Touting Tenerife
Tucked in behind Calatrava’s arches in the Tenerife Conference Centre, the modern offices of the Society for the External Promotion of Tenerife (SPET) are surprisingly unassuming for such an important organisation and their manager Alberto Bernabé Teja is equally surprising in his youth and dynamism.


Alberto Bernabé Teja, manager at Spet
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by Sheila Collis - 21.10.2004 - Born in Santa Cruz just 34 years ago, Alberto seems to have spent the major part of his adulthood travelling, so his present position marketing Tenerife to the world, fits him like a glove. Even during his five years of economic studies he tended more towards his links and studies with the International Association of Students in Economics and Management than with traditional study programmes. AIESEC is a global association involved in the international exchange of thousands of students and graduates each year. With them, Alberto travelled to Greece, America, England, Venezuela and Barcelona combining study with professional work experience, culminating in the organisation of the world conference of AIESEC in Barcelona.

His post graduate working career began with the hotel organisation Ashotel and in 2000 he moved to a challenging role as the creator and director of economic development for the Santa Cruz council. “Then at the end of last year I was offered this post by José Manuel Bermúdez, the island’s tourism councillor, and I jumped in the deep end - it’s just as well there was water there! I’ve been here since January.”

SPET was set up as the organisation responsible for the promotion of Tenerife abroad. It’s a mixed holdings business, that is to say its owners and funds are from both the private and public sector. There are some 450 SPET associated businesses, including Island Connections and they themselves, whether they be hotels, diving clubs or cake shops decide where, when and how much money will be spent on what.

As the island council are the majority share holders I was interested to know how much they affected the decisions of SPET. Alberto told us that, “the Cabildo is definitely the leader, they’ve got 52 per cent of the shares and they also provide 80 per cent of the annual budget. I believe it’s their right and what’s more it doesn’t cause any problems they are well recognised as the leaders of the tourist promotion of the island. But, as far as participation goes, the actual decision making process is very participative with local councils, associates, ourselves and the Cabildo. The president of SPET is the president of the Cabildo and the managing director is the councillor for tourism. It would be absurd to say that the Cabildo doesn’t lead this company and direct almost everything that happens, but the great difference between here and other tourist boards, is that before taking decisions they exchange opinions with the private sector. There is such a great consensus - they rarely have to vote, in fact since I’ve been here everything has been unanimously agreed. That’s significant.”

Perhaps the most obvious outward aspects of the SPET’s current tasks are the holiday trade fairs. “This is one of the areas that being an associate can have such advantages. Within each sector the companies get together and decide which specific fairs the company will attend depending on the budget available. They also provide some representation for each fair, so that the stands are attended by experienced professionals from each sector, which gives the presentation more authority. We are also working a lot with foreign journalists, decreasing the amount of paid for publicity in the newspapers and bringing in the actual reporters to the island. We’ve found it tends to provoke a more interesting and effective article.”

This year Bermúdez has decided that SPET should also become involved more in the whole tourism package, for example what is happening in the resorts themselves. The Tenerife amable (friendly Tenerife) campaign is a part of that change of direction, as is their recent taking over of the responsibility for the new information point in the northern airport. Eventually all the Cabildo’s (island council’s) information points will come directly under their wing and all the other offices will also be coordinated by them. The aim is a general improvement in tourist information, “setting up a chain of offices with a certain level of services, the creation of a 24 hour tourist help line and an improved Web page.” Another change already in place is the great new up to date map of the island, now available from the tourist offices. A new guide to Tenerife and a new hiking guide will be available from September. Basic information will continue to be offered free but from next year more in-depth guides will have to be paid for to help cover costs and to ensure continuity of supplies.

“Possibly the thing that’s most occupying my time in the last half of this year is the strategy for 2005. The tourist industry is not exactly going through a boom period and they are crying out to us for an evolution in strategy. We’ve taken that on board and had quite a few meetings with various representatives of the industry and obtained from them some idea of the changes that they want to see, for example, the return of promoting Tenerife as a whole. We’ve spent years promoting the island by areas or interests such as golf and nobody will deny that it worked and we were ahead of the game, but the market changes so the offer has to change too, so we’re looking at marketing Tenerife as a whole - a diverse and complete holiday destination. We’re also in the process of completing a study on how the island is seen by our prospective main customers. We already know that the clients now don’t just want to look at things - they want to live them, enjoy an experience. Family tourism is also probably going to be given a boost. Surprisingly it’s one area that isn’t promoted at the moment.”

SPET recognises that word of mouth is the most effective publicity and they’re going to try and boost that. “We want to open a new line of promotion, although it’s not too clear yet how we’ll do it, but we would like our holidaymakers to be our salesmen, our ambassadors when they return home. We’re also looking at ways of creating loyalty bonds with the clients to link them more firmly with the island. Ideas that are bouncing around at the moment are competitions via the web, raffles, a loyalty card. We don’t know yet, but some way of creating that desire to return here and to tell people about the island.”

There have been alarm bells ringing in the tourist industry so I asked Alberto if, in his opinion, there was a crisis. “I wouldn’t call this a crisis, a crisis is when they close hotels and begin to sell up. What there is, is a clear change of tendencies and some strong competitors who are doing a lot of damage. We believe that Tenerife tourism is solid. It’s standing up despite strong competition from other markets, but we can’t go to sleep. We have to look after our traditional markets from England, Germany and Spain but we are also fully conscious that we have ignored to a dangerous degree Italy, France, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries.

“Some of the responsibility has to be laid at the door of the establishments concerned too. The recreation and restaurant industry in Tenerife isn’t what it was. The prices are way out of line, the tour operators say it and so do the clients. Now we’ve got the euro it’s easier to compare and Tenerife is expensive. I ate in Munich the other day and it was cheaper than here, I was amazed, a Spaniard eating in Munich and I thought it was cheap! That’s not normal, so one of the messages that we’re trying to send out to these businesses is that the average tourist is, more than ever, looking at the prices. They’re coming in with a limited budget and then they come up against an expensive offer. The tourists are still coming here, but they are going out less and spending less.
Alberto underlined the importance of good service, claiming that, “good vocational training is vital and the huge new Ashotel school in Adeje in theory they will be providing quality training as they have one of the best installations in all of Europe not just Spain. I believe that there are professions that are not given the dignity they deserve. Why should a nurse for example have more prestige than a waiter or a checkout girl? To be a waiter, giving service does not mean you are servile. You are doing a job well and that is something to be proud of.”

To comments about the possibility of attitude problems in some areas, he replied, “Tenerife amable was started for just that, because via the questionnaires they detected a general downturn in the treatment people received from the Tinerfeños. That’s always been one of our strong points, the friendliness of the people, and it’s something that has always been valued by the visitors.” The new campaign starting in September has a lovely television spot using toddlers and emphasising the importance of everybody who comes into contact with the tourists in the image that the island gives and the enjoyment of the holidaymakers, be they bus or taxi drivers or waiter, to the tune of You’ve got a friend in me.
As Alberto rightly pointed out, “it’s a market that is in constant flux, whatever I’m saying now could well have changed in six months time.” He believes the new European countries could become clients in the future but that short term they are more likely to be prospective competitors. Another trend is the increasing growth of people organising their own holidays which is why especially on an island increasing the number of flights is so important. One interesting turn up is that it looks as if the budget airlines such as Ryan air may soon be operating to Tenerife.

Crisis or not and whatever the change SPET’s answer under Alberto’s guiding hand, is a lot of hard work, more flights and improvements in the island, town planning etc. But, “no matter how well you sell the island once the tourists get here it’s down to the workers and residents to make sure they enjoy themselves and come back.” We discussed some of the most common complaints we received at the office, the fish cages, restaurant touts etc. Alberto confirmed, “we’ve got to listen to the people, to the residents, to the holidaymakers, we’ve got to listen a lot.” On their web page www.webtenerife.com there is a form for suggestions and any comments are more than welcome “we’ll read them with great pleasure.”

One of the great challenges that he would like to see come to fruition in 2005 is the unification of various groups to make the most of their promotion budgets, including the unification of individual councils and the SPET to allow for bigger and better publicity campaigns. On a personal level, his initial contract is for the next three years and his individual ambitions are totally linked to those of the company. His intentions for the future are clear, “I’m going to work hard and give 200 per cent in everything I do, and if by doing that I can benefit the island, well that’s what I’m being paid for and it’s great.”

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