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(EFE).- The Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia) today officially opened a new Tourism Promotion Centre (TPC) in Frankfurt, Germany, in response to the need to have a stable presence in a market that generates 1.4 million tourists a year.
According to figures issued by the Generalitat's ministry of trade and tourism, Catalonia received 1.4 million German tourists in 2005, representing 10% of the foreign market and an increase with respect to 2004.
German tourists were those whose stay in Catalonia lasted longest, with an average of more than 10 days and 14.5 million nights per year, according to 2005 figures.
The new TPC, which joins others in France, the UK and Ireland, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Eastern countries and China, was officially opened by the director of Turisme de Catalunya, Ignasi de Delàs, and the manager of the new office, Montserrat Sierra.
The role of the new Frankfurt office will be to contact tourism wholesalers and the media in order to interest them in Catalonia as a tourist destination, as well as to promote short stays in view of the proliferation of budget airlines.
Furthermore, the new TPC will also be home to the technical mission for the Frankfurt 2007 project, directed by Anna Soler-Pont and responsible for organizing Catalonia's presence at the next Frankfurt Book Fair, when Catalan culture will be guest of honour.
