Considered the sixth most important tour operator in Germany, Schauinsland Reisen, has confirmed that its bookings for the summer of 2011 already exceed by 30 percent those obtained in the past year 2010 at this point in the year. The agent from the German country gave this data to the Lanzarote delegation that traveled to the Berlin tourism fair (ITB).
This increase in places has been valued as "very positive" by the Tourism Board and the Lanzarote Foreign Promotion Society, since Schauinsland Reisen moves about 20,000 tourists to Lanzarote per year, mainly of German nationality. "Lanzarote has been working with Schauinsland Reisen for three years in a row, and although it is true that the situation in the countries of the southern Mediterranean may benefit us somewhat, it is no less true that the improvement of the economic situation in Germany and the enormous effort made by the Board and the SPEL have been factors that are just as or more influential in achieving these figures," defended the Tourism Councilor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Carmen González.
The manager of the SPEL, Héctor Fernández, expressed himself in the same way. "The market is showing a lot of dynamism, but the destinations that, like Lanzarote, are managing to attract German tourists are those in which the tourism agents trust, having been, as is our case, working with them for some time. In general, the initial assessment of the ITB could not be more positive," Fernández pointed out.
On the other hand, Lanzarote and Schauinsland Reisen have agreed to hold a fam-trip (familiarization trip with the destination) in Lanzarote in April, in which more than 50 travel agency owners will participate. The decision-makers or prescribers, as they are known in tourism jargon, will visit the island's accommodation offer, as well as tourist attractions, such as the Tourist Centers.
Homosexual tourism
Likewise, within the ITB, another working meeting was held with a German tour operator, TomonTour, which specializes in homosexual tourism. Turismo Lanzarote and TomonTour will collaborate in several actions aimed at promoting this tourist segment, which is usually characterized "by having a high purchasing power and spending a lot at the destination", according to the Cabildo.
In this way, next May TomonTour will send a journalist specialized in media oriented to the homosexual public to Lanzarote. It has also been studied, jointly with the Turespaña office in Munich, to carry out promotional actions in said German city, which would include a fam-trip with travel agents from the tour operator and other advertising actions.
On the other hand, the specialized German press has been one of the sectors to which the Tourism Board and the Cabildo of Lanzarote have given greater importance within the celebration of the ITB 2011. In a first working meeting with the communication group FVW Median Gruppe PR, specialized in tourism and with which Lanzarote has been working for some time, it has been agreed to carry out a counter-info (a separate) dedicated to Lanzarote, which would have 8 pages of extension and which would be inserted in several of the magazines and publications of the group. The OET of Berlin and a Spanish hotel chain, with commercial interests in Germany, yet to be defined, would participate in said counter-info.
Likewise, Lanzarote had a "prominent role" in a workshop held with more than 100 German journalists specialized in the tourism sector within the framework of the Berlin fair. The island presented its advertising and promotional material in this workshop, with special emphasis on the island's sports, gastronomic, cultural and nature offer.
Said workshop was held at the same ITB together with other tourist destinations that, like Lanzarote, are clients of the company Angelika Hermann Meier PR, one of the ten best press and public relations agencies in the German country.