Tourism continues in its golden wake, although its importance in the economy is still not what it was before the pandemic. Three years after the Covid-19 nightmare, the sector enters more than ever driven by inflation and the record number of foreign visitors arriving by land, sea and air (especially air) to our country. However, the 184,002 million euros that tourism companies contributed to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023, represented 12.3% of the total GDP in Spain, when in 2019 their importance amounted to 12.6%, despite That in that year, companies invoiced 17% less than now (157,355 million).
These are the figures published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) relating to the Spanish Tourism Satellite Account of the year 2023 that glimpses the weight of tourism activity in the economy and employment. Even so, the public entity highlights that the activity achieved last year by the tourism sector made it advance 0.9 points in its importance in the GDP compared to 2022, when the turnover achieved by tourism was 157,215.8 million euros. .
The INE highlights that the component with the greatest weight in the domestic tourist consumption In 2023 it was inbound tourism spending, with 55.0% of the total, which was 2.1 points more than the previous year. For its part, final demand associated with tourism increased by 24.5%, in terms of volume (at current prices).
Regarding employment, employment in the economic branches of tourism reached 2.5 million jobs, equivalent to 11.6% of total employment in the economy, 0.1 points more than in 2022, according to Statistics.
2024 aims for another record
The forecast is that in 2024, tourism will continue to advance and can regain the weight it had in the economy before the pandemic. There is plenty of Mimbres to overcome that milestone. Between January and October, foreign tourists have spent 110,000 million euros in our country, above the 108,000 million euros they left in all of 2023, and 16.8% more than what they had disbursed at that point in the year. During that period, 82.8 million international travelers arrived in our country (+10% vs 2022), which more than sustains the decline that national tourism is suffering due to rising prices.
In October, the Exceltur tourism lobby, which represents large hotel companies such as Meliá and NH, estimated that the sector will have contributed around 207,929 million euros to the Spanish economy by the end of the year and will now represent 13.4% of the total. of the Spanish GDP.
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