Imserso pensioners to arrive in late October

AFTER weeks of delays, the Costa Blanca could finally be welcoming the first lot of senior tourists on the Imserso holiday programme.

Following appeals and questions raised over the awarding of the contracts to run the programme which offers discounted winter breaks for pensioners, it has been decided to divide the agenda for the next two years between Mundosenior operators, owned by Falcon Travel (Globalia) and Viajes Barceló and Mundiplan (Iberia, Alsa, Gowaii and IAG7), which had appealed the award last July. With the deals now confirmed, the first sets of tourists are expected to start arriving on the Costa Blanca in late October.

The region has 110,000 places allocated as part of their Imserso quota, which means potentially up to 250,000 pensioners could visit during the October to April winter tourist season, with Benidorm, Guardamar, Finestrat, Altea, Javea, Santa Pola and Gandia amongst the most popular areas visited.

Figures put the value of the Imserso plan to the Region’s economy at an estimated €40 million and it secures the jobs of many tourism workers during winter, allowing hotels and businesses to remain open.