that “the British currency has already passed the barrier of quadrupling the price it had in the summer of 2021 against the Turkish currency: the exchange rate has fluctuated from around 11 Turkish lira per pound to the current 45 lira per pound. The strength of sterling against the lira is making it considerably cheaper to holiday there.”

Likewise, data from search engines such as Skyscanner show an increased interest in recent months in international markets and travel destinations other than Spain. However, Google confirms British loyalty to Spain in the form of significant increases in searches and especially a clear dominance of accommodation and flight searches over its competitors.

However, the even greater than expected growth of British tourists to Turkey and Greece will also be highly influenced by economic developments in the UK. Turespaña is clear in its confidence that “as the economic situation improves and uncertainty diminishes, a parallel positive evolution of searches and bookings to Spain is quite plausible, without losing sight of the important recovery of other substitute markets such as Greece or Turkey.”

Another phenomenon to add to the mix is the heads-up from travel industry professionals that we must also look to the UK itself as a competitor to Spain. Tourism and travel companies were commenting from their WTM stands that the fashion that emerged with the pandemic of going on holiday to British tourist destinations – the staycation – is making a strong comeback. Domestic holidays as a substitute for trips abroad began to decline from mid-2022, but with the difficulties arising from the current economic situation, domestic travel is once again gaining ground. Turespaña pointed out that this phenomenon can be seen in the forecast for domestic travel spending for 2024 and 2025 with a growth rate of 7%.

Despite all this, the Costa del Sol tourist board has taken stock of the 40 round-table meetings held during WTM and stressed that British operators have told them that bookings will increase to Spain by an average of 6% next year. The CEO of Turismo Costa del Sol, Esperanza González, underlined the strategic importance of the British market for this destination, highlighting a series of key actions and data that consolidate the position of the province as one of the favourite destinations for tourists from the United Kingdom. This was made known by the most relevant operators in the British tourism industry, including Travel Counsellors, Sojern, British Airways, Jet2.com, Qatar Airways, Travel Republic, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Lotus, and even the Chicago Bulls, with the aim of continuing to position the destination among the most demanded by tourists.

“The operators have shown interest in promoting trips related to the unique experiences offered by the Costa del Sol, especially highlighting the potential of the province during the winter, setting a lot of store on family tourism and discovering the lesser-known facets of the coast,” she said. González also added that the travel agents have positively valued the increase in the quality of the services provided “which reinforces the position of the destination as one of the most attractive and competitive.” A more than positive World Travel Market for tourism.