This prestigious event was held at the Gran Hotel Bahia del Duque, in Costa Adeje, on the 9th of May.

The first discussion was moderated by Javier Gonzalez Soria, the  director of tourism for Google Spain, and was a frank talk about the complexities of Travel 2.0, and its impact on the Canarian market.Travel 2.0 is basically how Web 2.0 is applied to Travel sites, and the major discussion was along the lines of people believing previous visistors views and ideas.  Videos play an important part in swaying peoples decision on where they want to go on holiday.

The second topic for discussion was how Tenerife is perceived against its competitors in other markets.   The speakers were the directors of the Spanish Office of Tourism, Manuel Butler, Berlin, Ignacio Vasallo, London, Jose Munoz, Holland and Marta Pastor, Copenhagen.

Everyone agreed that within the UK, Tenerife is viewed as being the leading destination.  In Germany, even though the market share is still the same, the amount of people visiting Tenerife isn't increasing.

Jose Munoz went on to say that within the Netherlands, Tenerife has roughly a 20% share of the holiday market, however despite that figure being stable for the past few years, a slight decline is beginning.

The final topic for discussion was the renovation of Tenerife's tourism industry.  Participating in this discussion were Joan Molas, president of the Spanish Confederation of hotels and tourist accommodation, Juan Manuel Bermudez, Director of Tourism Cabildo de Tenerife, Jose Antonio Fernandez Alarcon, Counsellor Hispajuris and Rafael Fuentes, counselor Sopde. Miguel Angel Santos Cruz (Tourism Council Adeje) served as host and introduced the discussion.

Jose Manuel Bermudez stated that after surveys, a rough estimate of the expenditure needed to renovate Tenerife to an acceptable level would be in excess of 850 million euros, half of which would be achieved by private investment.

With more than 5 million tourists coming to Tenerife each year, everyone agreed that the renovation of the tourism industry is something that concerns everyone, from the smallest trader up to the largest hotel chain.

(Read the full transcriptions at The official forum site - in Spanish)

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Canary Islands, Enviroment, Events, Hotels, Information, Lifestyle, Tenerife, Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.