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Selling Spain abroad
Added: (Wed Jan 31 2007)
Spanishpromotions ended 2006 with over 70,000 sole visitors per month, just over double compared to last year’s figures. 79.45% of these visitors are from outside Spain. Germany heads the list, followed by the UK and Ireland, Austria, Holland and the USA and they are the main receivers of the portal’s offers which since its launch in April 2005 –a month which registered 1.797 sole visitors- has served almost 4 million pages.
During the first stage of the Marketplace’s launch and display on tourism and investment in Spain another platform model has been developed in order to make working on the network easier and more efficient for companies and professionals. The portal enables any company belonging to the tourist sector to advertise its products or services via webservices (xml) and experiment with the latest and most successful on-line advertising systems related to the different contents and sections of the eMagazine with over 500 reports and news items on Spain.
The risky launch of the project has meant the coming together of a group of companies aware of the importance of being actively present in on-line low cost media and offering potential clients more valuable information on their own services or products, as is the case of property and everything related to it, tourist information, destinations, life style, culture, fiestas and services.
At present the portal offers direct booking for 27,000 hotels in Europe, over 2,000 rural houses in Spain, as well as 90 paradores (Spanish state-owned hotels in historic buildings), city guides, a selection of the most highly rated hotels, rural houses, special offers and night-life, shows, concerts and restaurants or books, maps and street maps. All of these are just part of what is available besides flight offers, package holidays, thanks to the portal’s different affiliation programmes and its suppliers and collaborators. Over 2 million products also form part of the showcase the web offers.
Active tourism, hotels, tours and properties, the most visited sections
Touring Spain and including activities such as adventure tourism or gastronomy, cultural and historical routes as well as great holidays for those who want to relax. Direct booking to all of these activities has been carefully linked to the Web’s contents, reports on destinations, fiestas, routes and traditions. The sale of properties, villas, businesses and lettings are some of the investment opportunities, which the web works with in real time. There are 60,000 properties and businesses in its property section and also in its mobile version (imode), accessible from any airport or place with Wi-Fi (hot-spot) or from any 3G mobile phone.
The portal has produced over 500 reports and articles on destinations, which thanks to the excellent team of freelance journalists can be used as a reference for foreign tourists on the main travel guides for Spain and its customs, life style, charming destinations, wine culture and gastronomy or the growing offer of spas.
As regards the multimedia and mobility, there are about 40 of our own videos (Internet streaming and mobile) and a channel in which users can add their favourite videos related to Spain and their travel experiences, thanks to YouTube’s “shared” service. During the following months, Spanishpromotions will commercialise its contents for mobile phones in over 173 countries, thanks to a recent agreement. It’s imode channel currently registers 12% of total traffic.
If 2006 meant a great change in the way of doing business within the tourism and investment sector, 2007 will convince more than a few that the Internet is at present the most effective, handiest and cheapest way to compete in a new era in which information will be held in your mobile, that is to say, in your hand.