Recently, Andorra Turisme announced its new summer tourism promotion campaign, built around the slogan “Elevate your experience.” The goal is to reasonably increase the number of tourists — by around 2% to 3% — but more importantly, to boost overnight stays and the average visitor spend. With a budget of €2.9 million, the campaign will target tourists with higher purchasing power, aiming not only at traditional markets like France and Spain, but also the rest of Europe, especially the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. The main objective, however, is to go overseas and attract longer stays from visitors from the Americas, such as Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.
This does not mean giving up on tourist volume (at one point, it was said that Andorra had reached its limit — an idea that now seems to have been set aside), as we have sufficient hotel infrastructure to accommodate more visitors. The real challenge is to spread tourism more evenly throughout the year, offering a high- quality experience that highlights all the improvements the country has undergone in recent years — improvements that have made us much more competitive. It is clear that this is a historic opportunity to strengthen Andorra’s country brand internationally and enhance its visibility as a European mountain tourism destination.
Ultimately, the shift from low-cost tourism of past decades to a higher-quality, higher-spending visitor is a trend Andorra cannot afford to ignore, given the country’s size. This shift aligns with the evolution of our society, which is increasingly diverse and enriched by the talent that has been gradually arriving in the country — talent that must continue to arrive if we truly aspire to progressive economic diversification, increasingly driven by technological development and the consolidation of knowledge.
We could sum it up as a transition from “quantity” to “quality” across the board — not only in tourism, but also in the economic and social spheres.
Andorra wants to attract a more discerning tourist who spends more, and it has excellent role models in nearby cities like Paris and Barcelona. Just look at the annual survey conducted by the global luxury travel advisor network Virtuoso Luxe, which ranks Paris as the world’s most attractive city and Barcelona as the second — ahead of Rome, London, Tokyo, Florence, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Cape Town.
This survey is based on input from advisors in 58 countries and clearly reflects the strong position of luxury tourism in a city as close to Andorra as Barcelona.
In fact, when talking about markets and strategies, the top spenders in Barcelona are mainly American and Chinese tourists, with an average daily spend exceeding €1,000. It’s also worth noting that Passeig de Gràcia is Spain’s leading luxury shopping avenue, accounting for 25% of the country’s total luxury sales.
So if we want to learn how to attract high-spending tourism, we have successful models to draw inspiration from — while of course acknowledging the differences in size and potential between Andorra and Barcelona. And if we truly want to pursue a luxury tourism strategy, we must go beyond Andorra’s “Elevate” campaign.
Once again, let’s look to Barcelona: on May 12th, the city will host the Virtuoso Symposium, bringing together hundreds of its network’s members — a clear sign of Turisme de Barcelona’s commitment to attracting high-end events. Other examples include the Business of Luxury Summit, organized by the Financial Times from May 18th to 20th, and the already-held Connections Luxury Europe in April.
It all starts with the first step. And if we really want to attract this kind of quality tourist, we must earn it — by making the necessary efforts, building a well-defined strategy, and, above all, believing in it, as Barcelona has done. And why not sit down with advisors like those at Virtuoso to explore how we can improve Andorra’s positioning in the global luxury market?
There’s no rush — but this is undoubtedly the path to follow.
