By IANS
New Delhi : Spain, which is making a concerted bid to increase tourist arrivals from India, has been listed as the number one country in the world for nightlife in a recent survey.
The Country Brand Index (CBI) also listed Spain in the top 10 of the best places for fine dining, at seventh place in top country brands and among the top three countries that best marketed themselves.
Apart from Ibiza, which is Spain’s internationally renowned clubbing city, major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia contribute to Spain’s pulsating nightlife, the survey says.
CBI, now in its third year, is a comprehensive study of more than 2,600 international travellers conducted by FutureBrand, a leading global brand consultancy, in conjunction with public relations firm Weber Shandwick’s Global Travel & Lifestyle Practice.
The opinions of more than 50 international travel industry experts were also called upon for the survey.
“We very pleased to hear about this,” said Enrique Ruiz de Lera, director of the Singapore-based National Tourist Office (NTO) of Spain for Southeast Asia.
“It just goes to show the internationally used Spanish word for parties, ‘fiesta’, is not by chance,” he added in a statement released here.
The NTO of Spain in Singapore covers the Indian, Southeast Asian, Australian and New Zealand markets.
Speaking of NTO’s initiatives for India, Ruiz de Lera said Spain, a nation of 43 million that attracted 58 million tourists last year, hopes for an annual 10 percent rise in tourist inflows.
“We are the second most visited country in the world, a niche destination for the discerning traveller. We hope to increase arrivals from India by 10 percent annually,” he said at a media presentation earlier this month.
“We are growing slowly but step-by-step at a good pace,” he added of the effort to attract more Indian tourists.
Towards this end, Spain has taken a number of initiatives like improving air connectivity, easing the visa regime and opening a full-fledged tourism office in Mumbai, Ruiz de Lera, who is also the tourism counsellor of the Spanish embassy here, added.
The potential was revealed during a yearlong Spanish government-funded survey conducted of the Indian tourism market.
The survey encompassed 1,024 one-to-one interviews in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Additionally, 46 interviews were conducted with MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) agents and conference and meeting organisers.
Buoyed by the findings of the survey, the Spain Tourism Board conducted a four-day workshop in Goa Oct 26-29 for 88 Indian travel agents and tour operators to expose them to what the country has to offer.