Well they said it would be the hottest weekend of the year, temperatures were in the mid thirties, but Gran Hotel Bahia del Duque and Santa Cruz port were sizzling for another reason. Six Tenerife models were wowing the cameras for the prestigious Peroni calendar for 2011. Two shoots took place in Gran Canaria last week but they saved the best till last, as The Beach Boys might have said  I Wish They All Could Be Tenerife Girls.

Arriving at the 5 star Bahia del Duque in Costa Adeje on Friday morning, the first three models were being groomed and prepared in the Salon Arquayo for a hard day’s work. Loud rock music belted out from the gym above, clothes and hair dryers masked the salon walls and there were enough shoes lined up to make Imelda Marcos feel under dressed.

Juan Casteneda, their make up guru, added deft touches, but to my eyes they already looked pretty special. Vanesa Cabeza, who counts acting and presenting among her talents, is a familiar face to many Canarians through the Cuatro channel, but how ever early they tuned in, they won’t have seen her in the curlers that were doing nothing to hide her natural beauty.

Laura  Martin, the face of Tenerife Pearl, and Natalia Farina, a regular attraction in Fama and Showroom mag, were already trying out their outfits designed, along with the other calendar clothes, by Nuria Diaz. Completing the array of Tenerife talent, Alfonso Bravo the calendar photographer was loosening up his range of cameras ready for the task ahead.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro has its own connection to Tenerife as Compania Cervecera Canarias, brewers of our beloved Dorada, also distribute Italy’s famous bottled beer. A suitably cooled bottle of the blonde nectar followed Vanesa Cabeza and the crew up to a pagoda perched on a mound looking down on the resort and the beach below. Alfonso coaxed and encouraged his model and with added lighting to dispel any unwanted shadows he started to work his magic. Sun worshipers on the beach were later treated to the other girls getting some sand between their toes as they worked through the day’s demanding schedule.

There was a change of scene and models for the Saturday shoot in Santa Cruz. The old jet foil station in Avenida de Anaga is home to the Middlesborough built steam ship La Palma, currently being lovingly restored to its former glory. This proud ship and a classic Alfa Romeo were to be key props for the remaining three month’s pages. Each location brings its own challenges, the sun was fiercer than ever and the small dirty beach next door was heaving with swimmers, a few of the younger ones came to enjoy the unexpected floor show. Alicia Medina looked elegance itself as she posed on board ship, but those high heels made the gang plank and rough wooden deck into a challenge that she rose above with great poise.

Juliane Brandmayer, originally from Germany, tried to grab some shade for herself and her canine companion as she prepared for her later role. Leticia Sarda already had her engine running as she slipped in behind the wheel of the Alfa Romeo. It’s not always easy looking cool and sultry, especially when a local fisherman is just slipping off his dirty vest for a quick swill out of a bucket and a rusty tanker is sneaking out of port past a luxury cruise liner, but Leticia was parked in the moment that the shot demanded.

The whole process is quite drawn out and repetitive as they strive for the perfect look. The trick is to ooze style and sophistication, all six models I saw managed that with ease. Their efforts will only be seen by a select few, 1,200 copies of the calendar go out to valued associates of Peroni. I left full of admiration for their dedication and with a burning desire to have a nice cold beer.

Remember the double issue festive editions of the Radio and TV Times? That was when the holiday adverts would first appear, I used to flick through the numbered ads and then tick the four boxes on the order form and wait for four hefty brochures to plop through the letter box. Holiday marketing has come a long way since then, but you still can’t beat word of mouth and personal recommendation, that’s why the Tenerife Cabildo (government) pulled out all the stops to welcome 107 media scribes from the British Guild of Travel Writers.

John Carter (above) has changed with the times, I recognised him as a comforting face from my TV youth, fronting the BBC Holiday programme and later ITV’s Wish You Were Here. Grabbing a chat before the gala dinner at Bahia del Duque, I couldn’t resist asking “where’s Judith?” a chuckle and a reassurance that Miss Chalmers is retired but still sprightly, and John took me back to his early print days.

“I started covering travel for regional papers in Sheffield and Worcester before landing the role of Travel Editor for the Thomson Group of newspapers. After that I gradually started doing some TV work and it just grew.” During years of travelling John’s calls to Tenerife have had 20 year gaps between them so he has a good impression of how things have changed.

“In the 1960’s there was a weekly cruise ship, Union Castle to South Africa from Southampton, I was invited with my wife Sheila to join a voyage and we stopped off in Tenerife, staying in Puerto de la Cruz, that was the main tourism centre then. I came back for Wish You Were Here in the 80’s and this is my first trip since then. I was told originally that the government wanted to develop Tenerife for old holiday makers, along the lines of Florida, but that soon changes once the south took off. Now here I am back in print freelancing for The Mail On Sunday, and back in Tenerife. We (BGTW) have been offered a selection of tours around the island the last few days and I must say I’m impressed by what I have seen.”

Television still has a big part to play in promoting Tenerife, Petra Shepherd (above) head of research for the Travel Channel was pleasantly surprised by what she had seen. “I was here a couple of years ago for the ABTA conference at the Magma Centre, but I am getting to see much more this time, we did Teide, La Laguna, whale watching and Puerto de la Cruz, all impressive in their own ways”. A self confessed hiker, Petra was looking forward to the next days trip “we are going to the Anaga mountains beyond Santa Cruz, there’s a big market now for back packing holidays. Tenerife will always be a popular destination despite the emergence of places like Egypt and Turkey, people like the familiar, and they know they can rely on all year sun in Tenerife”.

ON THE BUTTON

New technology is good, just ask the thrilled delegates that lapped up a laser light  show at the end of the on stage entertainment,  following a lavish meal. Alastair McKenzie had more of a working holiday than most, as a committee member of the BGTW and webmaster, but he got his first visit surprises within hours of flying in. “I have seen other volcanic areas but was surprised to see how much of the land had been used in Tenerife, normally you would expect to see lots more undeveloped areas. I just had time to dump my stuff at the hotel before we were whisked off to a banana plantation in Fañabe, that was wonderful, something unexpected and different. We saw the packaging process for the crops and had a very pleasing meal that made very versatile use of bananas in a great rural setting.”

Everyone I asked about technology, pointed me in the direction of Alastair, definitely the man with his finger on the button or mouse. “Our members are making more and more use of social media, even before the trip the blog sites and Twitter were buzzing, they will be red hot for the next few weeks.”

It’s that buzz that Tenerife tourism hopes to use to entice more visitors to our shores in a subdued market. So keep your eyes peeled like a Tenerife banana, the newspapers, internet sites, TV, and podcasts should be alive with glowing praise for our favourite island.