India #1 market for Spain program

Elisa Robles Fraga, Director, Tourism Office of Spain & Tourism Counsellor, Embassy of Spain India, is proud to share that India is the number one international market in terms of registrations for its Spain Specialist Program. The NTO has also planned fam trips for the travel trade to known, as well as newer destinations, to help them promote the destination better.

Hazel Jain

The Tourism Office of Spain has always encouraged direct engagement with the travel trade. It was recently part of an interactive session organised by TAFI WI and sponsored by Global Destinations, where Elisa Robles Fraga, Director, Tourism Office of Spain (Tourism Counsellor – Embassy of Spain India), presented the myriad tools available for the travel trade.

She says, “Even though travel agents know about Spain, we have been highlighting the different tools that agents can use to improve their knowledge of Spain so that they can sell it better. We have for them our website as well as our specialist programme.”

Created along with local and regional tourism boards, the Spain Specialist programme is online and freely available for the travel trade. It has four courses and many modules, and upon its completion, agents can earn a certificate and also stand a chance to win a sponsored trip to Spain.

Robles adds, “I am proud to say that India ranks number one among all the countries where travel trade has access to this programme with 964 registrations. Number two is Argentina and a very far third is USA.” The NTO will be participating in the upcoming M!CE Travel Show organised by Buzz Travel Marketing in July this year.

Surpassed pre-pandemic inbound numbers

Robles reveals, “We are the second-most visited country in the world. We have been second again last year in 2023 with 85.2 million international visitors. The Indian outbound market has indeed shown its positive intent in the past year, especially with respect to Spain. We are in fact very pleased to say that we have passed our pre-pandemic numbers in 2023, with the figures reaching almost 250,000. We therefore have an extremely positive outlook for 2024.”

Spain will be promoting new products this year in India market. It will continue promoting some of the already popular products – art and culture, luxury, gastronomy, among others. At the same time, it is also promoting some of the lesser-known aspects of Spain such as the Green Spain region as well as encouraging travellers to explore Spain during the non-peak seasons in an effort towards a more sustainable tourism development.

“We have multiple familiarization trips in pipeline – to destinations that are already popular in the Indian market such as Andalucía as well as some of the hidden gems in the regions like Galicia in the North of Spain,” Robles adds.

Visas made easy for travellers and quick

Spain is the first Schengen country in terms of processing visas and efficiency of the process, Robles claims. “Spain Tourism is always grateful for the assistance provided by our Consulate and Embassy with respect to visas. Among other things, the processing time has greatly improved and applicants in Mumbai receive visa within 48 hours after submission. Visa processing has indeed increased by 30 per cent compared to 2022,” she adds.

Addressing TAFI members in Mumbai, Fernando Heredia Noguer, Consul General of Spain in Mumbai, said, “I am overwhelmed by the love and interest Indian nationals have for Spain. I am always happy to share information with the travel agents and understand their needs and challenges so we can try and accommodate their requests as much as our resources allow us to.” Noguer added, “We have increased our visa processing capacity by 30 per cent  in 2023 compared to 2022 and increased 40 per cent  compared to the average of the four years before the pandemic. In 2023, we managed to issue almost 52,000 visas versus 40,000 visa applications in 2022. We have the authorisation to open a new consulate general in Bengaluru.” He also shared that travel agents can write at cog.mumbai.vis@maec.es in case of any issue with families or group visas and assured that every genuine email will be responded to.