Andalusia reinforces its tourist offer before the LGTBI market with the celebration in Torremolinos of an international business forum with operators from 20 countries.
Andalusia is determined to promote in international markets its brand image as a tourist destination that makes “normalization, tolerance and social integration”, along with its wide range, its most powerful and differential values ​​to compete in attracting tourism LGBTI

This was announced today by the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Francisco Javier Fernández, together with the mayor of Torremolinos, José Ortiz, at the inauguration of the 1st International LGTBI Tourism Meeting in Andalusia, a business forum between tour operators from 20 countries and tourism companies from the region that has as its frame the Congress Palace of that city on the Costa del Sol, a pioneer in the 60s as a gay destination in Spain.

The counselor has emphasized the symbolism that Torremolinos has in this commitment to attracting and marketing Andalusia to specialized operators in the global LGBTI segment. “Torremolinos represents, like none other, the open character that Andalusia gathers as a tourist product” for a typology of clients, he pointed out, that “it is one of the most economically profitable” for the interests of the region.

For its part, the mayor of Torremolinos, José Ortiz, host of this international forum, has abounded in the historical and strategic role played by LGTBI tourism in the success and internationalization of this destination of the Costa del Sol during the last 50 years. Starting in 1962 with the opening of the first gay club in Andalusia. “Torremolinos has been strengthened as an open, multicultural and diverse city.”

Strategic profile of LGTBI tourism

In this sense, the owner of Tourism has referred to 113 euros of average daily expenditure offered by this tourist profile (compared to 67 to 69 euros for the average tourist), its highest rate of trips per year, its seasonally-adjusted capacity and of loyalty to the destination, to which is added the fact that it is “a tourist who is not classified in any classic segment but seeks a comprehensive, comprehensive offer that unites gastronomy, nature, culture, heritage or leisure, in addition to the own singularities of events -the case of the Pride of Torremolinos- “, as elements that give it a strategic role for the tourist interests of the region.

Fernandez has emphasized the field of opportunities that opens this I International Meeting of LGTBI Tourism of Andalusia, a tourism segment whose commercialization has recognized in Torremolinos its first historical reference and its standard, and that in the case of the region generated in 2016 one million overnight stays and an economic movement of 260 million euros, as explained above. “We want to make it possible for the offer of the Andalusian company to match international demand, and this commercial and business meeting can bring many benefits for the region.”

Torremolinos in the tourist vanguard

Thus, the mayor Torremolinos, José Ortiz, has continued to ensure that “the LGTBI collective is part of our identity. We were the cradle in Europe of gay tourism. Icon of modernity in the decades of the 60s and 70s. Vanguard of the freedoms and rights of the people “. “That multiculturalism, diversity and freedom to live from mutual respect is an asset of this city,” said Ortiz.

The first mayor has placed the focus on this tourist segment as the one that opens a field of opportunities in the development of new products that add to the tourist offer of Torremolinos more linked to quality than quantity and through new public investments, private and public-private.

“We have the challenge, and we face it without doubts or complexes, of transforming our city socially and touristically. It is our duty and our obligation as the leading tourist destination of the Costa del Sol and of Andalusia, which intends to remain in that privileged position in a context of increasing competition, “he stressed.

Excellence of the destination

“We want to move towards a model of excellence, humanly and as a destination open to the world. We reinforce our natural assets: the sun and the beach, as pillars of the destination and we complement it with new segments such as cultural tourism, urban tourism, shopping, congress, educational, sports and of course, the LGTBI segment, as elements that are going to be redesigning the tourist future of Torremolinos, he added.

Organized by the Public Company for the Management of Tourism and Sports of Andalusia, the City Council of Torremolinos and Turespaña, this I International Meeting of LGTBI Tourism of Andalusia becomes one of the most important promotional events that will be developed in Andalusia this year, unprecedented initiative in the series of ‘wokshops’ or round of business in the region, and born with the vocation to celebrate