tourism and spain's economy

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Tourism sector in Spain - statistics & facts

Who visits spain the most, how popular is domestic tourism in spain, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Quarterly travel and tourism balance of payments in Spain 2018-2022

Tourism premises in Spain 2015-2021

Tourism employment in Spain 2020-2021

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Inbound tourism volume in Spain 2023, by origin

Tourism contribution to Spanish GDP 2006-2023

Destinations

Inbound tourism volume in Spain 2023, by region of destination

Related topics

Tourism in spain.

• Inbound tourism in Spain
• National tourism in Spain
• Tourism in Barcelona
• Travel and tourism in the Canary Islands

Tourism in Europe

• Travel and tourism in Europe
• Backpacking in Europe
• Wine tourism in European countries
• Cruise industry in Europe
• Overtourism in European destinations

Travel trends

• Subscription model in the travel industry
• Mobile travel trends
• Travel and tourism in the metaverse
• Artificial intelligence (AI) use in travel and tourism

Recommended statistics

• Premium Statistic Leading European countries in the Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021
• Premium Statistic Tourism contribution to Spanish GDP 2006-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourism sector as share of GDP in Spain 2010-2021
• Premium Statistic Monthly growth rate of tourism GDP in Spain 2022
• Premium Statistic Tourism employment in Spain 2015-2021
• Premium Statistic Tourism employment in Spain Q4 2022, by industry

Leading European countries in the Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021

Leading European countries in the Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) in 2021

Contribution of the tourism sector to the gross domestic product in Spain from 2006 to 2022, with a forecast for 2023 (in billion euros)

Tourism sector as share of GDP in Spain 2010-2021

Contribution of tourism to gross domestic product in Spain from 2010 to 2021

Monthly growth rate of tourism GDP in Spain 2022

Percentage change in the contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Spain from January to December 2022

Tourism employment in Spain 2015-2021

Number of employees in the tourism sector in Spain from 2015 to 2021 (in 1,000s)

Tourism employment in Spain Q4 2022, by industry

Number of people working in the tourism sector in Spain in 4th quarter 2022, by industry (in 1,000s)

Tourism volume and expenditures

• Premium Statistic Inbound visitors in Spain 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Inbound tourism volume in Spain 2023, by origin
• Premium Statistic International tourism spending in Spain 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Domestic trips in Spain 2015-2022
• Premium Statistic Domestic trips in Spain 2022, by destination
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism spending in Spain 2015-2022
• Basic Statistic Share of travel and tourism spending in Spain 2022, by traveler origin

Inbound visitors in Spain 2000-2023

Number of international visitors in Spain from 2000 to 2023 (in millions)

Number of international tourists in Spain in 2023, by country of residence (in 1,000s)

International tourism spending in Spain 2012-2022

Expenditure of international tourists in Spain from 2012 to 2022 (in billion euros)

Domestic trips in Spain 2015-2022

Number of domestic trips in Spain in 2015 to 2022 (in millions)

Domestic trips in Spain 2022, by destination

Number of domestic trips in Spain in 2022, by autonomous community of destination (in millions)

Domestic tourism spending in Spain 2015-2022

Expenditure of domestic tourists in Spain from 2015 to 2022 (in billion euros)

Share of travel and tourism spending in Spain 2022, by traveler origin

Distribution of expenditure by tourists in Spain in 2022, by main origin

• Premium Statistic Inbound tourism volume in Spain 2023, by travel reason
• Premium Statistic Domestic trips in Spain 2022, by travel reason
• Basic Statistic Share of travel and tourism spending in Spain 2022, by purpose
• Premium Statistic Inbound trips for cultural purposes to Spain 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of enotourists in Spain 2008-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of skiers and snowboarders in Spain 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Pilgrims on the Way of Saint James 2011-2022

Inbound tourism volume in Spain 2023, by travel reason

Number of international tourists in Spain in 2023, by travel purpose (in 1,000s)

Domestic trips in Spain 2022, by travel reason

Number of domestic trips in Spain in 2022, by travel purpose (in millions)

Share of travel and tourism spending in Spain 2022, by purpose

Distribution of expenditure by tourists in Spain in 2022, by main travel purpose

Inbound trips for cultural purposes to Spain 2010-2022

Number of trips for cultural reasons made by international tourists to Spain from 2010 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Number of enotourists in Spain 2008-2022

Number of visitors to wineries and wine museums in Spain from 2008 to 2022 (in 1,000s)

Number of skiers and snowboarders in Spain 2010-2022

Number of visitors to ski resorts in Spain from 2010/2011 to 2021/2022 (in 1,000s)

Pilgrims on the Way of Saint James 2011-2022

Number of pilgrims who traveled to Santiago de Compostela, Spain from 2011 to 2022

• Premium Statistic Tourism premises in Spain 2015-2021
• Premium Statistic Share of tourism companies in Spain 2021, by size
• Premium Statistic Main hotel groups in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue
• Premium Statistic Main passenger airlines in Spain 2022
• Premium Statistic Main travel agencies in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue
• Premium Statistic Main restaurants and food stall companies in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue
• Premium Statistic Ecotourism businesses' average revenue in Spain 2022, by type

Number of establishments in the tourism sector in Spain from 2015 to 2021

Share of tourism companies in Spain 2021, by size

Distribution of businesses in the tourism sector in Spain in 2021, by size

Main hotel groups in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue

Leading hotel companies in Spain in FY2021, based on sales revenue (in million euros)

Main passenger airlines in Spain 2022

Leading airlines in Spain in 2022, based on number of passengers (in millions)

