Spain’s Region of Valencia will showcase a 2027 calendar of international sporting events at World Travel Market (WTM) London in November, regional tourism authorities said in a statement.
The UK is the region’s largest international market, with 3,029,892 British visitors in 2025, or 24.4% of international arrivals. That demand is concentrated: 89.4% of British visitors went to Alicante province, and Benidorm drew 49.7% of the province’s UK visitors. Most of the headline 2027 events fall outside the summer peak and several are in Valencia city, giving the region a pitch beyond the Costa Blanca at a show that this year hosts around 50 tourism ministers.
Valencia city will host the Copa del Rey basketball tournament on February 18-21, the European Indoor Athletics Championships on March 4-7, SailGP on September 4-5 and the MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix on November 26-28. Alicante will start The Ocean Race on January 17 for the sixth consecutive edition, with a 14,000-nautical-mile opening leg to Auckland, the longest in the race’s 53-year history. Alicante will also host the IAGTO European Convention for the golf travel industry on May 17-19.
“2027 promises to be an exciting year for the Region of Valencia, with major international sporting events giving visitors even more reasons to discover our destinations,” said Marian Cano, Regional Minister for Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism, who will lead the delegation.
New attractions include a Sorolla Museum at Valencia’s City Museum, dedicated to painter Joaquin Sorolla, and Espai Valdes, which will show 30 previously unseen works by artist Manolo Valdes. In Benidorm, the four-star superior Poseidon Playas de Benidorm will open in summer 2027 with almost 600 rooms, and plans are progressing for a €50mn overhaul of the Levante and Poniente seafronts. A Holiday Inn Express is due to open in Gandia in 2027; the city’s municipal incentive scheme has helped mobilise more than €40mn of private investment in new hotels.
British visitors stayed seven days on average in 2025 and spent €157.30 a day. The region will exhibit on stand S3-400 with seven partners: Costa Blanca, Benidorm, Alicante, Visit Elche, Valencia Turisme, Visit Valencia and Castellon.
The Region of Valencia covers more than 500 towns along Spain’s Mediterranean coast, across the provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Castellon.
