The Sant Antoni City Council presented its campaign last night in Madrid ‘Un Sol tot l’any: viu Sant Antoni 365’, with an offer of cultural, sporting and festive activities throughout the year to extend the tourist season. The other objective of this program is to open new markets beyond the profile of young Britons, creating new products such as an art route or an ‘oktoberfest’ in mid-October to serve as bait for German visitors.
“We are working to be a more diverse destination, which is not only focused on leisure, which is an offer that we respect, but we want it to be respectful and that quality tourism can come from everywhere,” said the councillor for Tourism, Miguel Tur.
The presentation of this campaign, which had to be suspended in the last edition of Fitur for health reasons, was held at the Hotel ME Madrid Reina Victoria, with presentations focused on the offer of major sporting events, projects to improve the hotel facilities and the implementation of an artistic route with programming throughout the year.
In the gastronomic section, Tur himself, chef and gastronomic advisor by profession, accompanied the Michelin star Álvaro Sanz to evaluate the catering offer of the municipality, which also has several restaurants distinguished with “suns” from the Repsol Guide. Sanz himself devised the menu that was offered to those attending this presentation.
In addition to the events already held in Sant Antoni, such as the LGTBI Icons week, the tourist offer beyond the summer is intended to consolidate with new events. This is the case of the fiesta de primavera, which this year aims to welcome the new season and which will be held on the weekend of Friday 30 April. “It will have a Las Dalias feel, with a hippie market, food stalls and concerts from the Passeig de ses Fonts to the port,” Tur announced.
After the summer, to round off the season, the ‘oktoberfest’ will be organised. Although Sant Antoni organised a programme with the same name years ago, “it was just another festival”, with no connection to the traditional Oktoberfest in Munich, recalls the councillor.
“This one will be purely Bavarian, with German bands, pork knuckles and beer,” he says. In the absence of specific dates, Tur says that this Oktoberfest will be held in mid-October, “just before the end of direct flights to Germany”. Precisely, the air connectivity in winter is the great challenge that must be overcome in order to consolidate winter tourism and “for companies to realize the great potential that Ibiza has”.
“When we arrived at the Town Hall, the first thing hoteliers asked us is that they need a product to extend the season. Now the product is already created and more direct flights are needed in winter”, he stressed.
Commitment to the renovation of the hotel industry
The councilman of Tourism of Sant Antoni, Miguel Tur, praised the commitment of the municipality’s hoteliers in recent years “to refurbish their establishments and make a significant leap in quality”. This renovation will be further boosted this year with the opening of the town’s second five-star hotel, the new TRS by Palladium, the result of the refurbishment of the former Tanit and Cala Gració.
“Another hotel, which will be four or five stars, has just paid its business taxes and could start to be renovated at the end of the summer,” he said. The presentation in Madrid to highlight the improvement of the Sant Antoni facilities, together with the ‘Small and Friendly’ quality seal for family hostels, was given by businessmen Juanjo Planells and Toni Cardona.
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