Main travel agencies in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue

Leading travel agencies in Spain in FY2021, based on sales revenue (in million euros)

Main restaurants and food stall companies in Spain FY2021, by sales revenue

Leading restaurant and food stall companies in Spain in FY2021, based on sales revenue (in million euros)

Ecotourism businesses' average revenue in Spain 2022, by type

Average revenue of ecotourism establishments in Spain in 2022, by type (in 1,000 euros)

Main destinations

• Premium Statistic Main coastal destinations in Spain 2022, by number of hotel guests
• Premium Statistic Most visited cities in Spain 2022
• Premium Statistic Attendance to Spanish National Heritage sites 2022
• Premium Statistic Attendance to Spanish national parks 2022
• Premium Statistic Cruise ship calls at Spanish ports 2022, by authority
• Premium Statistic Enotourism destination areas in Spain 2022, by region

Main coastal destinations in Spain 2022, by number of hotel guests

Leading beach destinations in Spain in 2022, based on number of overnight tourists in hotels (in 1,000s)

Most visited cities in Spain 2022

Leading city destinations in Spain in 2022, by number of tourists (in 1,000s)

Attendance to Spanish National Heritage sites 2022

Number of visitors to National Heritage sites in Spain in 2022 (in 1,000s)

Attendance to Spanish national parks 2022

Number of visitors to national parks in Spain in 2022 (in 1,000s)

Cruise ship calls at Spanish ports 2022, by authority

Number of cruise vessels calling at ports in Spain in 2022, by port authority

Enotourism destination areas in Spain 2022, by region

Number of Wine Routes in Spain in 2022, by autonomous community

Online travel market

• Premium Statistic Quarterly online revenue of accommodation businesses in Spain 2014-2022
• Premium Statistic Quarterly online revenue of travel agencies & tours operators in Spain 2014-2022
• Premium Statistic Airbnb revenue in Spain 2015-2020
• Premium Statistic Willingness to purchase tourism services online in Spain 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Average spend on tourism services booked online in Spain 2018-2022
• Premium Statistic Hotel / private accommodation online bookings by brand in Spain 2023

Quarterly online revenue of accommodation businesses in Spain 2014-2022

E-commerce revenue of hotels and similar establishments in Spain from 1st quarter 2014 to 4th quarter 2022 (in million euros)

Quarterly online revenue of travel agencies & tours operators in Spain 2014-2022

E-commerce revenue of travel agencies and tour operators in Spain from 1st quarter 2014 to 4th quarter 2022 (in million euros)

Airbnb revenue in Spain 2015-2020

Revenue of Airbnb in Spain in 2015, 2019, and 2020 (in million euros)

Willingness to purchase tourism services online in Spain 2019-2022

Share of individuals who intended to buy travel products and services online in Spain from 2019 to 2022

Average spend on tourism services booked online in Spain 2018-2022

Average spend on travel products and services bought online in Spain from 2018 to 2022 (in euros)

Hotel / private accommodation online bookings by brand in Spain 2023

Hotel / private accommodation online bookings by brand in Spain as of December 2023

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Tourism and Leisure

Spain, a world leader in tourism .

Spain leads the world in tourism. Since 2015 it has placed first on the World Economic Forum (WEF) podium, which awards the most competitive countries in the tourism industry from among 140 economies. 

Spain  1º  /140

Travel&Tourism Competitiveness Index, 2019

Since 2017 it has broken the record in number of visitors: thanks to the more than 83 million tourists arriving in Spain, every year it is recognized as the second most visited country in the world, after France. The United States and China follow.

Spain's success in the tourism industry is due especially to its rich cultural and natural attractions, but also to its exceptional infrastructures, the quality of its transportation and hotel density. These are the three key points that the WEF considers essential to having a competitive advantage over other countries in tourism.

The tourism industry is an important engine of the Spanish economy and employment (2.5 million jobs). The strong public policies backing the industry, with public-private collaboration, and a clear orientation towards a sustainable and quality tourism model, ensure that about half of the tourism industry’s internal expenses are met by international visitors (tourists spend around 90 billion euros).

Catalonia, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and the Community of Valencia are the Spanish regions that welcome the most tourists. 

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Why invest in the tourism and leisure industry in Spain?

Spain upholds its position year after year in competitiveness and demonstrates that this industry offers great investment opportunities.  

World leader in the industry. Second country in the world by number of visitors.

According to the World Economic Forum, Spain leads the Travel + Tourism Competitiveness Index 

4th country in the world in UNESCO World Heritage Sites (53 sites). Historic cities, outstanding monuments and museums. 

With 49 Natural Areas and Natural Spaces, UNESCO declares Spain to be the country with the highest number of biosphere reserves in the world, followed by the United States, Russia and China.

More than 300 days of sun a year and over 2,000 km of green slopes; various ski facilities; rural activities; wellness. Spain is distinguished for the number of its  beaches awarded the Blue Flag eco-label, compared to other countries like Greece and Turkey. 

The exceptional quality and variety of Spanish gastronomy is world renowned

Spain is one of the safest countries on Earth. According to the Global Peace Index, it is one of the 25 safest countries in the world.

It has an outstanding and modern public health system with very high standards.

Infrastructures. High-level land, rail and air connectivity, and second only to Korea in digital infrastructure. 

What are the best investment opportunities?

Cultural heritage tourism, health tourism and gastronomic tourism

MICE Tourism

One of the best sources for business opportunities is digital transformation in the tourism industry. It is based around four mainstays: cloud solutions, mobile devices, the internet of things (IoT) and the sharing economy.

