General manager of Andorra Tourism, Betim Budzaku, told all-andorra.com about the main trends in tourism development in Andorra (Pyrenees):
“At the moment we haven’t received the final statistics of the 2016 – 2017 ski season, which started in December and finished before Easter, but I can safely say that Grandvalira, Vallnord and Caldea plus many Andorran hoteliers who proposed a “package of services” to the tourists are sure to be satisfied with the results.
The Spanish market (especially the Catalan market which represents 70% of the Spanish market in Andorra) is still our number one source of tourism, closely followed by the French and then the UK.
This may seem surprising to some, as previously the Russian market was within the top three. But, due to the economic crisis and the devaluation in the rate of the ruble three years ago we lost many Russian tourists (the number of which used to be about 50,000- 60,000 people). Unfortunately we didn’t manage to attract so many Russian tourists this year, but we were very close with about 40,000 having entered the country during the season in total.
We think that in the near future the Russian market will rise up to third position again. Its economic situation has changed. We collaborate with tour operators who work with Russian markets here in Andorra and continue our joint marketing campaigns, and the situation looks to be improving. But we do need to take into account the fact that Russians tourists have become more independent and prefer to book hotels directly, as a result we will have to improve our communication strategies.
We also are interested in the Asian market, especially China. To begin with, we are trying to build a “touristic bridge” between Andorra and Hong Kong and Macao in the hope that this can them open the doors to bigger opportunities.
According to the latest statistics data, we receive 7.98 million visitors per year, with 2.6 million visitors spending at least one night in Andorra. So 8 million hotel rooms are booked in total over the season (60% tourists are from Spain, 20% from France, 20% from countries such as the UK, Russia, Portugal, Benilux, Germany). However we would greatly like to increase this number in the future.
I would say that from 2012 (the worst year for Andorra from a tourism point of view) we have been growing each year. But, in order to develop our market fully work still needs to be done. We are not considered to be a top ski resort. Granvalira, being on of the biggest ski resorts in the world, is only in the “Top 15”, so we could still do with improving our infrastructure.
As well as improving our winter facilities, we are looking to do the same during the summer months too, by having different sport and culture events in Andorra (for example this year we will have the Mountain Bike World Cup, Andorra Ultra Trail, and hosting a stage of la Vuelta competition). Regarding culture, we will continue to cooperate with Cirque du Soleil as it’s a good tool to attract tourists in the summer. This July we’re going to see the last performance from the 5-year Escalada cycle, so now we will begin our negotiations for 2019. We need again something exclusive and creative to keep drawing crowds.
We’re currently at the final stage of decision-making regarding a multifunctional arena for concerts and big events with a maximum capacity of 4,000-6,000 people, which is most likely to be located in Santa Coloma. Negotiations are taking place on two sides – one with Miguel Lao, an owner of Principaddel land in Santa Coloma, and the other with Juli Guiu, a producer of events and an owner of Clipper’s company (producing Cup Roig festival in Costa Brava, Catalonia, with 20-25 performances per summer). This year the concert will showcase singers such as Anastasia and Santana, whilst last year Sting was one of the main performances. The idea is to organize similar events here in Andorra during the ski season and perhaps to also combine the music events with something such as wine tasting, promoting our local producers as well as Spanish producers too.
Shopping remains a main part of what we work on. We have a specific board who deal with this matter – how to do shopping in Andorra competitively, attractively and in a modern way. We can easily compete with other European countries because of our low taxes, but we can’t compete with shopping centres which have 3,000-4,000 different brands all under one roof. Similarly internet shops such as Amazon, are also out of our reach because they don’t ship to Andorra. Yes, online purchasing can often be cheaper, but many people like to see products up close before they buy them. So our concept is to make shopping part of the experience and entertainment of the country. We don’t want to bring a product to the clients but we want to bring the clients to a product. Our target is to create something exclusive that you can’t find anywhere else.
We don’t have designer brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel or Jean Paul Gaultier. To have these we need to create a special infrastructure, to have a special street or district like all capitals do. But we have some luxury brands here – to sell Prada or Armani, for example, it is not necessary to open a boutique. In a few years I am sure you will be able to find more luxury brands in Andorra. It will happen naturally but not for a few years.
To promote Andorra worldwide we recently signed a contract with World Disney. We promote ourselves as a family resort and World Disney is the number one family brand in the world, consequently our aim is to get Andorra associated with family brand as well. Three years ago we used a character from Frozen because it’s associated with cold as part of our marketing, and now we will use all World Disney channels to promote Andorra. Our objective is to make them aware of business opportunities in Andorra and invite them to make films here. Andorra is an official destination of Frozen and works as a marketing campaign. We are trying to be known worldwide and with Disney this could be possible”.
Jacqueline Terno
See also Andorra hotels
See also Andorra best ski resorts
See also Andorra travel guide
See also Pyrenees travel guide
See also France travel guide
See also Spain travel guide
