Spain seduces London at World Travel Market – with the help of British Premier League footballers

TODAY (Monday) sees the start of one of the planet's most prestigious and popular tourism trade fairs, the World Travel Market (WTM) in London -and representatives from most of Spain's regions will be there to try to drum up more business among British holidaymakers.

And British Premier League footballers Luke Chambers, Dean Austin, Alan Hutton, Stephen Clemence, Chris Hugton and referee Mark Clattenburg will be on the Marbella stand, along with agent Rob Segal and Argentine player Fede González.

The Costa del Sol town, jointly with its neighbour San Pedro Alcántara, will be marketing itself as an élite sporting destination – both in terms of players and spectators – promoting major sports events it hosts and its own superior facilities.

Golf, football, water sports and sailing, and excellent running circuits such as the seafront esplanade, will all be given plenty of airing at the three-day fair on board the Cutty Sark in Greenwich Dry Dock in the UK capital.

A not-to-be-missed event for authorities and traders in any part of the world that relies upon tourism for its income, the WTM runs until Wednesday, November 9 inclusive and will feature over 50,000 professionals from the industry, with more than 5,000 stands representing 182 countries.

Some 3,000 media representatives will be reporting on the fair, and top tour operators are a regular feature.

Tenerife's tourist board has planned meetings with agents from Thomas Cook, Jet2, FTI, Lastminute.com, Norwegian Airlines – which runs flights to London Gatwick from several Spanish airports – Explore Holidays, Travel Counsellors and Perfect Weddings Abroad, among others.

With nearly 1.6 million British holidaymakers having visited Tenerife alone by the end of September this year – and the total of UK visitors to the Canary Islands expected to top five million by the end of 2016 – the destination probably does not need to advertise itself much in Britain, especially having seen a 20% year-on-year rise in traveller numbers from the country, but like most parts of Spain which depend upon sunshine breaks as the mainstay of its economy, Tenerife hopes to promote itself as a perfect getaway 365 days of the year.

Open-air shopping centres, sports, pavement cafés in winter, rural tourism and numerous visitor attractions which are better seen when the mercury is not pushing 40ºC but for which the weather is ideal throughout the rest of the year are some of Tenerife's features it intends to highlight at the WTM.

Back in the Andalucía pavillion, Sevilla will continue to advertise its stunning architecture including Spain's largest cathedral, the enormous and impressive Plaza de las Américas, the Golden Tower (Torre del Oro) and the country's oldest bull-ring, plus its festivals including Easter week and the April Fair – all attractions that keep tourists from all over the globe heading to the city of marmalade oranges despite its land-locked location.

Sevilla tourism board arrived in London earlier than many other Spanish WTM participants, in order to attend the Luxury Travel Fair 2016 in London, organised by the magazine Condé Nast Traveller.

The city hopes to attract a more wealthy clientèle and to promote itself as a luxury destination, and the type of regions and facilities the Condé Nast fair advertises appeal to individuals and corporate clients who, according to their typical profile, undertake between four and six trips a year, of which three on average are in Europe, and tend to live in west London.

Sevilla welcomed nearly 110,000 tourists from the UK last year, an increase of around 25%, who stayed an average of two-and-a-half days.