Cloud solutions

•  Developing new business models
• e-Commerce integration solutions and advanced customer relationship management (ERP, CRM)
• Centralization, efficiency and savings in ICT management
• Customer relations and internal collaboration models
• Insights and big data monitoring

Mobile devices

• Customization and customer service centers
• Improved experience through innovative models
• Infrastructures and access

The Internet of Things

• Smart destinations
• Automation of products and services
• Innovative experiences for niche markets

Social networks and the sharing economy

• Customer communication and relationships channel
• Online reputation and active listening
• Specialized social media
• Exchange of goods and services between companies and individuals

The objective of public institutions is to diversify the industry in order to expand the offer to tourists seeking other alternatives to sun and beaches.

Inland tourism in Spain is a business niche yet to develop. It is an upmarket industry associated with gastronomy and culture that attracts medium to high- spending visitors. Especially interesting is wine tourism, which has great potential given the allure of the sector in Spain.

While local and provincial administrations devote resources to promote it, in fact, the wine industry is highly atomized and lacks agents to coordinate and organize activities, therefore the level of business that drives this type of tourism is well below its potential. 

Spain has an established position as a destination for mice tourism (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) thanks to the country's professionalism, stability and security.

It ranks first in world destinations with the highest meeting participation according to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). In 2018 there were 5,200 events in Spain, 28% of them international.

Spain’s primary advantage is that it perfectly combines business and leisure ("bleisure") tourism,  but in order to maintain this position, the industry has to quickly adapt to the changes in mice tourism trends, the increase of specialization, technological innovation and continuous advancement of customized meetings.

The most popular destinations for business tourism in Spain are Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Zaragoza, Valencia, Valladolid and Bilbao.

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Success stories

The British budget hotel company has a plan for growth in Spain that will create hundreds of jobs

Travelodge was the pioneer of budget hotels in the UK back in 1985. Over nearly four decades, it has grown from strength to strength ...

Evaneos recently closed a financing round of 20 million euros, which it will be mainly investing in marketing ...

A lifelong seasoned traveller like Yvan Wibaux, his long-time friend and now co-founder and CTO of the company, Eric la Bonnardière ...

For the past two decades, Ryanair has been a crucial player in the Spanish tourism industry, connecting ...

A pioneer in introducing new Spanish destinations to travellers, it is the number one airline in Spain, carrying 50 million passengers ...

Anytime Fitness

The Anytime Fitness chain plans to open 200 clubs Spain by 2020

Anytime Fitness is a US gym franchise which currently has some 2,300 fitness centres around the world, of which 1,600 are in the ...

Publications

Spanish airports to receive more tourists this summer

Foreign investment in Spain reaches 28.215 billion euros in 2023

Spanish regions and cities stand out in European FDI ranking

Presentation of the Global LATAM 2024 report

ICEX-Invest in Spain and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) will present on May 8 the sixth edition of the Global LATAM report, which analyzes the current state of the Latin American economy and companies through their internationalization.  

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• Hotel Industry and Tourism

Spanish Tourism Satellite Account. Latest data

Latest press releases.

Tourism activity reached 155,946 million euros in 2022, 11.6% of GDP, which was 3.9 points more than in 2021. The characteristic branches of tourism generated more than 1.9 million jobs, 9.3% of total employment.

• Press release
• Nota informativa. Revisión Estadística 2024 de las Cuentas Nacionales
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Most popular tables

Did you know....

The Spanish Tourism Satellite Account (STSA) is a summary statistic composed of a set of accounts and tables, based on the methodological principles of national accounts and presenting the different economic parameters of tourism in Spain, for a given reference date. The current base is 2010.

It essentially consists of three types of components:

• - Supply accounts and tables, in which an attempt is made to characterise the production and cost structures of tourism companies.
• - Demand tables which intend to characterise, from an economic point of view, the different types of tourists, national tourism compared with international, the types of goods and services demanded, etc.
• - Tables that interrelate supply and demand, which facilitates obtaining some integrated measurements of the contribution of tourism to the economy via variables such as GDP, production or employment.

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The economic impact of the tourism industry in Spain

In 2012, Spain consolidated its third position in the world tourism ranking in terms of foreign visitors, and its second in terms of revenue. Tourism therefore appears to be considerably important for the economy as a whole, as further confirmed by a more thorough analysis of data on the sector. Nevertheless this is a highly seasonal industry, resulting in the extensive underutilisation of the resources available throughout the year. Let us look at the details.

In order to assess the overall role played by tourism in Spain's economic activity and employment we need to take into account both the direct or immediate effects and also the indirect or knock-on effects. The former are generated in the production units or companies that supply the goods and services acquired directly by tourists while the latter include the chain effects occurring in the rest of the economic system when the tourism industry demands production inputs and factors to be able to carry out its business. This capacity of an industry, in this case tourism, to lead to the development of other economic sectors by using the intermediate inputs produced by these sectors is called «total backward linkage» or the «diffusion effect». According to INE's symmetrical input-output table (2005), the total backward linkage index for the tourism sector is 1.68, a notable figure. 1 Consequently, if the tourism industry expanded by one unit, the final increase in production for the economy as a whole would be 1.68 units (the indirect effect would be 0.68). More specifically, according to this methodology the tourism industry's direct contribution to GDP was 6.5% in 2012 and, thanks to its knock-on effect, its total contribution reached 10.9%.

