Bumper season warming up

THE Almeria coast is expecting an extra 36,000 tourists from 11 European countries thanks to a campaign awarded to Sehrs Tourism to attract more visitors.

The contract for the campaign stipulates that the tour operator must guarantee that visitors stay at least five nights each and lay on day trips to areas of interest, and Sehrs will be flying in 21 flights per week from places including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal and Holland between June and November.

Almeria Provincial Council head Gabriel Amar declared that the development of tourism “is one of our goals. Not in vain, last year tourism was up in the province and this year we’re on the same track. This is very important to create employment and income in the province.”

During the presentation of the campaign, provincial council vice-president Javier Aureliano Garcia stressed the increase in traffic to Almeria airport this summer.

“This year we’re going to break records,” he said, explaining that the airport has gone from receiving seven flights per week to the 59 due in this week.

Each week there will be 29 flights arriving from the UK, two from Ireland, seven from Belgium, four from Germany and two from Luxembourg, plus the 21 included in the Sehrs Tourism deal.