Vasco Cordeiro announces flight connections to Belgium during summer and stronger presence in the German market
Next year, the Azores will carry out a tourism operation especially designed for the Belgian market, announced the Regional Secretary for the Economy in Ponta Delgada today.
According to Vasco Cordeiro, "this is an operation that will connect the Azores to Belgium with 28 flights" which estimates a potential of about 28,000 overnight stays in this first year."
Furthermore, this operation has some different contours regarding other similar operations designed for other countries, since these connections "will not only be sold by the operator JETAIR, being open to any operator that wishes to sell the Azores destination in these markets."
Under the work carried out by the Government of the Azores with the purpose of reducing the impact caused by the economic downturn in the national market, Vasco Cordeiro also announced that "today, following contacts between the Regional Secretariat for the Economy, the Azores Association Tourism and the German tourism operator Ibero Tours, one of the leading sellers of holidays to Portugal and Spain, the Azores tourist destination will also be included in the marketing circuit of the second largest distribution network in Germany, Thomas Cook."
To him, this is so, "the path to follow" in order to tackle the expected decrease of national tourists. However, he explained, "despite the difficulties in the domestic market, we will not give up."
Thus, "a major promotional campaign is ongoing in Mainland Portugal with special focus on the price factor, promoting air fares at a price of 88.5 Euros." In addition, "one should not forget the request already made to the Government of the Republic for a review of the Public Service Obligations concerning the air transport between Mainland Portugal and the Azores in order to enhance the supply and lower air fares between our region and Mainland Portugal."
According to Vasco Cordeiro, "all these actions demonstrate the Azores' willingness to tackle the difficulties and an intense effort to continue to assert the tourism sector as a pillar of our economic development."