Tribute paid to victims of flooding at SUR dinner to toast tourism in London

A respectful and emotive minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the flooding last week in Spain began the dinner organised by SUR and SUR in English as a tribute to the tourism industry in London on Tuesday. Every year this newspaper holds the event at an iconic London venue – this year’s was at Ironmongers’ Hall – bringing together the tourism authorities and professionals from Andalucía who move their ‘offices’ to London once a year to work at the World Travel Market.

This year’s event was more austere than usual, editor-in-chief Manolo Castillo pointed out, as demanded by the tragic circumstances. However he said that the importance of the trade fair and the industry meant that professional activity had to go on and he praised the professionals for their exemplary attitude.

Around 150 guests attended the event at Ironmongers’ Hall; while the top political authorities had not travelled to London, there were still plenty of experts representing the south of Spain, from councillors to tourist board staff and industry professionals. Among them was the director of the Spanish tourism office in London, Manuel Butler; the vice-president of Exceltur, José Luis Zoreda; tourism secretary at the Junta de Andalucía, Yolanda de Aguilar; Malaga city tourism councillor Jacobo Florido; Malaga chamber of commerce president José Carlos Escribano; and the president of hotels association Aehcos, José Luque; the evening was hosted by editor-in-chief of SUR, Manolo Castillo; and the director general of Prensa Malagueña, Antonio González.

In short speeches, Zoreda, Luque, Escribano and Butler praised the work of the professionals in London at these difficult times, with reference to the tragic floods in Spain. “We have to keep working, because this market is very demanding, and although now we are in a good position and the forecasts are good, we can’t get distracted as the competition is huge,” said Zoreda.

Concern was also expressed about “tourism-phobia, which is real but can be fought with the best weapons: professionalism, hard work and planning”.

Manolo Castillo stressed the work SUR in English has done in the last 40 years to help promote tourism in Andalucía, with special mention for those who have formed part of the newspaper over the last four decades.

This post was originally published on here