Por Redaccion La Consejería de Cultura, Turismo y Deporte carries out a national and international promotion of Castilla y León focusing on those tourist products in which the Community excels, such as wine tourism, rural and nature tourism, and heritage tourism.
February 22, 2025
Castilla y León |
Consejería de Cultura, Turismo y Deporte
The Junta de Castilla y León continues with its tourism promotion strategy in national and international markets. This weekend, from February 21 to 23, Castilla y León is present at two national fairs: the first one, specialized in nature tourism, FIO, takes place in the Monfragüe National Park, Cáceres; and the second one, NAVARTUR, is held in Pamplona, focusing on proximity tourism to nearby destinations, such as the communities of Extremadura and Navarra.
Nature and birdwatching tourism at FIO
The International Ornithological Tourism Fair (FIO) celebrates its twentieth edition. It is a specialized event in nature observation and birdwatching, where Castilla y León showcases its potential as a leader in rural tourism and with a wide range of nature tourism offerings, promoting the revitalization of rural areas through specialized proposals in active tourism, hiking, cycling, ecotourism, and sports tourism in nature.
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport participates in FIO with a promotional stand of 18 square meters, alongside the Trino Club of Ecotourism of Castilla y León, for the promotion and commercialization of specialized tourism products. Within the nature tourism offer, the 33 declared protected natural spaces, 35 Nature Houses scattered throughout the Community, ten Biosphere Reserves, and the Las Loras Geopark are promoted.
At a professional level and aiming to commercialize the tourism offer, Castilla y León is present at the contracting exchange organized by the FIO fair, with the participation of 29 specialized tour operators from Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, and the USA.
Extremadura is a priority market for Castilla y León due to its proximity and the type of tourism it demands. Last year in 2024, the Community received 187,812 visitors from Extremadura, an increase of 13.64% compared to 2023.
Navarra, a priority market
Castilla y León participates in the NAVARTUR fair at the ‘Baluarte’ Congress Palace in Pamplona, with a stand of 40 square meters, where the provincial tourism boards of Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Soria, and Zamora are also present. Following the promotional line started at FITUR Madrid last January, the Junta emphasizes Castilla y León as a film destination, with the stand themed with graphics and the slogan ‘Castilla y León, a movie set’.
NAVARTUR had 49,992 visitors in 2024, a 23% increase from 2023, and around 800 professionals. During the fair, the Junta participated in the contracting market last Friday, with 16 tour operators from Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.
Castilla y León is a highly valued destination by the Navarrese public who attend each edition of NAVARTUR to learn about the proposals and tourist novelties of the Community. Navarra is a priority market for Castilla y León due to its proximity and is characterized by a public that, in general, knows the destination and demands very specific products in heritage and cultural tourism, enogastronomy, and nature, seeking to discover new destinations in Castilla y León. The travelers from the Foral Community of Navarra who visited Castilla y León last year in 2024 were 133,756, an increase of 7.61% compared to the previous year’s data.
International promotion in Oporto
The Junta de Castilla y León participated on February 17 and 18 in the ‘Wine&Travel Week’ fair in Oporto alongside the Wine Routes of Castilla y León. This is the second year attending this specialized international event, which had Castilla y León as the guest Community last year. The ‘Wine&Travel Week’ turns Portugal into the epicenter of global wine tourism for a few days with this event that has established itself as a premium meeting worldwide, receiving important international awards.
This year, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport attended accompanied by the Wine Routes of Arlanza, Arribes, Rueda, and Zamora. In addition, the Junta held fifty work meetings with some of the 150 sector professionals from around the world present at the fair.
Last year in 2024, 271,832 tourists from Portugal visited Castilla y León, an increase of 14.59% compared to the previous year’s data, positioning the neighboring country as the second largest source of tourists to the Community, behind only France. The objective of the Ministry is to continue promoting tourism and increase promotional proposals in a market of great interest to the Community, such as Portugal.