Canary Islands to be promoted as an ideal training destination for professional athletes

Published on November 24, 2022
Canary IslandsNews from Canary Islands
canary islands islands of extraordinary beings

Turismo de Canarias has launched an international campaign to position the archipelago as the ideal destination for professional training, through a series of elite athletes who are already training in the archipelago and who will be the protagonists of this initiative, based on the concept of 'The Islands of Extraordinary Beings'.

"This campaign is 100% digital, which allows us to segment our target audience very well according to their sporting discipline", explains the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla.

"We are going to remind athletes that in the Canary Islands you can train all year round thanks to their good climate, specialized facilities, modern accommodation capacity [...]" says Castilla.

The disciplines on which the campaign focuses in its first phase, which has been launched in six European countries, are athletism, swimming, trail-running, cycling, triathlon and beach volleyball, and in the next phases content related to wind sports, such as sailing, windsurfing and surfing, will also be included. 

Professional sports tourism is part of the Ministry's diversification strategy since it represents a segment of visitors that stay in the archipelago long-term, which means that it reduces the dependence of the destination on air connectivity, implying a more sustainable consumption of resources and their spending is better distributed among the archipelago's economy.

"Extraordinary beings"

The protagonists of the 'Islands of Extraordinary Beings' campaign are Thomas Ceccon, a double Olympic medalist and member of the Italian swimming team, who has become a world sensation in this discipline. 

Pau Capell is one of the most recognized names in the world of national and international trail running and has twice been proclaimed champion of the Ultra Trail World Tour circuit, champion of Spain Ultra Cup and champion of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc.

In regards to athletism, the Canary Islands will work with the British Katarina Johnshon-Thompson, winner of two gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in the heptathlon specialty and at the World Indoor Championships in Pentathlon, in addition to two more golds in the European Indoor Championships, also in the pentathlon discipline.

Another athlete that will be part of the campaign is Marcell Jacobs, winner of two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics and currently considered the fastest runner in the world. Specifically, his last stay was in Tenerife this past January and he repeats it year after year to improve his performance.

The triathlon also has its representative figures, such as the Spanish Saleta Castro, national champion in Long Distance, with three podiums and more than ten Top 5s in Ironman events, and Patrick Lange, double world champion of the Ironman World Championship, the maximum international competition of this discipline. This elite athlete trains in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria and was the first athlete to break the eight-hour mark in the Kona Ironman, Hawaii, the toughest event on the planet.

The last sport that will also have visibility is beach volleyball, with the Olympic player Liliana Fernández, whose link with the Canary Islands is very deep since for 15 years she has established her residence in Tenerife, from where she trains throughout the year.

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