On the other hand, the trend in tourism business also has significant impact on the labour market as the industry is labour-intensive. According to data provided by the INE's Tourism Satellite Account, in 2012 employment in tourism exceeded 2.1 million people, accounting for 11.9% of all employment. Once again, not all employment was generated directly in the tourism industry per se; a proportion was created indirectly in other sectors. For example, according to the input-output table, if GDP in tourism increased by 1%, it would generate around 2,200 new jobs in the commercial sector and around 10.400 new jobs in the hotel and catering sector and would also create employment in other sectors less directly related to tourism (800 in agriculture and 680 in construction). As a benchmark, it should be noted that, historically, a 1% increase in tourism's GDP is usually related to an increase of approximately 3% in overnight stays, which in 2013 rose by 2%.

Tourism therefore has a huge effect on economic activity and employment. However, Spain's large share of «sun, sea and sand» tourism means that the industry is markedly seasonal throughout the year, in turn resulting in the considerable underutilisation of tourism infrastructures. Nonetheless, other countries that offer a similar type of tourism, such as Italy, are even more seasonal, as can be seen in the corresponding graph. The data also show that, in spite of a considerable rise in the total number of tourists over the last few decades, this pattern has remained very stable. The seasonal nature of tourist service production also extends to the labour market, with employment being more concentrated in the summer months.

There can therefore be no doubt that Spain's tourism industry is still highly seasonal and it comes as no surprise that one of the seven priority objectives set by the Secretariat for Tourism in the country's Comprehensive National Tourism Plan (2012-2015) was to develop specific measures to reduce this feature. 2 With the aim of deseasonalising the flow of tourists as much as possible to avoid both the levels of congestion in the high season (June to September) and also the under-utilisation of resources (facilities and people) in the low season, among other initiatives, the Secretariat asked AENA to introduce a flexible tariff system based on the number of passengers and the capacity of each airport. As commented in the article in this Dossier entitled «Recipes for success in the tourism industry: different ways to reach the same destination», it would also be advantageous to boost the supply of tourism aimed at segments that are less seasonal, more profitable and have a high growth potential, characteristics all enjoyed by cultural tourism, for example.

In conclusion, the tourism industry is one of the Spanish economy's key sectors, both due to its direct impact and also to the considerable knock-on effect it has on the rest of the sectors. Moreover, given the good projections for global growth in tourism (as discussed in the article mentioned previously), it will probably become even more important in the coming years. We should take advantage of this to reduce the industry's extremely seasonal bias and thereby make better use of the infrastructures available.

Maria Gutiérrez-Domènech

European Unit, Research Department, "la Caixa"

1. For the calculation, tourism is divided into different sectors following the structure of tourism demand provided by Spain's Tourism Satellite Account (see the Tourism Balance for 2012 by the Institute of Tourism Studies), adapting it to the structure of the sectors in the input-output table.

Covid-19 crisis devastates Spain’s tourism industry

The sector has recorded its worst semester ever, with a 97% drop in visitors and 750,000 jobs at risk.

Spain’s tourism industry continues to feel the impact of the coronavirus crisis . According to figures published Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), just 204,926 international visitors arrived in Spain in June, a drop of 97.7% from the same month in 2019. This culminates the worst semester on record for the Spanish tourism industry , with just 10.78 million visitors, a fall of 71.7% from the same period in 2019. Tourist spending in the first half of the year has also plummeted 70.6% to just €11.84 billion.

This means that the sector has lost 27.3 million visitors and €28.4 billion in revenue in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. And the new outbreaks, coupled with travel advisories issued by several countries , suggest that things will not improve significantly during the second half of the year.

It is the most catastrophic summer season in the last 50 years José Luis Zoreda, deputy president of Spanish tourism lobby Exceltur

The tourism sector has been one of the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting global restrictions on travel. In mid-March, the Spanish government declared a state of alarm in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19, which limited all non-essential trips to the country. That month, international visitors fell by two thirds. The situation worsened in April and March, with zero tourist arrivals recorded – a previously unthinkable figure in a country where tourism accounts for 11.9% of gross domestic product (GDP). In mid-June, German tourists visited Spain’s Balearic Islands on a pilot program, and on June 21, the state of alarm came to an end and Spain reopened its borders to countries within the Schengen Area (with the exception of Portugal, which reopened on July 1). But despite laxer travel restrictions, Spain’s tourism industry has been unable to bounce back.

All of Spain’s regions recorded a sharp drop in the first half of the year, with tourists arrivals falling 92.2% in the Balearic Islands, 74% in Catalonia, 72.5% in Andalusia and 63.8% in Madrid. Tourist spending also fell in line with the drop in visitors. Although this figure does not represent exactly how much visitors spend in a destination, given that it also includes travel costs, which are paid in the country of origin, it is a good indication of the dire situation the tourism industry is facing. According to the latest figures from the INE, tourists in Spain spent €133 million in June – just 1.4% of the figure from the same month last year.

Making matters worse, several European countries have since issued warnings against travel to regions in Spain, while the United Kingdom, Norway and Slovenia have reimposed quarantine measures on travelers from the country.

Industry groups believe this will result in even greater losses than the €40 billion forecast, and warn that 750,000 jobs may be at risk in the second semester. “It is the most catastrophic summer season in the last 50 years,” says José Luis Zoreda, the deputy president of Spanish tourism lobby Exceltur.

Tourist spending in the first half of the year plummeted 70.6% to just €11.84 billion

“The Spanish tourism industry is facing the most difficult summer in its history,” agrees Juan Ignacio Pulido, a professor of applied economics at the University of Jaén. “We have had other challenging periods, like the crisis of 2008 and 2009, September 11 [terrorist attacks in New York] and the SARS virus in 2003, but there is no comparison to the [2020] fall in tourist numbers.”

