Tourism closed 2024 with a contribution that exceeds the barrier of 200,000 million euros for the first time, after the arrival of more than 94 million foreign tourists during the last year. Tourism activity managed to increase by 6.5% in 2024 to reach 207,763 million euros thanks to foreign demand and the growth of long-distance travelers (United States, Asia…), according to the Exceltur tourism lobby. that defends that the sector has generated 26.1% of the real growth of the Spanish economy as a whole. Despite the progress, Exceltur once again calls for reflection at the state level and has launched a decalogue of political priorities, among which the recovery of the Interministerial Tourism Conference and the entry of the autonomous communities and private companies in Turespaña stand out.
The organization that represents large hotel chains such as Meliá, NH or RIU frames this request in the need to increase efforts to promote Spain in complex markets such as China. “Turespaña is the Government institution dedicated to international tourism promotion, but legally it has the same structure as 40 years ago when there were no autonomous communities and while the sector has changed radically,” defended Óscar Perellí, executive vice president of Exceltur, during a press conference where tourism assessment for 2024 has been made. “We want a Turespaña adapted to the times and for this we need funds from communities and companies to be able to enter to have an impact in complex markets like China,” he said. added.
With this and other changes, the tourism sector wants political efforts in tourism to be focused on attracting visitors of higher socioeconomic status to the detriment of a growth in the number of travelers. Last year, tourism companies increased their turnover again, supported by spending by foreigners, which grew by 16.5%. An advance that more than made up for the stagnation of national tourism, whose spending barely grew by 3.7%, despite the increase in frequencies on the high-speed railway. Thus, trips by Spaniards barely grew by 1.2% and overnight stays in hotels by nationals by 0.3%.
The employers’ association also defends that despite the increase in travelers, tourism pressure remains below 2017 levels. If it increases, they say, it is due to the expansion of tourist apartments to which they attribute 18 million more overnight stays, 51% of the increase. of the pressure. The sector’s forecast is to exceed 224 billion in revenue in 2025, which would slow its growth to 4%.
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