THR's opinion
New Destination Visitor Strategies: What Are DMO’s Doing Post-Covid?
As destinations further open into a post-Covid world, many are finding that their previous tourism marketing strategies are no longer relevant or at minimum, outdated. Destination Marketing Organizations, or DMOs, are the local or regional groups tasked with the creation and execution of marketing plans to bring visitors to a place. As Covid wreaked havoc on the tourism sector, most DMOs were forced to reevaluate their visitor-attraction …
A Case Study in Travel Accommodation – Spain’s First All-Female Hostel
What’s the Hostelle story? The first all-female hostel in Spain, Hostelle Barcelona is already making waves in the sector. Originally from Suriname, founder Bianca Brasdorp aims to conquer the world, or at minimum an important segment of the travel accommodation space. Her “Hostelle” hostel brand just opened its second location, in Barcelona, after a successful start at the company’s first home in Amsterdam. I had the opportunity to …
The Rise of Oleotourism – Seeking Olive Oil at Its Origen
What is “oleotourism”? Olive oil tourism - or oleotourism - refers to the set of tourism activities combining the culture, processing, and gastronomy related to olive oil, whose interest has been spreading rapidly in recent years thanks to its high sensory component and relative novelty compared to more standard tourism activities. Olive oil production is generally concentrated on the coasts of the Mediterranean basin, with Spain being …
A Case Study in Attraction Development - Antoni Gaudi's Casa Vicens
The city of Barcelona has always boasted an abundance of offerings for its visitors, not least its myriad architectural masterpieces, the most dazzling of which date from the “Modernisme” period. While many of the Modernist attractions – think the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, and La Pedrera – have long been on standard tourist itineraries, there are several hidden gems that for a number of reasons have not always been available to the …
Easter 2022 – Tourism Finally Recovering?
Introduction Data is showing that tourism is at least partially beginning to return to pre-pandemic figures. But are we really at the beginning of the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism sector? Tourism tanked during the pandemic The tourism sector has been one of the most affected by the pandemic. According to data from Statista, international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2020 fell by almost 75% compared to 2019. In the case of …
Inflation and Shortages - A Critical Situation for the Hospitality Industry
Since the end of 2021, the price of electricity in the wholesale market has experienced an unprecedented increase in Spain, further aggravated by the conflict in Ukraine. The war has also had an impact on the prices of other commodities - particularly fuels - which has led to transportation strikes all over the country. These circumstances are seriously affecting the Spanish economy, in particular the hospitality sector, which was …