The crisis has also impacted air travel. In the first half of the year, 43.5 million travelers passed through airports run by Spain’s airport operator AENA, a fall of 66% from last year’s figures, and 50% less than in 2009, when Spain was suffering from the fallout of the financial crisis. Indeed, in June, more travelers arrived in Spain by road than by plane.

“What is happening is that the recovery is being very slow,” says Javier Gándara, the president of the Airline Association (ALA). The association indicates that there was a 40% drop in flights in June from the same period in 2019. And according to Gándara, the travel warning and quarantine measure introduced by the British government “are going to make the recovery much slower.”

The United Kingdom is the main source of tourists to Spain – in 2019, one in every five visitors to the country was British. Although it’s not yet known what impact the travel measures will have on the sector, Exceltur’s Luis Zoreda warns that in the Mediterranean region , “the Spanish tourism industry will not in any way be able to compensate for the fall in foreign visitors.”

English version by Melissa Kitson .

More information

Spain’s economy posts historic 18.5% quarterly fall due to coronavirus lockdown

UK’s new quarantine rule spells disaster for Spanish travel industry

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Tourism’s Importance for Growth Highlighted in World Economic Outlook Report

• All Regions
• 10 Nov 2023

Tourism has again been identified as a key driver of economic recovery and growth in a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With UNWTO data pointing to a return to 95% of pre-pandemic tourist numbers by the end of the year in the best case scenario, the IMF report outlines the positive impact the sector’s rapid recovery will have on certain economies worldwide.

According to the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Report , the global economy will grow an estimated 3.0% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. While this is higher than previous forecasts, it is nevertheless below the 3.5% rate of growth recorded in 2022, pointing to the continued impacts of the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and from the cost-of-living crisis.

Tourism key sector for growth

The WEO report analyses economic growth in every global region, connecting performance with key sectors, including tourism. Notably, those economies with "large travel and tourism sectors" show strong economic resilience and robust levels of economic activity. More specifically, countries where tourism represents a high percentage of GDP   have recorded faster recovery from the impacts of the pandemic in comparison to economies where tourism is not a significant sector.

As the report Foreword notes: "Strong demand for services has supported service-oriented economies—including important tourism destinations such as France and Spain".

Looking Ahead

The latest outlook from the IMF comes on the back of UNWTO's most recent analysis of the prospects for tourism, at the global and regional levels. Pending the release of the November 2023 World Tourism Barometer , international tourism is on track to reach 80% to 95% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Prospects for September-December 2023 point to continued recovery, driven by the still pent-up demand and increased air connectivity particularly in Asia and the Pacific where recovery is still subdued.

Related links

• Download the News Release on PDF
• UNWTO World Tourism Barometer
• IMF World Economic Outlook

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Spain's tourism revenue seen hitting new record in 2024

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Spain's tourism sector is expected to post record revenues again in 2024, the Exceltur tourism association said Tuesday, adding it was concerned at growing anger in the country against overtourism.

It predicted tourism earnings will reach 202.65 billion euros ($215.4 billion) this year, an 8.6 percent increase over the record set in 2023 which had already seen "a spectacular rate of growth," Exceltur vice president Jose Luis Zoreda told a news conference.

If confirmed, it will be the first time that tourism earnings in Spain -- the world's second most visited country after France -- will surpass 200 billion euros, he added.

Spain is benefiting from the rebound in global travel, especially from the Asian market, following the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile security concerns in rival sunshine markets in the eastern Mediterranean due to the Israel-Hamas war were helping to drive up visitors to the country, Exceltur said.

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The tourism sector is also getting a boost from the increase in air links as well as the arrival of new rail operators which has boosted competition and driven down the price of high-speed rail travel leading to higher domestic tourism, it added.

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Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million foreign visitors last year, mainly from Britain, France and Germany, according to national statistics institute INE.

The surge in visitor numbers has sparked a backlash from locals in tourism hotpots such as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Malaga.

"Our concern is to continue to grow tourism in Spain so that it is sustainable and does not generate social revulsion," Zoreda said when asked about the growth of these anti-tourism movements.

Exceltur groups Spain's hotels, resorts, transport companies, car rentals and entertainment businesses.

Source: AFP

‘The future of the Canary Islands is hanging by a thread’ – why Spain is falling out of love with tourists

Campaigners in spain say it’s time for a tourism moratorium as numbers rise beyond the country’s capacity.

Members of the 'Canaria se agota' ('Canaria is exhausted') movement protest. Photograph: Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images

The summer season is approaching, traditionally a time of bonanza for the Spanish tourism industry. But this year is different.

Tourist arrivals have returned to pre-pandemic levels – and in many cases surpassed them – and the impact of these visits has led the country to what appears to be a tipping point.

On Saturday, thousands of people across the Canary Islands plan to take to the streets to demand a halt to tourism-related development, in the first such mass demonstration the archipelago has seen. Last week, six protesters on the island of Tenerife began a hunger strike in protest at the local authorities’ refusal to halt the construction of two major tourism projects.

“Time is running out,” Víctor Martín, a spokesman for the hunger strikers and the activist group Canarias Se Agota (Canary Islands have had enough), told reporters earlier this week. “It is not only the health of those who are on hunger strike that is at risk – the future of the Canary Islands is hanging by a thread. Stop this race to the precipice and introduce a tourism moratorium.”

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Martín and his fellow protesters are demanding that construction work on the La Tejita hotel and the Cuna del Alma macro-resort, in southern Tenerife, be stopped and that no further projects be started until a debate has been held on the islands’ tourism model.

The Canary Islands received 13.9 million foreign tourists in 2023, more than six times their population. More than five million were from the UK, with Germany and France the next biggest markets. Ireland was the fourth-biggest provider of foreign visitors to the islands, with more than 700,000 tourists.

