Tourism of the Canary Islands has been recognized at the national level for its strategy to position the archipelago as the best scenario for practicing sports in order to add value to tourism.
The award was given in Madrid by Aire Libre magazine, which has been convening various competitions for years and which in 2023 has created the Sports Tourism Awards, which are added to the already traditional Active Tourism, with 28 editions, and Sustainable Tourism, with seven editions.
José Juan Lorenzo, managing director of Tourism of the Canary Islands, reporting to the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, said upon receiving the award that recognitions of this type represent an "impetus to continue with the promotion strategy of professional sports training tourism".
“In 2022 we launched our first international campaign aimed at this segment, where we relied on the prescription power of elite athletes, Olympic and world champions, who told in first person the reasons why they had chosen the islands to train, among which is enjoying the best climate in the world throughout the year,” explained Lorenzo.
The sports tourist spends more and almost always repeats
The investment allocated to this tourist profile last year was close to one million euros, with a campaign that impacted the six main European markets, managing to position the archipelago as an ideal destination for professional athletes from numerous disciplines.
This is a long-stay traveler who spends more at the destination and in a better distributed manner, in addition to being characterized by their high economic capacity, a great travel activity, since they make an average of five trips a year with an average of 15 days of stay, and a high loyalty to the destination since 88% are repeaters.
In addition, the promotion of sports tourism has also materialized in the line of sponsorships aimed at private companies or public entities for events of tourist interest on the islands. Specifically, in 2022, 2,614,620 euros were awarded to celebrate 55 sporting events, which are a focus of attraction for residents and tourists. Such is the case, Lorenzo pointed out, that “the organization of sporting events has a very high impact on the sector and from Tourism of the Canary Islands we see it as an opportunity to diversify the tourism product with a high potential for development.”
As an objective for 2023, the managing director of the public entity advanced that the aim is to raise the notoriety of the Canary Islands brand in the symbolic ideology of sports training within international circuits, as well as in the consideration of the destination as a prior appointment to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
