Spain’s Booming Tourism Sector Could Grow 3.8% This Year
Spanish resorts like Puerto
Banus has always had success when it comes to attracting tourists even in
winter.
The Spanish tourism industry has caused the Spanish economy
to recover as well as brought smiles to the millions of Brits every year. It’s
also behind at least one in five jobs that have been created in Spain this
year. The Spanish tourism industry is set to continue to grow in 2016.
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| 2016 all set to break records |
Exceltur, the driving force behind the Spanish
tourism sector, has altered their growth forecast for 2016. They originally
estimated a growth of 3.4% and have since revised it to 3.8%. So the already
strong start to the tourism industry seen in 2016 is going to be strengthened
even further once the holiday season officially begins.
The Spanish tourism sector has grown for the past ten
quarters, or two and a half years. This means that each quarter has seen more
money come in the last and the growth has been at least 3%. This means that the
tourism sector is the best-performing sector of the Spanish economy.
In the first quarter of 2016 the tourism sector brought in a
GDP of 4.3% in the first quarter of 2015. It also created 89,000 new jobs along
the way. All of this happened during a time where things are typically quiet
for the tourism industry in Spain.
Tourism has always been something Spain is good at, along
with the real estate market which is itself seeing a recovery.
Spain is expecting record numbers of visitors this summer
thanks to the recent safety concerns arising in other popular tourist
destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia. It’s expected that
holidaymakers will find their way to the more popular destinations in Spain,
most of which can be found on the Costa del Sol.
It’s been calculated by Exceltur that Turkey, Egypt and
Tunisia have seen 870,000 less tourists than usual so far this year, with Spain
seeing an extra 799,000, so it’s not hard to guess where they’re going instead.
The data also shows that Spain has seen 12.5% more visitors
so far this year, while Egypt has seen 46% less foreign tourists in 2016.
Exceltur did have some words of warning among all the good
news though. Even though Spain is seeing a lot more tourists each tourist is
spending an average of 7.8% less than they usually do. Exceltur are
recommending that Spain try and bring in some more big spenders rather than
relying on this low-cost tourism.
It’s expected that the big spending crowds will flock to the
country during the summer months, as they always do to enjoy the beaches, food and Spanish lifestyle.