“Since 2022, it’s been unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Martín said. “We have exceeded our capacity and the territory cannot handle any more. It’s not the fault of the tourists. They buy their ticket to come here. It’s the fault of the local authorities who are not putting a brake on all this.”

Martín and his fellow campaigners say the negative impact of such numbers is manifold: packed towns and beaches and queues of traffic make the islands less inhabitable; the archipelago’s renowned natural spaces are suffering; and locals also suffer socio-economic repercussions.

But the discontent is not confined to the Canary Islands.

“We have seen it in Barcelona, in some parts of Andalucía, in the Balearic Islands and now we are seeing it for the first time in a really noticeable way on the Canary Islands,” said Ábel López Díaz, a professor of geography at Tenerife’s La Laguna University. “And this is all linked to the tourist model we have across virtually all of Europe.”

“There used to be lots of really cool bars, those really old quirky classic Spanish bars. But they’re gone. Everything around the centre of the city has become more generic, a bit diluted.” —   Paul Slevin

He added: “We know that tourism is a very important economic motor and it’s going to continue being so. But we need to ensure we have a much more sustainable type of tourism in terms of management of resources, being more sustainable economically and, of course, in terms of social impact.”

Spain received a total of 85 million visitors last year, 2 per cent more than 2019. With tourism contributing 13 per cent of GDP, the industry’s strong performance has been driving the Spanish economy’s growth.

On mainland Spain, Barcelona has for years been grappling with the challenge of striking the right equilibrium between welcoming tourists and avoiding being overwhelmed. But as the numbers of arrivals there have continued to soar, the balance appears to have been lost.

[  ‘We don’t want to be Venice’: Barcelona battles an influx of tourists  ]

One of the casualties has been smaller local businesses, which have been replaced by souvenir shops and franchise restaurants.

“There used to be lots of really cool bars, those really old quirky classic Spanish bars,” says Paul Slevin, an Irishman who owns Dinamo language academy and has lived in Barcelona for 15 years. “But they’re gone. Everything around the centre of the city has become more generic, a bit diluted.”

The cruise liners that stop off in the city’s port have become perhaps the most contentious aspect of Barcelona’s status as a tourism hub. Last year more than 3.5 million tourists visited on liners, many of them stopping off for just a few hours and seeing only the congested city centre. This year numbers are expected to increase further, with more than 900 liners due to visit.

The city’s previous mayor, the left-wing Ada Colau, took steps to stem the tide of tourism, including limiting the availability of hotel rooms in some parts of the city and shutting down 6,000 illegal holiday apartments. Colau was replaced last year by the socialist Jaume Collboni, who has announced plans to implement similar measures although he is seen as being more business friendly.

Barcelona, like the Canary Islands, has seen a backlash from locals. Anti-tourist graffiti has appeared in some areas and last summer, local people took to the streets to protest, blocking the entrance to one of the city’s biggest attractions, the Güell Park. As this year’s high season approaches, Barcelona – and most of the surrounding Catalonia region – is having to deal with an additional challenge in the shape of its worst-ever drought. A state of emergency has been declared, restricting water use, and last month activists drew attention to the extra pressure tourism exerts on this resource by briefly cutting off the water supply of Barcelona’s Tourism Consortium.

“I think if people come to Barcelona and behave themselves, [local] people don’t mind,” says Slevin. “What they don’t want is horrible, cheap tourism. They don’t want the stag and hen parties.”

This also seems to be the view of the local authorities and many in the industry.

Jordi Clos, the president of the Tourism Consortium, which is a public-private entity, has spoken of the need to transform the type of tourism Barcelona offers. He recently underlined the need “to avoid the masses who don’t bring any benefit to the city and who saturate places like the Ramblas [boulevard], and who, at the very most, end up eating a pre-cooked paella”.

The issue has been fiercely debated in the political arena. The insistence by Colau’s party on vetoing the building of a new leisure resort in Tarragona even triggered the end of the regional legislature in Catalonia.

“They say that we have an impeccable tourism model but it turns out that the people who work within that model are living in slums.” —   Víctor Martín

But arguably the most widespread impact of Spain’s tourism boom has been on housing. Rental rates have been soaring across the country due to a shortage of available homes. Tourist apartments have pushed them up further in many areas.

That trend has been particularly pronounced on the Balearic island of Ibiza, where unemployment is low but so too are wages. Rentals have spiralled since the pandemic and some residents have seen increases of 40-50 per cent in the last year alone.

That has led to drastic situations, with some professionals commuting to the island from elsewhere in the Balearics each day while others, including some junior police officers, sleep in cars.

The local government in Ibiza, where 84 per cent of the economy is based on tourism, blames the housing crisis on holiday apartments. Although it has introduced a minimum time frame of six months for each rental, that regulation is constantly being flouted by owners who rent out their homes for just a few days at a time.

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The Canary Islands have had a similar problem. With the second-lowest average salary in Spain, at around €23,000 per year, many employed locals are priced out of the housing market.

“They say that we have an impeccable tourism model but it turns out that the people who work within that model are living in slums,” says Víctor Martín, who explains that many workers are sleeping in tents, cars and even caves. “That shows that we have exceeded our limit.”

Martín and many others hope that this weekend’s protests on the Canary Islands will prompt a major change in how the archipelago – and Spain as a whole – manage an industry that keeps on growing.

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Tens of thousands protest against Canary Islands’ ‘unsustainable’ tourism model

Organisers say 50,000 turn out to call for limit on tourist numbers, saying model makes life unaffordable and puts strain on resources

Tens of thousands of people are protesting across the Canary Islands to call for an urgent rethink of the Spanish archipelago’s tourism strategy and a freeze on visitor numbers, arguing that the decades-old model has made life unaffordable and environmentally unsustainable for residents.

The protests, which are taking place under the banner “Canarias tiene un límite” – The Canaries have a limit – are backed by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF, Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife.

“We’ve reached the point where the balance between the use of resources and the welfare of the population here has broken down, especially over the past year,” said Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota – The Canaries Have Had Enough – which helped to coordinate protests on Saturday across the eight islands.

Eleven members of Canarias se Agota have already been on hunger strike for a week to protest against the construction of two large luxury developments in southern Tenerife, which they describe as illegal and totally unnecessary.

Police said 20,000 people had turned out for the demonstrations, but organisers put the figure closer to 50,000, Spain’s TVE public television said.

“We are not against tourism,” Rosario Correo, one of the protesters, told TVE. “We’re asking that they change this model that allows for unlimited growth of tourism.”

Protesters also gathered in Madrid and Barcelona to show their support for the rallies in the Canary Islands, public television said.

Last year, 13.9 million people visited the islands, which have a population of 2.2 million. Tourism accounts for about 35% of the archipelago’s GDP – bringing in €16.9bn in 2022 alone – but local people say the industry is stressing natural resources and pricing them out of the rental market.

Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute show that 33.8% of people in the Canaries are at risk of poverty or social exclusion , the highest proportion for any region except Andalucía.

Martín said the regional government’s continuing focus on tourism at a time when the climate emergency was leading to cuts to water supplies made no sense. “Demand is rising in urban areas where there are more tourists,” he said. “We’ve had a very dry winter and a water emergency’s already been declared on Tenerife.

“There are going to be restrictions if there’s not more rain this month but it’s 36C here right now. This is all unsustainable and it means that we won’t even be able to keep normal levels of tourism going. And yet the authorities and the businesses here are trying to stick with this model.”

The housing situation in many parts of the archipelago was also dire because of high prices, low wages, a lack of public housing and the continuing cost of living crisis, Martín said. “I realised we’d reached the limit when I saw people who were working as hotel maids or waiters were living in shacks.

“Wages are so low that they don’t cover the basic costs of living, especially in the current crisis, which is global, but has been felt keenly in the Canaries because we have to import practically everything.”

He insisted the protest movement was not anti-tourist, pointing out that many people in the Canaries had known and liked generations of families from countries such as the UK and Germany.

“The problem isn’t the tourists,” he said. “It’s a model that was built around, and with the connivance of, a business class that doesn’t want to listen to what needs to be done, and with a political class that serves that business class instead of serving all the citizens.”

He said a complete rethink of the Canaries’ tourism model could not wait. “What we’re asking is very simple. Given that tourism is the main economic activity and the cause of all these problems, we want an immediate halt to these two mega-projects,” he said of the Tenerife developments.

“We also want a tourist moratorium that will lead to a study of the load each island can take and which will determine whether we’ve already passed the critical point. In areas where there’s an overload, we want to see a stage of degrowth of economic activity to benefit natural resources. Otherwise, you have an existing model that only benefits a very few people.”

Martín said a proper study of the problems the Canaries suffer from could have global repercussions. “This rethinking of the tourism model could put the Canaries on the map as an example of sustainable tourism development,” he said. “We could be known for something positive instead of something negative.”

Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canary Islands, has said his administration is already taking action. “All the actions this government has taken have been based on a revision of this model,” he told reporters this week . “The Canaries tourist model has been a successful one, but obviously, as with anything, there are things that could be perfected.”

Over-tourism has become a major issue in many Spanish cities and regions , triggering protests and backlashes in Barcelona , and leading the authorities in Seville to consider charging visitors to explore the Andalucían city’s famous Plaza de España .

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Spain's economy the outlier amid gloomy forecasts in europe.

January 30, 2024 — 03:16 am EST

Written by Charlie Devereux and Jakub Olesiuk for  ->

By Charlie Devereux and Jakub Olesiuk

Jan 30 (Reuters) - Spain's economy was a rare bright spot in the euro zone in 2023 amid a robust jobs market and transient factors such as a surge in tourism and slowing inflation, while a struggling industrial sector and faltering demand dogged the rest of the region.

Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.5% last year, while other countries in Europe neared stagnation or barely skirted recession. GDP in Italy and France grew 0.7% and 0.9% respectively, while Germany' s economy contracted 0.3%.

T hat momentum should continue for Spain this year, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said.

A better-than-expected fourth-quarter reading of 0.6% "provides a good starting point to meet our target of 2% growth in 2024," Cuerpo said in a recorded video message.

Some analysts, however, were not so sure the trend was sustainable.

The 2024 outlook "seems a bit optimistic" as risks, including inflation and a slowing labour market, are "tilted to the upside," said BNP Paribas economist Guillaume Derrien.

Spain's EU-harmonised inflation accelerated to 3.5% in the 12 months through January from 3.3% in the period through December, driving up bond yields in the euro zone.

The Mediterranean country's economy was boosted by public consumption, aided by inflation that slowed at a faster pace than that of its peers, thanks to a gas price cap negotiated with the EU to ease cost-of-living pressures, higher exports and growth in jobs aided by labour reforms .

The creation of 615,000 jobs, less household debt and the fact that 30% of mortgages are fixed rate helped drive consumption, Miguel Cardoso of BBVA Research told Reuters.

Spain has been outperforming Germany, whose manufacturing-dependent economy is heading for a contraction this year amid a global economic slowdown.

