John Culatto
A NEW marketing campaign has been launched by the Gibraltar Government to create more tourism from Spain.
The move comes after the supply of tourism via cruises and day trippers was cut down by COVID-19.
Regional advertising on the Spanish radio station Cadena SER and Talk Radio Europe has already started.
Social media campaigns have also been put into action, with important bloggers also promoting the Rock over their channels in coming weeks.
In the next few weeks adverts on regional TV will start promoting day visits or longer term stays in Gibraltar.
Additionally, a dedicated programme will arrive in August on Spanish television with another on Cadena SER radio.
Vijay Daryanani, who only took over as Minister for Tourism in December’s election, is facing one of the biggest challenges in Gibraltar’s history with this tourism drought.
He admitted these were ‘challenging times’ as so many people have chosen to stay in their home countries for summer after COVID-19 paralysed long-distance travel.
Opportunities
“Gibraltar offers the opportunity to be able to travel to another territory and to present a very different experience to the surrounding area,” said Daryanani.
“The campaign is aimed at targeting our uniqueness and Britishness along with the great products that Gibraltar has to offer.
“It is not only for the day visitor but for those spending a longer period of time here.”
Over 300 local jobs have been put at risk by the collapse in tourism on the Rock as well as those of many other cross-frontier workers.
The marketing campaign came as tourists started to arrive on the Rock on Easyjet planes which started again this week.
New governor Sir David Steel visited the airport recently to meet staff and get to know more about how Gibraltar works.
There he met Air Terminal Director Terence Lopez and the management team.
Steel took a behind-the-scenes tour of the £80million airport which has never really brought in the sort of flight capacity it allows.
