Spain looks for a change market mix, but still pushes sun & beach

The number of foreign tourists visiting Spain rose 3.4% in 2004 to a record 53.6 million, Spain’s Secretary of State for Commerce and Tourism, Pedro Meja Gomez, announced to the media, confirming the industry was resisting increasing competition from eastern Europe. The number of arrivals in December was 3.1 million, an increase of 12.9% over the same month a year earlier, Gomez added. That helped make up for a slight decline in the peak month of August.

The tourism industry accounts for between 11-12% of the Spanish economy, split equally between foreign tourists and Spaniards holidaying at home. Spain is the world’s second tourism destination after France – but first out of Europe – and its main markets are the UK and Germany.

There are nonetheless growing concerns in the industry that destinations such as Bulgaria and Croatia, which enjoy similar sunshine to Spain but have lower labour costs, will lure holidaymakers away. British tourist numbers rose 2.9% in 2004 to 16.4 million (nearly 31% of total arrivals), while the number of Germans climbed 2.7% to 10 million, having dropped 3% in 2003 – a slowdown that hurt the Balearic Islands in particular.

The Balearics, which are recovering thanks to the first rise in the German market for four years, are the third most popular region for foreign tourists to Spain, behind Catalonia and the Canary Islands.
Revenues earned from foreign tourism edged up 0.4% in the first ten months of the year, despite signs of tourists reducing their length of stay. But Spaniards spent more abroad so the tourism balance to end October fell 4.2%.

More and more tourists are making their own holiday arrangements and travelling to Spain independently – ie not on package tours. Just over 57% were independent travellers in 2004, up from 50% three years earlier. As a result, no-frills airlines have increased their share of the travel market – to an estimated 28.5% in 2004.

Gomez said that government and regional tourism initiatives this year will focus on improving quality in the more run down parts of the coast, and in trying to persuade visitors to stay longer by publicising Spain’s sport, healthcare and cultural potential.

The country is nonetheless not overlooking the important sun and beach sector. A major new promotional campaign, Smile – You are in Spain, has already attracted lots of attention in key source markets because of its originality.

March 15, 2005   Posted in: Spain