The Office of Tourism of the Consell de Formentera is pleased to report that this week, from 24 to 26 March, Formentera will participate in two promotional fairs in Barcelona. The island will have its own stand at the B-Travel trade show for the end public at Fira de Montjuïc exhibition centre in Barcelona. Formentera will also have its own stand at the Mediterranean Diving Show for professional and amateur divers at Fira de Cornellà exhibition centre.

B-Travel, one of the largest events in Spain and designed for the end traveller public, brings together the main travel agencies, hotels, transport companies and tourism services companies. Said Alejandra Ferrer, vice president and tourism councillor, "We will display promotional material highlighting activities on Formentera that can be done outside the high season, from sports and cultural, heritage and culinary offerings to activities in nature, bird-watching routes and opportunities to learn about local history and deeply-rooted island traditions."

Friday 24 March, Carlos Bernús, chief of marketing, will offer the presentation "Formentera, sustainable by nature" to representatives of niche press outlets at the expo. Visitors to Formentera's stand will be able to take virtual reality tours with 360º videos of local landmarks.

Diving fair
The Mediterranean Diving Show also takes place in Barcelona from 24 to 26 March. This is the oldest diving fair in the country and has become a benchmark for the diving world. In the words of Vice President Ferrer, "We could not miss this chance to highlight our attractive seabed and vastly diverse coastal dive sites". The fair is a meeting point for diving professionals and amateurs, not to mention travel agencies specialised in this sector. The Formentera Divers company will also attend and promote the great diving possibilities that Formentera offers as agreed in the island's strategic tourist segments. Mediterranean Diving Show visitors will also be able to experience our underwater world in 360º virtual reality.

Last summer Spanish travellers made up 39% of visiting tourists and constituted Formentera's largest market. At 33%, travellers from Catalonia were the most prevalent, followed by Valencia (17%) and Madrid (16%), according to data from the Formentera Data Observatory.

22 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

The Office of Tourism of the Consell de Formentera is pleased to announce marketing actions this week and next to foment tourism. In the words of Carlos Bernús, chief of marketing, "Beyond marketing within Spain, we are continuing with sales missions in European countries like France and Germany and on the east coast of the United States to keep ensuring a diversity of backgrounds among our visitors".

Wednesday, Formentera participated in an event in Paris, France, where representatives promoted the island and its off-season offer to roughly forty French media outlets, some specialised in travel, some with more general readership.

For International Women's Day, Thursday afternoon, the Cervantes Institute and Tourespaña's office in Munich (Germany) organised a meeting with agencies and niche press outlets to highlight the success stories of women from the islands. Martina Cacheiro, chef at Casbah, participated on Formentera's behalf in a round table to talk about her culinary creations incorporating local products inspired by Formentera nature.

Next week two sales missions will take shape in the USA, where new air connections with the islands have made for a growing presence of travellers from the east coast in surveys. "With these marketing actions, a collaborating American communications company will talk to travellers in New York and New Jersey about possible activities and experiences related to fine dining, culture, heritage and sports on Formentera", said Bernús.

18 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

The Office of Tourism of the Consell de Formentera is pleased to report that in the coming days it will give presentations as part of a six-city tour of mainland Spain. This week stops will be made in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, with presentations programmed in Bilbao, Malaga and Valladolid after Easter. These cities have been chosen because they are part of Formentera's main outbound markets and boast easy connections allowing travellers to visit the island outside the high season.

As part of the tour, small-format presentations will be made to members of the specialised press in each city, as well as to representatives of the main media outlets. "It allows us to directly highlight the image of Formentera that we want the media to promote", explained Carlos Bernús, head of marketing.

"We will hold working meetings with journalists to present our destination, projects around sustainability and activities in low-season months that allow travellers to enjoy the island", Bernús added.

The island's representatives will pair this new marketing format with other traditional actions. As always, they will point up sporting and cultural activities in the pre- and post-season, as well as local heritage, rutes verdes (nature trails), bird-watching routes and fine dining.

14 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

In the days ahead, the Office of Tourism of the Consell de Formentera will promote the island at ITB Berlin, which is held 7 to 9 March. Formentera will be present with a stand shared with the rest of the Balearic Islands, where promotional material will highlight activities involving nature, culture, gastronomy, sports and health that take place on the island in the low season. The sustainable side of projects like Save Posidonia Project and formentera.eco will also be also emphasised, as well as the importance of taking care of the environment.

Originally catering to the general public as well, the leading German tourism trade fair has changed its format and now focuses exclusively on professionals such as tour operators, travel agencies, niche media outlets and more. Today Alejandra Ferrer, vice president and tourism councillor, presented the destination to representatives of the tourism industry and specialised sectors of the public.

Ferrer explained how early tourism on Formentera, despite bringing about improvements in residents' quality of life, represented a challenge to preserving the island and its identity. "Thanks to the efforts of many generations of Formentera residents, we have dealt with speculation and preserved the unique character of our island, and now face new threats that we must fight", said Ferrer. "To our visitors we ask that they come to the island with respect and a desire to discover our culture and people", she offered. To that end, attendees were shown a video entitled "Formentera, an island to take care of".

International Media Marketplace (IMM)
Yesterday Formentera also participated in Berlin's International Media Marketplace to promote the island among the large number of attending travel journalists. Both the IMM and ITB are geared toward a German-speaking public, which in addition to Germany, includes Switzerland and Austria. The number of Formentera's German visitors has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels; in 2022, 5.5% of the tourists who visited the island came from Germany.

"We do these actions to strengthen and recover the German public, a market that has traditionally been loyal to Formentera and one that tends to seek quiet destinations and give importance to environmental measures", concluded Ferrer.

7 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera