In a period of the year full of celebrations, the Spanish tourism industry has met in Madrid to celebrate a new edition of the VIAJAR Awards. The event, sponsored by Nautalia and organized by VIAJAR magazine and the Prensa Ibérica group, took place on December 16 in the illustrious Salón Real of the Mandarín Oriental Ritz Hotel and brought together almost 150 professionals from the sector. The event serves as the culmination of a magnificent tourist year in Spain. As of October, the National Institute of Statistics has registered 10.8% more international tourists in our country, which means a total of 82.9 million visits in the first 10 months of the year and income of 110,984 million of euros.
These awards have distinguished 13 destinations, companies and tourism initiatives that stood out in 2024 for their excellence and innovation. Javier Mollpresident of Prensa Ibérica, publishing company of VIAJAR, inaugurated this event with his words, in which “the first Spanish travel magazine recognizes the best practices in the sector.” “Travel culture has acquired a growing role in our society. “Travel allows people to escape from routine and satisfy the human curiosity of discovering the world and learning about other people and other customs,” he continued and invited them to continue “reading about travel, as it stimulates the imagination and awakens a growing interest.” . “It can be seen at the points of sale, where our magazine now has more than half a million readers, twice as many as just two years ago. And its leadership in digital has now lasted for more than two years, with an average monthly audience of over two million readers,” he added.
The winners were chosen by professionals linked to VIAJAR magazine, the leading publication in the sector, a benchmark in travel journalism since its founding in 1978. Josep María Palau, director of the magazine, recalled that “at VIAJAR we accept the responsibility of explaining every month, and every day in the digital part, the places we visit and revisit with rigor, with respect and with environmental awareness, which is something that cannot be missing today. in any tourist content, in any work linked to this sector.”
Among the winners are both national and international destinations and private and public initiatives. The complete list of winners is as follows: Malta (Cultural Destination Award), Culinary Root of Castilla-La Mancha (Gastronomic initiative), Royal Caribbean (Cruise experience for families), Asturias (Rural destination), Barceló Experiences (Innovative initiative in customer experience), Regent Seven Seas Cruises (Luxury experience on the high seas), Gandia (Destination 365), Vera and the ‘Your winter beaches’ project (Innovative tourism initiative), Austria (Cultural and artistic experience), Galicia (Sustainable destination), Montañas de Vida (Solidarity initiative), Intermundial (Sectoral trajectory) and Valencia (Destination 2025).
The event, presented by journalist Beatriz Salazar Ruiz, closed with the intervention of Ana Muñoz, General Director of Tourism Policies of the Secretary of State for Tourism, who wanted to start with a few words of support for Valencia, Destination Award 2025: “Tourism will be an element of emotional recovery for Valencia.” Muñoz also spoke of the “pride of participating in a gala in which, through all the awards, the richness and variety of destinations and initiatives are seen. Wealth that makes Spain a destination of destinations, that grows and evolves and works to be environmentally sustainable.” In fact, the Secretary of State for Tourism wants to “value the balanced coexistence between people who work in the sector and people who reside in the destinations.” And he thanked the “work of magazines like VIAJAR, with more than 45 years in the sector, which do journalism on the ground, giving an original and genuine vision of their destinations and their people, communicating the quantity and richness of our destinations and the move towards sustainability.”
After the awards ceremony, a ‘brunch’ was offered to attendees where they could talk about the challenges of the sector in a relaxed atmosphere. The event also served to present the distinction TRAVEL Signature, a seal of quality with various categories that tourist destinations and services will be able to show off with pride. One more grain of sand with which VIAJAR wants to contribute to the improvement of the already powerful Spanish tourism sector.
