The Government of the Azores will continue “to intensively promote and raise the Azores destination to prominence” during the next year, stated the Regional Secretary for the Economy, Vasco Cordeiro, during a meeting held with the Advisory Board of the Azores Tourism Association (ATA) in Ponta Delgada on Friday morning.
This meeting was intended to analyse the promotion strategy of the Azores destination for next year and hear the position of this body on the markets to which priority status should be awarded at a promotional level as well as on the strategies to be followed in order to attract tourists and the relation of Azores Tourism with the operators of the main tourism markets for the Region.
The ATA Advisory Board is made up of several professionals operating in the regional Tourism sector, including hotel owners, travel agents, businesspeople in the catering area and tourism animation companies, among others.
During the meeting, Vasco Cordeiro stated that “the 10-million Euro reinforcement allocated by the Plan and Budget for 2010 should be used wisely in order to accomplish the goals stipulated by the Government.”
This position, the Regional Secretary for the Economy explained, is due to the fact that “one cannot think that because there is a larger sum awarded for tourism promotion purposes, the promotion of the destination is solved.”
Therefore, Vasco Cordeiro assured, “the work to be developed next year will not withdraw funds from the support awarded to operators to replace them for the promotion of the destination, but rather to define a strategy that allows the enhancement of these areas in tourism sector.”
However, this substantial reinforcement in the promotion of the Azores destination will be mainly addressed “at the markets which have registered the greatest potential growth over the last years, such as the case of Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and France as well as in emerging markets such as the case of Canada and the United States.”