The Diplomat
The Spanish Tourism Institute (Turespaña) has organized a series of activities to promote the Spain tourism brand on the occasion of the upcoming opening of the new Consulate General of Spain in Chengdu, in western China.
In the first place, Turespaña has carried out, through its counseling in Beijing, a presentation of Destination Spain aimed at tour operators, agents, airlines and journalists in the city, followed by a gastronomic day at the Grand Hotel Melia Chengdu, as reported by the State entity responsible for the promotion of tourism Spain abroad and the Spain-China Council Foundation.
Likewise, Turespaña set up, between April 23 and 25, an information stand in the TaiKooLi shopping mall to present Spanish tourist destinations to the Chinese public through screenings, contests and sweepstakes on social networks and other digital marketing actions. Spain’s ambassador, Rafael Dezcallar, attended the opening of this installation in the TaiKooLi shopping mall on April 23, a reference point in China for outdoor activities that receives close to 80,000 visitors a day on weekends.
These actions by Turespaña are part of its Marketing Strategy in China, based on campaigns to position the Spain brand in this country, as well as Turespaña’s Strategic Marketing Plan for the recovery of distant markets in the medium term, once mobility is reactivated after the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a population of over 16 million, Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province, in southwest China, and is one of the logistics, technology and trade centers of western China. In addition, the city has a growing presence of Spanish companies and currently hosts consular offices of four EU countries, Germany, France, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Eduardo López Busquets, former ambassador to Iran and Mozambique and former director general of Casa Árabe, will be in charge of opening, foreseeably in October of this year, the new Consulate General of Spain in Chengdu, which was created by the Government in August 2020 and will become the fifth Spanish consular office in that country, after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Canton. The new consular office will be able to serve some 400 million people.
