Thirty travel professionals were hosted by Laura Pena the new director of the Spanish Tourist Board in Ireland and Nuria Lorenzo of Tenerife Tourism and in Dublin’s Iveagh garden hotel to complete a two city roadshow in Ireland.
The previous evening 15 travel professionals were hosted in Limerick.
Among the participants is the new hotel Jardin Tecina on La Gomera to open December 6.
Just over 150,000 tourists from Ireland visit Tenerife each year.
Samantha Fulton shared: In Tenerife the annual average temperature is about 23° so it’s not just a winter sun destination but a very reliable all year round destination as well. if you have customers, we know people tend to stick to the South—you go to the airport down here, and then we stick around Los Cristianos, etc. But if I can get you to remember anything from tonight, it’s that even if they have customers who might hire a car or just go on a daily tour somewhere, it’s only an hour and a half from the South up to the North and then just about an hour to the capital in Santa Cruz, and an hour and a half up, for instance. So even though we are the biggest of the Canary Islands, it’s not huge, and it’s definitely worth having a day or two just getting out of the South and really exploring more of what the island has to offer.
We are home to Mount Teide, which is Spain’s highest mountain. It is one of our two UNESCO World Heritage sites; the second one being La Laguna, which is in the north of the island. La Laguna is a UNESCO Heritage site for its history and how it’s one of the first non-fortified Spanish cities in the world. It was kind of like the blueprint for a lot of the Canarian traditions and the architecture that went over to the Americas. So if you try to imagine the brightly coloured buildings of Santa Cruz, for instance, those took a lot of inspiration from La Laguna.
Some other key points as well: we are also very active; we have a lot of sports opportunities, over 15 km of trails. We find especially customers who are interested in outdoor pursuits will really enjoy this.
Quite a few people are interested in conservation and just being outdoors generally, and good fun for these customers is that 48pc of the island is actually protected nature reserves. So when going on these hikes and outdoor activities, they are probably in nature.
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Garachico is what put Tenerife on the map. It was where the first port of the island was, which was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in the 1700s. So that and other unique towns are really historical towns, some from 500 to 600 years ago, where it’s a good historical and cultural addition to an itinerary. Walking around these historical districts is great if you have customers into that; we offer that as well.
A few other unique experiences you might not be aware of include stargazing in Mount Teide National Park, which is in the centre of the island. It is actually a designated Dark Sky Reserve. It’s one of the best places in the world to do stargazing, second only to Hawaii, for instance. So, being only a few hours away, it’s definitely an amazing place to do that.
We also have Europe’s largest lava tree, which is a caving experience that resulted from the volcanic activity of the island in the past. These big underground caves were formed, and you can do about a two-hour walk around this huge cave that is up to three stories high. I think it’s absolutely incredible.
Up in the north, we have a biosphere reserve called Anaga Rural Park that features low forests. If you imagine very lush green landscapes, similar to what you would find in foggy areas, that’s the same biodiversity and climate we have up north. This area used to cover a large region, like North Africa, but there are only a few places left in the world where you can still find these low forests, and we have it. There are a lot of hiking trails around there as well.
Tenerife is a big place for people to come for wind activities, including windsurfing, kitesurfing, and normal surfing. We have guaranteed about 300 days of wind per year. That might sound a bit odd, but it’s very sustained—about 25 to 30 knots of wind all year round—which makes it a really good place for people to come and practice their sport or learn the sport because of the guaranteed good conditions.
Additionally, we also have hiking routes, trail running, mountain biking, and eight golf courses around the island as well.
Another thing that came from the previous volcanic activity of the island are these natural pools around the coast where the lava flow cooled down. They are now very safe pools that people can go visit. There are ladders going down to them, just like a nice safe way to enjoy the ocean.
La Laguna is actually the area where both of your wines that you’re trying tonight come from, so I definitely recommend trying that because they are very good for their wines.
We are very proud of our gastronomy. We have five Michelin-star restaurants and seven Michelin stars in total. One of the hotels tonight has two of those Michelin stars. Being an island nation, we’ve got a lot of really amazing seafood options, and if you go around the restaurants on the island, they all try to use locally sourced foods.
Then just a little touch on luxury offerings—you’ll hear more of that from the hoteliers, so I won’t steal their thunder. But just to say that we do have some luxury four- and five-star offerings as well, offering things like VIP concierge service and private tours that they can organise for you. We also have some luxury villas. Some new ones to point out, like Royal Garden Villas, and up in the north, we’ve got a hotel that is reopening next year. We’ve developed this very important hotel for the island, which is currently under reconstruction.
You might not be aware in Tenerife that they actually have VAT-free shopping. So if you’ve got clients who are keen to do a bit of shopping on holiday—I know lots of people will be—yes, they do not add any VAT to their prices. So just something to keep in mind; there are a lot of shopping options.