"Spain's growth is currently stronger than that of the rest of the euro area, perhaps because of its more services-oriented economy," said Angel Talavera, head of Europe Economics at Oxford Economics.

A surge of holidaymakers as COVID restrictions eased, and a longer warm season due to climate change helped boost Spain's tourism sector, said Omar Rachedi, a professor at Esade Business School in Madrid.

In December, the Bank of Spain trimmed its 2024 GDP growth forecast to 1.6% from a previous 1.8%.

Analysts had expected GDP to grow 0.2% in the fourth quarter, so its better-than-expected performance will likely buoy forecasts for 2024, pushing them up, Talavera said.

The government's projection for 2024 "is a bit optimistic but within the range of what's still possible," he added. Neighbouring Portugal also saw its economy accelerate sharply in the fourth quarter and reported an annual growth of 2.3%.

Spain's Q4 GDP expands 0.6% from previous quarter

Spain's EU-harmonised 12-month inflation rises to 3.5% in January

(Reporting by Jakub Olesiuk and Charlie Devereux; writing by Charlie Devereux; editing by David Latona and Bernadette Baum)

(( [email protected] ))

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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Thousands protest in Spain's Canary Islands over mass tourism

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Putin urges restraint in state seizure of assets

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reminded prosecutors that seizing assets and turning them over to state ownership is only justified in cases where failing to act might jeopardise Russia's national security.

Spain Sees US-Style Economic Boost From Immigrant Workers

Argentinian postdoctoral researcher in distributed systems Marianela Morales poses for a portrait at her work station in her Madrid home, Spain, April 19, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

By Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) - Achieving her career ambitions in Spain has proved remarkably easy for Sara Hernandez, a systems architect from Venezuela who found her skills were in hot demand when she arrived in Madrid.

Spain may have Europe's highest unemployment rate but moving to Madrid in 2021 after seven years in Chile, where she worked in less qualified positions in IT, she was surprised how seamless it was to find work.

"This is where I've been able to fulfil my goal of becoming a systems architect," Hernandez, 36, told Reuters.

Spain is also benefiting: immigrants such as Hernandez are a big reason why its economy is outperforming its European peers. She is one of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, chiefly from Latin America, who have come to Spain to plug post-pandemic labour shortages, especially in the tech and restaurant sectors.

Mirroring a similar boon to the U.S. economy, Spain is seeing a virtuous circle where an influx of foreign workers is boosting the supply of labour and raising its economic growth rate – a rare feat in the European Union.

"As Spain's economy improves, migrants come, and as they come, the economy improves," said Jesus Fernandez-Huertas, a professor in the economy of immigration at the Carlos III University in Madrid.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Spanish and U.S. economies will grow the fastest among advanced economies in the next two years.

Immigration accounted for 64% of new jobs created and half of Spain's economic growth in 2023, according to Raymond Torres, chief economist at Funcas, a Madrid-based think tank.

The wave of migrants, most of them documented and with work permits, has increased the proportion of resident foreigners in Spain to 18.1%, above the EU average of 13.3%.

In Spain, 39 % of new citizens were born in Latin America, according to Funcas. In Germany, nearly half of nationalized immigrants were of Asian origin.

Immigrants in Spain used to fill low-skill vacancies in construction and domestic help but that has shown signs of tapering off.

Instead, migrant job growth has been in technology or science, which more than doubled to 109,000 in 2023 from 2018. Immigrants working in hospitality rose by 30% to 525,000 in 2023 from 2007.

SHARED CULTURE

In Latin America, Spain has a labour market it can tap that is easily adaptable thanks to a shared language and culture.

Some feel more comfortable in Spain than in other countries in Latin America. Hernandez, who now works for one of Spain's largest insurance companies, said she found it harder to adapt in Chile, adding: "When I came to Spain I felt right at home".

The ease of integration has also meant less political friction. Even anti-immigration parties such as Vox support Latin American migration, while calling for curbs on African arrivals.

While Spain's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest since 2007, at 11.8% it is still the highest in Europe. But companies still struggle to fill certain vacancies and rather than retrain its native population it is often easier to bring in qualified candidates from abroad, said a source at CEOE, Spain's main employers' association.

Spain is facilitating the migration wave through visas for highly qualified professionals.

Marianela Morales, a 28-year-old algorithm programmer from Argentina, said it took just three weeks to process her visa to work at IMDEA, a higher education institute in Madrid where she does research in improving algorithms.

"They filed the papers on December 15 and on January 15 I was working," she said. Most colleagues in her department are foreigners, she said.

Spain has also been more accommodating in recognising equivalence of some Latin American qualifications, something that has held back the integration of immigrants in countries such as Germany.

With migration set to dominate the U.S. election campaign, a boost the economy is enjoying from new arrivals may allow President Joe Biden to refocus the debate.

The Congressional Office revised upwards its forecasts for U.S. growth over the next decade, saying the upgrades were "largely attributable" to new, much higher projections on net immigration in coming years.

"It creates a domestic political problem and not everybody who crosses the border adds positively to the economy, but that labor supply also gave to the United States another comparative advantage" versus Europe, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on April 18.

Migration policy won't, however, define European Parliament elections in June, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. Voters are more concerned about the fragility of the global economy, ECFR said in a report.

But Jose Antonio Moreno, head of migration at Spanish labour union CCOO, warned the wave risks a backlash by driving down wages as migrants take jobs that around 2.5 million unemployed Spaniards will not accept because of poor conditions.

"Social dumping cannot be allowed to take place," he said.

(Reporting by Belen Carreño, writing by Charlie Devereux, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

Tags: Chile , European Union , Europe , Spain

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