Carlos Mazón, president of the Costa Blanca Board of Trustees, met with the Spanish Ambassador, José Pascual Frame, during a visit to the World Travel Market Tourist Fair, in London. Supporting the British with homes in Alicante was one of the main objectives of the Alicante Provincial Council for the meeting.
Carlos Mazón wants to introduce collaborative procedures that allow the British to extend their stay in Spain beyond the 90 days currently arranged.
The meeting took place on Monday night at the Spanish Embassy in Chesham Place. The director of the Provincial Tourism Board, José Mancebo, and the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, were also present.
As explained by Mazón, “British residents in the province are a source of income for us and one of our best representatives to attract British tourism to the Costa Blanca.” “They are significant and, for that reason, as the president has proposed, we are working on reciprocity so they can spend six months in a row in our country, and the same will apply to Spaniards visiting the UK.
The conference with the ambassador, which continued for over half an hour, “has gone in this direction, and we will begin to pressure, to work with, and to bring this proposal before the British Government”, said Mazón.
Finally, José Mancebo, the institutional leader and president of the Provincial Tourism Board, acknowledged that the meeting “has been very satisfactory. The ambassador is perfectly aware of the priorities we have to support British homeowners in Alicante. Alicante has probably the most British of all Spain, with more than 70,000 homeowners”.
The ambassador committed to convey to the British government the “urgent need for the tourist and economic interests of the province,” according to Mazón.
The International Residents area of the Alicante Provincial Council, led by Juan de Dios Navarro, has launched several information drives to facilitate procedures and resolve uncertainties raised by British property owners.
At the World Travel Market, the Costa Blanca Board achieved an important agreement with international tour operators to initiate a drive focused on promoting the number of bookings made by British visitors to the Valencian Community by 2022. Mazón announced, the tactics, in collaboration with the tourism sector of the Costa Blanca, will start in December and will consist of various stages. The plan is to ensure that a large portion of holiday stays available in the province are booked by tourists from the UK during the first quarter of next year.
