The Balearic Tourism Agency (ATB) is cutting the number of travel fairs it will be attending which focus on the summer season. Thirty-eight fairs are to be reduced to twenty-four.
Tourism minister Biel Barceló says that the reduction is in line with the campaign Better in Winter. Promotion will be more efficient and segmented, and the Balearics will not be present at fairs "which basically sell the summer season". Barceló adds: "We cannot grow more in the summer. For this reason we have to devote our efforts to shifting tourism from the summer to the winter.
The director of the ATB, Pere Muñoz, says that there will be more efficient use of public resources for promoting the Balearics. While the plan is to cut back on some fair attendance, this will not affect the larger fairs for which a new stand was developed this year.
Typically the stand is renewed each year, but Muñoz explains that the new one has proved to be successful. It has been well received, while it is a "question of efficiency and responsibility" to keep the stand for a minimum of two years.
The stand was unveiled at the January Fitur fair in Madrid. Its intention was to provide a new image, one that has "a fresher and Mediterranean air". At Fitur, the stand was judged to have been the best in the category of institutions and regional communities. At the Berlin fair it was placed among the top ten in Europe.