NOVEMBER is set to open with Spaniards pouring into London – town halls and regional governments will be descending on the UK capital to show the country's residents why they should be heading for Spain.
The World Travel Market (WTM) is, along with FITUR in Madrid at the beginning of each year, one of the planet's largest tourism trade fairs, and any location in Spain which wants to encourage visitors from beyond national borders makes sure that even if they cannot get to any other, similar event, these two dates are firmly circled in their diaries.
For three days, destinations worldwide, emerging and established, will be attending to tour operators and other businesses in the travel industry, and to the general public, showing what they have to offer.
FITUR and the WTM are normally when Spain's globally-famous beach-holiday hotspots make a concerted effort to prove they have plenty more besides a coast and a sun shining on it for several months of the year – mild winters, springlike weather in autumn, and springs themselves more like a northern European summer mean the climate is always attractive to those in colder countries, even if it is not always 'sun-tan and seaside' weather, which makes exploring countryside, historic buildings and beautiful, colourful and ornate towns and cities much pleasanter than doing so in freezing downpours and blizzards.
Gandia: Beach breaks for Brits who 'want to avoid the Brits'
Gandia, southern Valencia province, has announced it will be at the WTM, since although its tourism industry relies heavily on its beaches, the overwhelming majority of visitors to this town of around 78,000 inhabitants are from other parts of Spain, typically Madrid and other northern, inland locations – British holidaymakers in Gandia can normally be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and the small community of foreign tourists is predominantly French.
Gandia's welcome sign, just in case you were worried you'd got the wrong destination (photo: Radio COPE-Onda Naranja)
Being largely outside the traditional northern European 'expat belt', but just a few kilometres away from the Alicante-province border and towns where residents from this part of the continent are much more numerous, Gandia gives visitors the best of both worlds: If you want to stay away from purpose-built package resort areas and experience Spain as its inhabitants do, then you will, but if you need the kind of support that international holidaymakers do and permanent residents do not – such as someone who speaks your language – it's not difficult to find.
Gandia is home to the palace where 10 generations of the infamous Borgia, or Borja dynasty lived. On a guided tour (just pop in when you're passing), you'll realise this fantastic photo by the Valencia regional tourism board does not do the spectacular ‘golden gallery’ justice - an ornamental passage that's an optical illusion
For this reason, Gandia, despite already having a thriving tourism industry, considers the UK to be an untapped resource and is keen to break into the British market.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com